An Old Fashioned Church and Alter
"Above all else, sacred place is "storied place.""
- Belden Lane, Landscapes of the Sacred, Pg. 15
While I could have spent my time discussing the axioms that Lane presents in the first chapter of his book, I believe his opening statement is the most influential in describing his overarching argument. Honestly, his axioms would not mean much had he not made this statement in my opinion. As I have been studying in my class on post-war European memory, we have concluded that, as lane argues, that the stories, or memories, people carry with them is truly what makes the place sacred.
I was thinking as read this of a personal place of mine that has become deeply sacred to me an my family. This place is Victory Freewill Baptist Church in Madison, VA. Although we no longer attend the church, the place is very much sacred to us. Firstly, it is the place where Christ met me in my salvation experience. Secondly, it is the place where we watched our first pastor die on December 23rd, 2010. Since leaving the church for unrelated reasons, every time I have been called to go back there, I have had deep personal feelings when entering the place. When I walk up front, I always kneel in the exact spot where I accepted Christ. Also, I sit in the seat where I watched as Pastor Ray Mullins died while preaching on that Wednesday night from a bleeding on the brain. To me and my family, this place has become a "storied place". In this, it works to meet all of the criteria that Lane laid out that classifies a place as being sacred.
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