Chapel of the Snows is a non-denominational Christian church located at the United States McMurdo Station

McMurdo Station

McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research center located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National...

 on Ross Island

Ross Island

Ross Island is an island formed by four volcanoes in the Ross Sea near the continent of Antarctica, off the coast of Victoria Land in McMurdo Sound.-Geography:...

, Antarctica. The chapel is the southernmost religious building in the world and has regular Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 and Protestant services. During the Austral Summer, the chapel is staffed by rotational chaplains. The U.S. Air National Guard supplies Protestant Chaplains and the Archdiocese of New Zealand supplies Catholic Priests. The chapel is also host to services and meetings for other faith groups such as Latter Day Saints, Baha'i, and Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 and non-religious groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...

. These meetings are dependent on lay-leadership to be the points of contact and facilitators. The building itself may hold up to 63 worshippers. The image to the right is of the original Chapel of the Snows, which burned down in 1978 and was replaced with a new temporary chapel. That makeshift building was converted to other uses after the current chapel was built and has also since burned. The current chapel, dedicated in 1989, features custom stained glass featuring the Antarctica Continent, the Erebus Chalice (during Austral Summers only), and memorabilia from the US Navy's historic involvement in Operation Deep Freeze

Operation Deep Freeze

Operation Deep Freeze is the codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on...

.