If anyone in the area is up for an interesting drive, New Hampshire Ave north of the beltway in Maryland, offers an amazing collection of houses of worship. If you drive down the road, during a 5 or 10 mile stretch, you come across: Jehova’s Witnesses, the Muslim Community Center, a Ukranian Orthodox church, another Ukranian church that doesn’t seem to be orthodox (but I could be wrong), a Cambodian Buhddhist temple, a Vietnamese Catholic church, at least 2 Korean churches of different denominations, a Seventh-Day Adventist church, several other Christian churches of various denominations, and a “prayer stop” that is a small white shack along the side of the road, sandwiched between two churches. I would have liked to get some pictures of some of them, but I was in the car and that idea didn’t pan out so well. The Buddhist temple, the Orthodox Ukranian church, and the Muslim Community Center are really nice, large and pretty structures that stand out as you drive along the road. I have to apologize that I didn’t dig up links for most of these places–I couldn’t find much information, and I started to get a little lazy.

As I was trying to find out more information about this stretch of road, I came across this article that ran in the Post last year. The article talks about the growing diversity of religions in the Montgomery County area. It’s really something, though, to drive down New Hampshire Ave and see such a diversity of faiths represented. As much as we may moan about the increase in population in the area and the subsequent crunch in housing and on the Metro, it’s nice to know that we can all get along.