Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Church, Mills Wyoming

Churches of the West: Church, Mills Wyoming: 

Church, Mills Wyoming

This is a church Mills Wyoming.  Other than that it's a church, I'm afraid that I don't know anything else about it.

Sunday Morning Scene. Churches of the West: Mountain View Baptist Church, Mills Wyoming

Churches of the West: Mountain View Baptist Church, Mills Wyoming: 

Mountain View Baptist Church, Mills Wyoming

This is the Mountain View Baptist Church in Mills, Wyoming.

The Baptist denomination is the largest single Protestant denomination in the United States and is particularly well represented in the American South. As this recent series of photographs shows, however, its well represented in the West as well.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Latter Day Saints, West Casper Wyoming

Churches of the West: Latter Day Saints, West Casper Wyoming: 

Latter Day Saints, West Casper Wyoming

This LDS building is in west Casper. I'm uncertain of the date, but I'd put it roughly in the 1990s.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Latter Day Saints, East Casper, Wyoming

Churches of the West: Latter Day Saints, East Casper, Wyoming: 

Latter Day Saints, East Casper, Wyoming

This very unusual looking Latter Day Saints building is in East Casper.  I don't know the vintage of the building, but almost all of the buildings in this part of Casper were built during the 1960s.

Sunday Morning Scene. Churches of the West: Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Casper Wyoming

Churches of the West: Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Casper Wyoming: 

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Casper Wyoming

This is another Lutheran Church, this one from a different branch of the Lutheran faith, in east Casper, Wyoming.  The church is a modern architectural structure.  I'm unaware of when it was built, but it was likely in the 1960s.

Sunday Morning Scence: Churches of the West: Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Casper Wyoming.

Churches of the West: Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Casper Wyoming.: 

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Casper Wyoming.

This is Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Casper, Wyoming which is a North American Lutheran Church member.  This church is fairly modern, although I don't know the date of its construction.  Occupying a hill in east Casper, the church has an attractive external appearance.

Sunday Morning Scene. Churches of the West: First Church of the Nazarene, Casper Wyoming

Churches of the West: First Church of the Nazarene, Casper Wyoming: 

First Church of the Nazarene, Casper Wyoming

This church is one of a couple of protestant churches located in the Allendale region of Casper, Wyoming.  I'm not sure of its vintage, but by appearance it likely was built in the 1950s, about the same time that Allendale expanded as what was originally an unincorporated portion of Casper.

The Church of the Nazarene is an offshoot of Methodism.

Churches of the West: Wamsutter Baptist Church, Wamsutter Wyoming.

Churches of the West: Wamsutter Baptist Church, Wamsutter Wyoming.: 

Wamsutter Baptist Church, Wamsutter Wyoming.

Side window view of the Wamsutter Baptist Church in Wamsutter, Wyoming.

Not all of the photographs on this site are works of art, to be sure, in part because we sometimes end up with photos taken simply when we can. This is one such example.

May 2, 1921. Uprising in Upper Silesia

Polish insurgents in 1921.

On this day in 1921, the Third Silesian Uprising commenced in which Poles in Upper Silesia who sought to separate from Germany.  The uprising followed a plebiscite which yielded indefinite results and followed Polish fears that the British would support German claims to the region, which was proved to be correct.  The French supported the Poles.

During the fighting, the French somewhat supported the Polish insurgents and the British somewhat supported German forces in the region, but outside forces were barred from entry.  Ultimately the Poles prevailed.

On the same day the US announced that it would not mediate reparations disputes involving Germany and the Allies.  The French mobilized 50,000 men for anticipated Ruhr occupation.

Also on that day President Harding was visited by the American Waldensian Aid Society.

American Waldensian Aid Society, 5/2/21

While I'd never heard of it, it still exists, and is based in the Waldensian Church, a protestant church that claims a connection with the Waldensian heresy of the Middle Ages.  In 1975 it merged with the Methodist Church.

Harding appears to have had a busy day of meetings.

He met with members of International Association of Printing House Craftsmen, depicted above.

And also with the Alabama Congressional delegation.

And with Social Service School Workers.

Somebody he didn't meet with, but who was photographed that day, was Prince Zerdecheno, who claimed the title of Emir of Kurdistan, and his wife, May 2, 1921.

