Ulm Minster

Ulm Minster is a Lutheran (formerly Catholic) church in Ulm Germany that is the tallest church in the world. Construction began in 1377 but was only finished in 1890, 125 years ago. As part of the anniversary celebration, two Legoland model designers, Vera Feldmann and Anastasia Trautwein, built a 2.3 meter tall LEGO rendition. It was originally displayed at Legoland Germany, but is now installed in the church itself for the rest of 2015. I don't see in the various articles what will happen to the model after that - presumably it will either return to Legoland to become part of the permanent display at some point.

The Church: Thermometer or Thermostat

Someone (who?) brought this MOC to the recent BrickWorld gathering, illustrating this passage from Martin Luther King Jr's Letters from a Birmingham Jail:

There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed in. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators”. But they went on with the conviction that they were a “colony of heaven,” and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” They brought to an end such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest. Things are different now. The contemporary church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are.

Ark of the Covenant

Simon Pickard made this miniland-scale version of the Ark of the Covenant. In Exodus 25, God orders Moses to build the Ark, a gold-covered box, which eventually carried the tablets of the ten commandments, the original version of the Torah, Aaron's rod, and a jar of manna. The Ark became a center of Jewish religious life, as it was said to be the focus of God's presence among them, holding a spot in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and eventually the Temple.