A SACRED PIECE OF HOME: WASHINGTON D:C. is a documentary series about places of worship in the D.C. Area. Four half-hour episodes explore the D.C. area’s history through selected places of worship and the communities that built them.
The multi-faceted series lies at the intersection of religion, architecture, ethnicity, and immigration history. Included are institutions representative of all the major religions: Protestant, Catholic, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Sikh. We visit ethnic vernaculars that have been brought by immigrants from all over the world to America: French-English Gothic, Byzantine, Islamic, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and South Indian.
Interviews with scholars, authors, clergy and congregants inform us about the founding of Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, a Hindu Temple and a Mosque. Sprinkled through the series are photographs showing the prototypes of sacred architecture in the home country that immigrants have tried to replicate eg. the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
The program is hosted by Ori Z. Soltes, PhD who teaches interdisciplinary courses on Theology and Art History at Georgetown University. Amita Sarin who created the concept and co-produced and co-wrote the series with Soltes, taught a cross-cultural course: Sacred Architecture East and West at the University of Maryland.
The series is streaming free nationwide on WETA/PBS until the end of June.
