# Unlucky church. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 13, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlucky-church/148359 "2003-01-13T20:02:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlucky-church/148359/1 "2003-01-13T20:02:53Z")
This is almost too good to be true, before they built this thing it had endured two earthquakes and a flood. > **[Archaeologist uncovers unluckiest church in the world](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/802807)** > > University of Warwick archaeologist Dr Stephen Hill has uncovered the unluckiest church in the world. It was founded on what is now a cliff top because unfortunately that is where its patron saint was martyred. It was wrecked by two earthquakes, a... Could it be that choosing the name Phocas was entirely appropriate., it surely must be what the builders felt at the time. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlucky-church/148359/2 "2003-01-13T20:42:06Z")
Well, a few summers back, our newly renovated church, which was about to reopen in a week or so, burned down in the middle of the night (it turned out that the crew hired to stain the wood had left a pile of oily rags in a box, which led to spontaneous combustion). As the pastor and one of the elders of the church looked on, a reporter approached them and asked them, someberly and seriously, what important spiritual message could be gleaned from this disaster. The elder look non-plussed for a moment, then answered, “Umm… that wood burns?” - That about sums it up, actually. Churches are buildings like any other, made with the same materials as any other building, and they’ll burn (or flood, or collapse, or blow away) like any other, given the right conditions. If you pick a bad place to build your church (or house, or restaurant, or mall) or build it badly, you probably shouldn’t expect God to protect it from the inevitable results. ---
**Author:** ![Slainte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlucky-church/148359/3 "2003-01-13T21:59:10Z")
[Sheldon Church](http://www.charmingtowns.com/dir/society/historic_sites/sheldon_church.html) was burned during the Revolutionary War, rebuilt and then burned during the Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![Payne\_N.Diaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Payne\_N.Diaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payne_N.Diaz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlucky-church/148359/4 "2003-01-13T22:21:53Z")
Does this remind anyone of that Far Side cartoon where the Crisis Clinic is about to be swept over the waterfall while on fire? One of my personal faves, BTW–pretty well sums up my life some days!!😃