 |
| St. Peter Claver Church |
Nearing Christmas, thought that I would do something church-related as in why are there so damn many of them in the First and Second Districts?
On my drive down to Buzzy’s Country Store from Piney Point there are approximately 12 churches that I pass everyday. St. Inigoes/Ridge/Scotland alone have 6 in a two mile stretch: Mt. Zion, St. Peter’s, St. Michael’s, Friendship Methodist, Trinity Episcopal and St. Mark’s Methodist.
Driving thru the Valley Lee/Piney Point area there are 3 on Happyland Road, 1 below NuStar (Steuart’s), St. George’s Catholic, and St. George’s Methodist on McKay Beach Road. (And although I don’t drive pass them, there are 2 more churches located down on St. George’s Island.)
Then coming down Rt.5 you have Callaway Baptist, Holy Face in Great Mills, Trinity in St. Mary’s City, St. Cecelia’s on Mattapany Rd. and St. Ignatius down Villa Road. Because we don’t already have enough, in the future, one is slated to be built in the field adjacent King Christian School.
And if I take Rt. 489 below the Green Door to shoot over to Rt 235, there is another church on Rt. 489. And once on 235, even Gilbert Stone’s old garage station is now a church. What next, Buzzy’s becomes a church too? We already host daily services.
Again, why so many?
Much of it is a hold over and continuation of segregation days when blacks and whites each had their own places of worship and kept to their own. For instance, the six churches in the Ridge area continue to skew along racial lines – 3 for whites and 3 for blacks. Look around next time you visit one and you’ll see very few, if any faces of a different color at either.
Bottom line I presume is that this is all for the good. More churches mean more people attending them and trying to be better. That’s the theory at least. Having said that, guess I should make an effort to get my sinful self into one of them sooner than later.