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A visit to any of the major older churches of Lviv shows just how much Lviv was a crossroads of cultures. Extraordinary Baroque—quintessentially Roman style—churches, legacies of Polish and Austro-Hungarian rule, are decorated with the iconostasis screens and other elements that aim to mark them as Byzantine.

Migration has radically expanded the footprint of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the last 135 years, and brought the Church into very different cultural contexts. But as the community has moved out of ethno-religious enclaves in the United States and Canada, the numbers there have rapidly declined.

In a holy season beginning with a Great Lent fast lasting longer than 40 days, to "Willow Sunday," and a midnight Resurrection Matins on Easter, followed by "Bright Week," Ukrainian Greek Catholics have no more iconic tradition than their exquisitely decorated eggs, and no more beloved practice than the blessing of Easter baskets.

Food and fasting play a relatively significant role in the spirituality and religious culture of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Believers are encouraged to abstain from meals on many occasions throughout the year. As a matter of custom, at Christmas feasts and Easter Pasky the choice of particular foods plays a big role in how people mark the days.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church celebrates the Divine Liturgy—the Eucharist—and other sacraments according to the Byzantine rite. The Byzantine liturgy aims to invoke splendor and glory, to envision heaven here on earth. Incense and chant play significant roles in arousing the experience of worship.

Ukrainians today have a strong sense of national identity, despite the fact that for most of the last millennium its territory has been other empires’ borderlands, ruled by neighboring great powers, and despite the fact that powerful challenges to the country’s boundaries endure.

Though India has had powerful women in politics, gender segregation in India is more formalized and obvious than in many parts of the world. However, interviewees say that the role of women in the church is at best a nascent concern, and one that is often trivialized.

Tens of thousands of Gypsy, Tsigane, Manouche and other Gens du Voyage pilgrims make their way to Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer, France, to a May feast for the Saintes Maries and Sainte Sara, the Gypsies' unofficial saint who is linked to the Marys in the gospels. For many, it is an occasion for sacraments like baptism and marriage, and for first communions.

Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, an ancient town in the marshes of the Carmargue, celebrates processions to the sea for Sainte Marie Jacobé and Sainte Marie Salomé, who according to medieval tradition, following Jesus' death, traveled across the sea by boat and lived out their lives in Carmargue, helping to bring Christianity to France. The May feast draws large number of Gypsy Catholics, who also come to venerate Sainte Sara, an unofficial saint who they believe is integral to the story of the Saintes Maries.

In religious settings, matrilineal lines are particularly important in passing down intregas, promises to fulfill some sort of devotion or religious duty, and in leading prayer, particularly novenas. Sexual sins, if kept discreet, are seen as less serious than sins such as corruption and self-enrichment.