The window is not the problem. . .

Can you see the crucifix here?

This  from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis:

After a two-year study by a campus stained glass committee, Lynchburg Stained Glass of Lynchburg, Va., removed the faceted stained glass window in the chancel of the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus in October 2019 to make way for new stained glass windows which Lynchburg is designing and fabricating. New stained glass windows will be installed throughout the chapel — the chancel, transept, nave and narthex — by early 2020 thanks to a generous trust established by the sainted Nell S. and Eugene Fincke, a former member of the Seminary’s Board of Regents. Because of the Finckes’ generosity, the chapel will now be as it was originally planned. When the chapel was designed, it was built with the capacity for stained glass throughout the building but the funding was not available at the time. As such, the only stained glass windows in place in the chapel have been in the chancel since the chapel was dedicated in 1992.

The theme of the new windows is the Te Deum Laudamus (Latin: Holy God, We Praise Your Name), a historic text of praise to God. The south transept window will depict the humiliation and crucifixion of Jesus Christ while the chancel window will depict the resurrection and the north transept will show the exaltation and second coming of Christ. The nave windows will push the worshipping community forward through Word, praise, prayer, thanksgiving and song to the primary elements of the Te Deum represented in the transept: “You had overcome the sharpness of death” and “You will come to be our judge.” Figures from salvation history as well as the redeemed from all the ages entering into the eternal kingdom will be represented. The past, present and future reality of training pastors, deaconess, missionaries and other church workers will be interwoven as a thread throughout the windows providing a thematic link to the old stained glass window, which featured the chapel namesakes on the center panels — Timothy and Titus — and the mission of Concordia Seminary.

While it is high time to replace the clear glass with the intended stained glass, the window in the

chancel of the Seminary Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus is NOT the problem.  What needs replacing more than ever is the paltry little crucifix that is so nondescript that it little does not even register to the eye.  What more fitting need can there be in a Lutheran Seminary Chapel than to have a prominent crucifix that befits the cross on which hung the Savior of the world for our redemption?

It is a crucifix to have to say you have one but with plausible deniability since no one will ever see it without it being pointed out to them.

Now lest you think I unfairly tar and feather the other Seminary in the LCMS (meaning the one I did not attend), I have long said the same thing about the Chapel at Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne.  Saarinen did not have a clue about Lutheran theology as it related to worship and if anyone had any sense when the place was built that stick cross would have given way to a glorious Reinhardt mosaic of Christ crucified that would have filled the giant wall like a canvas in order to clearly say to the eye we know and preach only Christ and Him crucified.  Maybe we can find a donor to help us make that happen at the Fort. 

Are you with me?   Two great chapels with two dominant crucifixes.