Pictures inside churches are usually done with available light, without tripod and without flash.
You will be shooting at very low speeds many times and image stabilization will help...up to a point.
For times slower than 1/10th of a second, you would still need camera support of some type.
This is where you can get creative and start using those manual controls and raise the ISO setting which will let you shoot at faster speed.
You may get some noise in the picture but that is better that blurred photos. And there are some good free noise filters available that can be applied from the computer.
Here is what owners are saying about the Diamge A1:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/read_opinions.asp?prodkey=minolta_dimagea1
...
I presently own a G5 and have been very happy with it. I went on vacation in Italy and took a lot of pictures inside churches and got a lot of blurred pictures with the G5. I looked at Minolta Dimage A1 with the antishake, the EVF and the manual optical and it is very appealing. Has anyone any experience with this camera. How fast is the AF compared to G5? The Canon sometimes struggles in low light. The anti-shake feature would have been very helpful with my inside photos. Thanks

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic