Abston Church of Christ

The Abston Church of Christ is a huge project by Amy Hughes, built between 2000 and 2002. This is not based on a particular church, but is instead is from her imagination (the name of the fictional town of Abston comes from ABS, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, the polymer used in LEGO bricks). This is about 7 feet by 5 1/2 feet by 30 inches in size and she has populated it with figures representing her friends and other LEGO hobbyists. She even wrote a sermon to be given by the minifigure pastor at the church's dedication, that gives some of her thoughts about the importance of churches, both life-size ones and, by extension, her LEGO model. This was a real labor of love, and from the things she says in her sermon, to some extent an act of worship (see my previous post on "why build religious MOCs?). Sadly, one of the cats you see in some of the pictures died on the day she finished the model, so she dedicated it in Precious' memory.

This church has become an internet meme. You see these images re-posted all over the place and I'm regularly sent links by friends who know I am a LEGO hobbyist. If you do a Google image search on "LEGO church," 18 of the first 20 hits are of Amy's work. I have to admit a little confusion as to why this particular LEGO church gets so much more attention than others, including some of the incredible gothic cathedrals I've already posted and others I still plan on posting. No knock on Amy's work, it's just there are so many amazing creations out there. Perhaps it is because it is one of the earlier large church MOCs on the web, and so has had more time to seep into the collective consciousness. Perhaps it is because it is a modern church and so stands out from the replicas of older structures - the architecture is more clean and colorful, for instance, and so may stick out for some people. Perhaps it is because of the pictures of her cats inside the church. I'm not sure. Any thoughts?