There's the story of the man who was lost on a desert island for a decade. When he was finally rescued people were astounded to discover he had built an entire town out of palm branches. There was a movie theater — with no movies, of course — a grocery story with empty shelves, an apartment building, a department store, several houses, and at each end of the little town he had built a church.

Why had he done it, he was asked. "To keep sane," he replied.

Why two churches?

"Well," the man said, "this church over here is the place where I worshiped my Creator.

Though I was cast adrift, cut off from all human contact, I never felt alone because God is with me, and even though the pews were empty I felt that the communion of saints, believers both past and present, were never more than a br…