Sundays in America

Shea spent a year traveling around the United States and attending Christian worship services, of various denominations, along the way. Because her account is so even-handed, this book comes across as a document of curiosity as much as faith. She visits mega-churches, small town parishes, and even the chapel at Denver International Airport, and mingles easily with pastors and parishioners alike. In Chicago, she goes to Trinity United Church of Christ, Barack Obama's church, but misses Jeremiah Wright. She also finds a substitute pastor at Al Green's church, the Full Gospel Tabernacle, in Memphis. Although Shea sits in on Jimmy Carter's Sunday school class in Plains, Georgia, it's not the famous people and places that make this book a good read; it's the typical Americans practicing their faith, day by day. At the end of the book, she reflects on her travels and cites a few particularly memorable churches, including Baltimore's own St. Sebastian Catholic Church in Fells Point.