Thursday, December 29, 2011

The windows

So here I am, almost a year later, putting on a second post.  I plan to do this more frequently to give anyone who follows this blog something real to follow.  At my church on Cape Cod, Christ Lutheran, we have launched into an overdue building project.  The church and parsonage were built in the early 1960s and not much has been done to either building except absolutely necessary repairs.  Now a bunch of put-off projects have become necessary repairs.  We've gone through a loan process.  We've gotten bids.  Now nails guns are firing.  As a new year approaches, a new face in appearing on the parsonage (plenty of cedar shingles, it is the Cape after all.)

Yet we are still uncertain as to how to proceed with new windows for the church sanctuary.  While we all agree that they should be replaced with something more efficient (the windows are actually circa 1940s, the church building is a decommissioned military chapel from WWII), how should they look?  Clear glass to see the world?  Pebbled glass to protect us from disctraction?  Should they be divided to look like separate panes as they are now?  Should they have some sort of new design?

We have found ways to put off the decision, forums that had now real conclusions.  Straw votes that indicated an opinion but had no formal decision-making authority.  Fortunately, in good ecclesiastical fashion, we have decided to hold a meeting to decide about the windows.  Stay tuned to see if East Coast Lutherans are any better at making decisions than Lutherans throughout the country.