> Features > Pg 2 Feature Stories > Finding Christian neighbors with 'Sundays in America'
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Finding Christian neighbors with 'Sundays in America'
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By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
SPRINGFIELD Going to church for most people is part of a weekly schedule, but for local author Suzanne Strempek Shea, her year of experiencing 50 different Christian churches across the country truly was an adventure.
Strempek Shea's new book, "Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road trip in Search of Christian Faith" examines the differences and the commonalities Christians share in this country.
She is well known for her highly acclaimed novels such as "Selling the Lite of Heaven" and "Hoopi Shoopi Donna" as well as her non-fiction that includes "Songs From a Lead Lined Room" and "Shelf Life." She spoke to Reminder Publications after a signing at Edwards Books in downtown Springfield. The interview was interrupted several times by people wanting to meet Strempek Shea, whose books have created a loyal audience not only here in Western Massachusetts, but across the country.
She said her initial idea for the book came from watching the funeral of Pope John Paul II on television. She couldn't help but notice the passion and the reverence mourners had for the pope and she started wondering how someone chooses a religion. Do other faiths have leaders like the pope?
Raised Catholic, she recalled she was discouraged from attending other Christian churches as a youth. She said she wondered, "Who are my Christian neighbors?"
It took a year for the concept of the book to be finalized, but on Easter in 2006, her husband Tom Shea, the well-known columnist for The Republican, and she boarded an Amtrak train for New York City and attended services at New Mount Zion Church in Harlem.
She selected that church because she wanted an experience very different than her own and said she was impressed with the two-and-a-half hour service filled with music, dance and spontaneous reactions from the congregation.
That started her tour that brought her as far as Hawaii where she attended an open-aired Episcopal service.
"Everywhere I went, with one exception, I was greeted warmly," she said.
Strempek Shea didn't tell the church's ministers she was coming and didn't announce what she was doing. She arrived at each church and attended services just as another member of a congregation.
"I just went with a notebook," she recalled.
She used up her frequent flyer miles and "mooched off friends" to make the tour possible. She said with a smile that she would look to see where there was a special on a flight on Southwest Airlines and then figure out a church to go to in that city.
Some of her choices had to do with a holiday. She traveled to Bethlehem, Pa., to attend Christmas Eve services and on Halloween she went to the Spiritualist Church.
Although she initially thought to include other faiths, she and her editors believed that could be a little unwieldy. Instead, she stuck to Christian denominations, but she had plenty of material there are 2,000 Christian denominations in this country alone and 34,000 worldwide.
The road trips, which she usually took alone, weren't daunting to her.
"As a reporter it's exciting to enter a community you know nothing about," she said.
Her conclusion: Christian churches are more alike than not.
One of her favorite experiences was attending Sunday services at the church where President Jimmy Carter is a member. Carter teaches Sunday school there and Strempek Shea said that people attending his part of the service are searched before they're allowed to go in. Carter's daughter Amy's fourth grade teacher introduced the audience to what behavior and questions are acceptable and which aren't before the former president starts speaking.
She was impressed with Carter's plain speaking and humanity during his part of the service, and explained that Carter helped found the church when his previous pastor refused to admit an African-American into the congregation.
Strempek Shea will be making several other area appearances to promote her book. On April 3, she will be at the Palmer Public Library, 1455 Main St., at 6:30 p.m. for a signing and reading. On April 5, she will be at the Hampden Public Library, 625 Main St., for a 10 a.m. appearance and on April 8, she will be at Odyssey Books at the Village Commons in South Hadley at 7 p.m. On April 26, she will be at Pam's Paperback at Post Office Square in Wilbraham at 10 a.m.
The author enjoys being able to switch back and forth from fiction to non-fiction and is currently working on a novel about a dog.
"I like changing gears in that way," she said.
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> Features > Pg 2 Feature Stories > Finding Christian neighbors with 'Sundays in America'
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