This is the kind of thing you only notice on your bike, a plaque in front of a nondescript storefront, in this case for the American Lithuanian National Center (or Los Angeles Lietuviu Tuatiniai Namai). What is this? What do the ALNC do? Are they even in this building or are they long gone and this a plaque is just something that will stay on this building forever?
I do know there is a Lithuanian Catholic Church, St. Casimir's, nearby on George Street by Marshall High School that has a Lithuanian Fair every year. Maybe there are Lithuanians all around and they have a very active community right under our noses and we don't know about it.
The people of Lithuanian descent I know and love include:
Charles Bronson
John C. Riley
and Edita Vilkeviciute
As if the Lithuanian society wasn't obscure enough, across the street was a Gnostic church in a strip mall that caters to the GLBTQ community, called The Chapel of Serge and Bacchus.
The way I understand Gnosticism, they're a quasi-Christian group with roots that date back to the 1st and 2nd centuries. Early Gnostic believers were believed to be heretics by the early mainstream Christians. Today's Gnostic church is not a direct descendant of the ancient church, but instead is a sort of a non-denominational parish that targets people who feel that regular religion is too dogmatic. The type of people who say, "I'm spiritual, not religious."
If you actually want to read the flyer, click the image below for a larger image.
Being a church in LA, you have to have a Virgin in the yard.
The Chapel of Serge and Bacchus, is named for two saints (Roman soldiers actually) who were martyred in Syria for refusing to go to rituals honoring Jupiter. What's makes them interesting is that some texts show evidence that they were an openly gay, and in fact married, couple, showing the early church's tolerance for same-sex unions.
Of course this is the same church that thought Gnosticism was heretical, but whatever.
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