South Africa is for all intents and purposes still relatively religious. Seeing church buildings being used for libraries or coffee shops, as they are regularly used in the Netherlands for example, is not something you see everyday.
In the CBD of Cape Town, South Africa, there is a beautiful church, open to the public to walk in and through, and now fitted with a coffee shop at its entry.
You can thus grab a coffee while you enjoy the beauty of this old building with its stained glass art and all the history that you can feel in the cracks and creaks as you walk on the old floors.
I am sure this is still a functioning church, with almost 80% Christian, and almost 50% of those regularly attending church, there is still a bustling church going community. It is thus not like in other countries where churches are relatively empty buildings.
I am sure this will also change in South Africa in the future, but for the time being, the church functions as a fully functioning church as well, alongside the coffee shop now in the front!
And I have to admit, it was a good coffee. So, cheers to heaven coffee for making this a wonderful experience! I want to share here some photographs of this amazing experience.
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It was interesting, the church had a strong left-leaning message it wanted to give. At the end of this post, you will see that as well, with the cards that they handed out all over the church. Nonetheless, the building from up close was just as beautiful with the stone blocks. It reminded one of Europe rather than Africa.
These busts and gargoyles were small but beautiful; the detail was not as intricate as those found in Europe, but these ones were beautiful as we stood underneath their gaze.
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On the inside of the church, there are some of the most beautiful stained or coloured glass artwork. I would have visited this church just for these works of art. I am not sure of its history, if it is old or not. But they were beautiful nonetheless. Yes, there is something about authentic old artworks, but art remains art, if they are authentic or not. And these windows were exceptional.
In the end, we enjoyed this trip to the church, not knowing beforehand what we would find, it was a gem in the hustle and bustle of city life. I also managed to capture some of the outside of the building, betwixt city life hand vendors trying to sell you everything from tourist memorabilia to food.
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"you are born in love, by love, for love."
How beautiful would the world not be when we love everything and everyone around us. But our faith and our beliefs divide us. No matter what, we cannot sit around the same camp fire, thinking with and along each other. We would rather divide and hate for some reason.
I am not even going to try and understand why people would rather fight than have peace. Our conceptual frameworks are so muddled and mudied with dirt that we cannot ever think about speaking with others without someone taking the conversation where it should rather not go.
We are born in love, by love, and for love, the little card reminds us, but the world feels more divided than ever.
Let us hope that having a cup of coffee (sharing bread with your "enemies") might help with this fight.
For now, happy photographing and keep well.
All of the musings and writings are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and 50mm Nikkor lens.