Eiffel for Paris: The American Church in Paris…

One of my favorite buildings in Paris quickly became The American Church in Paris. Not only was it the location where I worshipped each Sunday, but also the place where I was involved with a number of activities during my months in the city. I am not known for any sort of culinary expertise, but I found myself in the church’s kitchen on a regular basis…I was involved with everything from helping with the holiday bake sale to preparing homemade pizza for the Young Adult meetings every other Tuesday to helping with the set up and break down of dinner each week for Thurber Thursdays. I so enjoyed meeting new folks with each new activity and it was comforting to start seeing familiar faces after a short while.

The church in the spiritual sense is certainly composed of the members of the ‘body,’ rather than the actual building itself. However, in the case of The American Church in Paris, I was always awestruck by the beauty that surrounded me each time I entered the sanctuary. I stayed after one service to hear volunteers share the history behind the building and congregation and was thrilled to learn more details about the church’s background...How the congregation began meeting in a different location in the early 1800s, and the actual building where the church now stands was not built until the early 1900s. How Nazi officers were pursuing one of the church elders, but he escaped detection by concealing himself in the old organ. How the chandeliers are lowered for cleaning by turning a crank located in a small crawl space between the ceiling of the sanctuary and the roof. How the two Tiffany stained glass windows are part of the fewer than 20 that are installed outside of the United States and were a special commission by a former parishioner to be given to ACP in honor of his wife. So many intricate details and stories…I fell even more in love with the space after listening to the knowledgeable guides. I wasn’t able to capture as many photos of the windows as I would have liked, but what I did capture will remind me of the beautiful friends and community that I made and enjoyed there during my short stay in Paris.