my favorite church in harlem....

it's huge and has tile mosaices instead of oil paintings inside.....the oldest that mom and i saw on her last visit while we explored together was from about 1250 a.d.....incredible! i love that kind of stuff.... this is the bell tower for the carillon....there are 30 bells that ring through harlem every sunday, at eventide and for funerals and marriages....while this church could possibly seat about 2000 people including the choir loft, their membership is fewer than 100 people now as the importance of organized religion escapes the grasp of todays youth...let's chalk that up to hip-hop culture (no, that's not an ethnic slur, i mean it to encompass the generation after mine...and i will include myself in generation x, or is that xxx, either way, i'm very much on the very fringe of that generation since i'm almost too old to be included....)