Holy Places
Places in Colorado, significant to Jews and Christians, worthy of visit or pilgrimage: a new project
I have begun a small side project, on which I welcome reader help and insights. It’s a collection—a list, with summaries—of places in Colorado of religious and historical significance to Jews and Christians. This includes churches, shrines, synagogues … even a whole mountain!
Presently, the incomplete collection lives as a page on section of this Substack, visible in the top menu, titled “Holy Places.” These are places “worthy of visit or pilgrimage,” as the section page says.

I myself have visited only a few of these. I hope to journey to many more of them, to write about them in more depth, to cover their history, present status, and how they have shaped individual lives, religious communities, and the state more broadly.
The page is still very much under construction, very much incomplete. I welcome reader involvement on several fronts:
What Holy Places should be on the list?
At present, my three working criteria are (1) Jewish or Christian (2) physical places (3) of religious or historical significance. The third criterion is particularly flexible. I don’t mean to include every church and synagogue in the state. But even small, remote, or largely unknown places—like the Chadbourne Spanish Gospel Mission in Colorado Springs, or the Pilgrim’s Hut built to accommodate hikers seeking a glimpse of Mount of the Holy Cross—can hold religious or religious-historical significance.
What criteria should be used?
The first question raises a more fundamental one: are my criteria appropriate, sufficiently determinate, and workable? What criteria would you use?
Come, let us sojourn together.
Some of these places are merely visited. But for others, the journey is a pilgrimage—a way to revere a place, to accord it the religious weight it is due, and perhaps even to deepen one’s own faith. I invite friends and regular readers to join me in journeying to these places. The weekly coffee I host on Friday mornings (Two Things) will be the principal, though not exclusive, forum for planning.
What are your pilgrimage stories?
Maybe you've sojourned to some of these places already and have your own stories and reflections. I want to hear and read them. Perhaps a new section of this site, to collect posts and guest-posts on these Holy Places, is in order. Original photos, too, are welcome. UPDATE 3/9/24: There is now a “Holy Places” section dedicated to this purpose.