Columbus has a certain type of neighborhood layout. Near the city, we don’t live in the cul-de-sac’d, freshly built ranch homes that every other Ohio suburbanite inhabits. We live in cracking, ancient buildings on narrow streets, which garages packed, unattached into narrower alleys. Every street therefore has its own alleyed sub-street, a little afterthought that lets you see the more personal details of the inhabitants- the rusted patio furniture, the cornhole sets, the stacks of beer cans being picked over mid-day by local homeless.

I was strolling through one of these alleys this Sunday, taking in the back yard details of the many local homes, when I found something really peculiar:

Confused by the modification on this former one-car garage, I approached it to find:

It was mid-morning on Sunday when I found this garage-church-thing, yet Mass was not in session. It would have been even more interesting to see the building in use. It was clearly dolled up for Independent Catholic business, all the same, with furniture and all manner of Churchy trappings (as seen above). Someone took the time to build a steeple for this garage, installed stained glass, and purchased a proper lectern and baptism basin for it as well. I wonder why this independent church came to be. Did the group sever from the Catholic Church because of a disagreement on abortion or homosexuality? Did the group simply want autonomy from the remote, foreign institution of the Vatican? Was the Reverend excommunicated or disgraced; did he become disillusioned with Church hierarchy? I tried googling the Church, but so far cannot glean any answers. Maybe I should pop in for the next service…