Elsewhere the famous hairpin turn on the Mohawk Trail and the Niagara Falls Fire Department were photographed.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. Peter's Catholic Church, Carpenter Wyoming

Churches of the West: St. Peter's Catholic Church, Carpenter Wyoming: 

St. Peter's Catholic Church, Carpenter Wyoming

This is St. Peter's Catholic Church in Carpenter, Wyoming. The Church is served by St. Paul's parish in Pine Bluffs, which is the closest Wyoming town to Carpenter.

As with the Methodist Church in Carpenter which is discussed immediately below,  I don't know the age of this Prairie Gothic style church in tiny unincorporated Carpenter.  My suspicion is that the church is nearly as old as Carpenter, but I don't have the immediate information on that.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Carpenter United Methodist Church, Carpenter Wyoming.

Churches of the West: Carpenter United Methodist Church, Carpenter Wyoming.: 

Carpenter United Methodist Church, Carpenter Wyoming.

This is the Carpenter United Methodist Church in Carpenter, Wyoming.

Carpenter is a very small, but still there, town in southeastern Wyoming.  Indeed the town is almost in Colorado and and is has much of the character of western Nebraska.  Founded as a railroad town, the town hangs on in spite of its very small size and is quite isolated.

This church was obviously built early on as a Prairie Goth style church and then modified, probably in the 1970s, to have a new entry way.  The entry way is architecturally inconsistent with the remainder of the church so the exact thinking of the addition isn't obvious to an outside viewer.

Churches of the West: Emmanuel Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming

Churches of the West: Emmanuel Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming: 

Emmanuel Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming

Not the best photograph, by any means, we admit.

Emmanuel Baptist Church in North Casper, Wyoming.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Wapiti Valley Church, Wapiti Wyoming.

Churches of the West: Wapiti Valley Church, Wapiti Wyoming.: 

Wapiti Valley Church, Wapiti Wyoming.

This large log church is a protestant church in Wapiti Wyoming.  The establishment of the church dates to 1988, but the structure to 1992.

April 7, 1971. Withdrawals and Accessions.

President Nixon announced on television that he was withdrawing a further 100,000 U.S. troops from Vietnam, with the withdrawals to take place at a rate slightly over 14,000 per month. There were currently 284,000 US troops in the country, down from approximately 500,000.

Nixon had been withdrawing troops for most of his Presidency, while at the same time occasionally intensifying the air operations.  It was a twin strategy of brining the troops home from an unpopular war while simultaneously punishing the North Vietnamese for their actions. The strategy was termed "Vietnamization" and was claimed to be based on the evolution of the war to the point where the south could take over the fighting on its own.

Indeed, North Vietnamese forces had been so depleted during the Tet Offensive of 1968 that they were in fact more ineffectual in the field against the U.S. Army and the U.S. supported ARVN, something that has lead some to claim that Nixon was withdrawing troops as the war was effectively won.  In retrospect, based upon what we now know of Nixon's thoughts, Nixon was looking for a way out of the war that afforded some sort of cover that the U.S. hadn't abandoned the south, even though that is exactly what he was effectively doing.  As a practical matter, however, by this point in the war, and partially due to the obvious withdrawal policy, the morale of U.S. forces in Vietnam was collapsing and there were serious concerns about the extent to which that was impacting the Army as a whole.

Most of the American forces in Vietnam were always support troops, although there were certainly many combat soldiers. While there were still combat forces in Vietnam in 1971, by this point the scale was heavily weighted towards support troops.

On the say day, the U.S. abandoned Khe Sanh for the second time.  It had been earlier reactivated that year in support of ARVN operations in Laos.  In that country, the Royal Laotian Army commenced a defensive counter strike against Laotian communist troops in Operation Xieng Dong which would result in a successful defense of the country's capitol against them.

Meliktu Jenbere was elected as the second Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, a branch of Oriental Orthodoxy, and indeed its largest branch. 

Saint Mary's Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Denver Colorado

This is Saint Mary's Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Denver Colorado. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is a non-Chalcedonian (Oriental Orthodox) church. This church is located in north eastern Denver.

He was the second Patriarch of the church, reflecting the fact that the church became autocephalous in 1948, at which time it was accorded that status by the Coptic Church.  He became the acting Patriarch in 1970 at the time of his predecessor's death.

