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345 Ovington Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11209
Located on 345 Ovington Ave, the Salam Arabic Lutheran Church is the most interesting and by far the most unique church in Bay Ridge. The name itself seems to be a contradiction, an Arabic Church? That’s right, and, of course, located in the very diverse Bay Ridge. The architecture of the Salam Arabic Lutheran Church is very modest, with its brick walls and its very tall, triangular roof, it can almost be confused for a house if it weren’t for the iconic engraved cross located above the entrance of the building.
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Background
Although an Arabic Lutheran Church now, the Salam Arabic Lutheran Church was once a Danish congregation that served Scandinavian worshippers since 1895. Today, the Salam Lutheran Arabic Church serves the Arabic community, offering mass in both Arabic and English, of Bay Ridge in accordance with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America organization.
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Impressions
Before getting the opportunity to see the inside of the church, we all speculated how the inside of the church would look. One interesting questions we had was if the interior of the building would incorporate Arabic elements into the church. In asking this question we, as a class, had always thought the term Arabic related to Islam. This prompted one of our peers to wonder if the church would even have sculptures or paintings of idols, since they are not allowed in Islam. In further discussing the issue we concluded that the church had to have idols, since the worshiping of Jesus and his image inside the church is so central to Christianity. However, the discussion invoked excitement and curiosity about the inside of this very unique church. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
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At first we thought the church would be extremely different from other Lutheran churches because of the ethnic group associated with the church. However, this wasn’t the case. The church is identical to other small churches; the front of the church has a statue of Jesus Christ and a podium for the pastor to stand when he preaches. Although the walls of the church have no stained glass, as one would see in larger churches, they are embellished with many pictures of Christ. Surprisingly, Salam Arabic Lutheran Church has a lot more images of Jesus on its walls than any other church we visited.
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