He was imprisoned by the Marxist government of Ethiopia in 1974 which attempted to depose him while he was in prison, an act that the Coptic Church refused to recognize.  He was treated cruelly while a prisoner and executed by strangulation on August 14, 1979.  The Church in general was heavily persecuted during it's Communist era, which ran from 1974 until 1991, and the largest political party in the country today remains a reformed Communist party.

Baseball opened with a double header, the A's v. the White Sox, for the last time. 

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Holy Protection Byzantine Catholic Church, Denver, Colorado.

Churches of the West: Holy Protection Byzantine Catholic Church, Denver ...: 

Holy Protection Byzantine Catholic Church, Denver Colorado

This is Holy Protection Byzantine Catholic Church in Denver Colorado.

Many people, when they hear the word "Catholic", immediately have what, in the English speaking world, are frequently referred to as "Roman Catholics" in mind.  In fact, however, "Roman" Catholics are Latin Rite Catholics whose churches use the Roman Rite.  Roman Catholics make up the overwhelming majority of Catholics, and indeed the majority of Catholics, on earth.

They aren't the only Catholics however.   The Roman Rite itself is just one of several Latin, or Western, Rites.  There are also several Eastern Rites, of which the Byzantine Rite is one.

The Byzantine Catholic Church, which is also called the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church, uses the same liturgical rite as the Greek Orthodox Church and shares the same calendar.  It dates back to the conversion of the Rusyn people in the Carpathians to Christianity in the 9th Century.  That work, done by St. Cyril and St. Methodius brought to the Rusyn people the form of worship in the Eastern Rite.  They Rusyn church initially followed the Orthodox Churches following  the schism of 1054, but in 1645 the Ruthenian Church started to return to communion with Rome, resulting in the Rutenian Byzantine Catholic Church, which is normally called the Byzantine Catholic Church in the United States.

Immigration from Eastern Europe brought the Church into the United States. Originally a strongly ethnic church, in recent decades it has become multi ethnic and its strongly traditional character has caused it to obtain new members from both very conservative Latin Rite Catholics as well as very conservative former Protestants.  Indeed, while this church is very small, it has been growing and now has a Byzantine Catholic outreach to Ft. Collins, Colorado, where it holds services in Roman Catholic Churches.

Sunday Morning Scence: Churches of the West: St. Matthew's Catholic Church, Hulett Wyoming

Churches of the West: St. Matthew's Catholic Church, Hulett Wyoming: 

St. Matthew's Catholic Church, Hulett Wyoming

The church depicted above is St. Matthew's Catholic Church in the small northern Wyoming town of Hulett.  The Church is served by the parish in Newcastle, which while not far away is a substantial drive in the winter.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Community of Christ Church Hulett, Wyoming

Churches of the West: Community of Christ Church Hulett, Wyoming: 

Community of Christ Church Hulett, Wyoming

This is the Community of Christ Church in Hulett, Wyoming.  The Community of Christ was formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and, as the name would indicate, its an offshoot of the Mormon religion, having separated from the LDS quite early.

This church is immediately adjacent to the Catholic St. Matthew's church.  It's not unusual to see churches built side by side, but in this instance the appearance is a bit unique as both churches were built from house like structures.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Moorcroft Wyoming

Churches of the West: St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Moorcroft Wyoming: 

St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Moorcroft Wyoming

This is St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Moorcroft, Wyoming.  The parish is served by the larger parish in Gillette, Wyoming.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Baker Montana.

Churches of the West: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Baker Mon...: 

St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Baker Montana

This is St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Baker, Montana.  The church is a very striking Romanesque style church, but otherwise I don't know anything about it.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the East: The ruins of of Saint Albain Nazaire, France.

Churches of the East: The ruins of of Saint Albain Nazaire, France.: 

The ruins of of Saint Albain Nazaire, France.

The 16th Century "Old Church" at St. Albain Naizaire in France stands as a silent reminder of the violence of World War One.  The church was destroyed by the French Army to keep it from being used by the Germans as an observation post in 1914.

Following the war, locals elected not to rebuilt the church and leave it as a monument to the tragedy of the war.

All photographs by MKTH.