Dear Countdown Companions:
This being the Monday after the first Sunday of Advent means that time, like that ever-flowing stream, will bear us all to the inevitable December 25 when we will proclaim Christ’s birth (and wonder why we put out so many decorations when it was warmer, since now it's way too cold to put them away).
In anticipation, our world organizes itself to tick off the moments until that particular day—Christmas.
It's very tough for us as North Americans to imagine Mary and Joseph trudging to Bethlehem in anything but, as Christina Rossetti memorably described, "the bleak midwinter," surrounded by "snow on snow on snow." To us, Christmas and December are inseparable. But for the first three centuries of Christianity, Christmas wasn't in December—or on the calendar at all.
When observed, the celebration of Christ's birth was usually lumped in with Epiphany (January 6), one of the church's earliest established feasts. Some church leaders even opposed the idea of a birth celebration. Origen (c.185-c.254) preached that it would be wrong to honor Christ in the same way Pharaoh and Herod were honored; birthdays were for pagan gods.
Not all of Origen's contemporaries agreed; some speculated on the date, as actual records were long lost. Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215) favored May 20, but others argued for April 18, April 19 or May 28. Hippolytus (c.170-c.236) championed January 2. November 17, November 20 and March 25 all had backers as well. A Latin treatise written around 243 pegged March 21, because that was believed to be the date on which God created the sun. Polycarp (c.69-c.155) had followed the same line of reasoning to conclude that Christ's birth and baptism most likely occurred on Wednesday, because the sun was created on the fourth day (Genesis 1.14-19).
The eventual choice of December 25, perhaps as early as 273, reflects a convergence of Origen's concern about pagan gods and the church's identification of God's son with the celestial sun. December 25 already hosted two pagan festivals: Natalis Solis Invicti (the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun") and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "sun of righteousness" whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers. The winter solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier. Seeing that pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true Deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a new festival.
Western Christians first celebrated Christmas on December 25 in 336, after Emperor Constantine had declared Christianity the empire's favored religion. Eastern churches, however, held on to January 6 as the date for Christ's birth and his baptism. Most Easterners eventually adopted December 25, celebrating Christ's birth on the earlier date and his baptism on the latter, but the Armenian church celebrates his birth on January 6. Incidentally, the Western church does celebrate Epiphany on January 6, but as the arrival date of the Magi rather than as the date of Christ's baptism at the age of 30.
Another wrinkle was added in the sixteenth century when Pope Gregory devised a new calendar that was unevenly adopted. The Eastern Orthodox and some Protestants retained the Julian calendar, which meant they celebrated Christmas 13 days later than their Gregorian counterparts. Most—but not all—of the Christian world now agrees on the Gregorian calendar and the December 25 date.
The pagan origins of the Christmas date, as well as pagan origins for many Christmas customs (gift-giving and merrymaking from Roman Saturnalia; greenery, lights and charity from the Roman New Year; Yule logs and various foods from Teutonic feasts) have always fueled arguments against the holiday. "It’s just paganism wrapped with a Christian bow," complains one anti-Christmas website.
Indeed, for centuries in Scotland, December 25 was just another workday. In 1580 John Knox banned the celebration of Christmas following the Apostle Paul’s admonition to hold no days special or holy. Besides, any celebration with the word Mass in it was clearly too Catholic and could not be trusted. Christmas was not officially or legally celebrated in Scotland for nearly 400 years. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that Christmas was an official holiday.
But, as a fourth century theologian asserted, "We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it."
And so, it clearly, confidently, unavoidably, most defiantly arrives just on the date we anticipate—December 25—with or without the vote of Session. Like a birthday, it is and will come.
Unfortunately, the season has ceased to be about the certainty of anticipation and instead has been twisted into the unpredictability of hope. While we know that the date of Christmas will come, we are cautiously unsure if we will get what we want, and therein lies the danger of this season, and perhaps our darkest compromise with a pagan world.
Pagan gods need to be seduced. They need to be convinced. If you want the sun to come back from winter, you’ve got to convince him it’s worth the journey. If you want your harvest to be plentiful, sacrifices will improve your odds. If you want your wife to love you, there are incantations, bling to buy, lotions and potions that might make it happen. If your children are sick, here's a list of prayers, and maybe your hopes will be fulfilled—that is, if the gods are convinced!
Of course, we don’t think that way, do we? What about just the right gift for Christmas? Or the decorations that will give off a perfect holiday feel, or invitations that will finally convince that son-in-law to not be a jerk to your daughter? There‘s a short line between pagan worship and how we are tempted to behave!
It is this simple principle from the Gospel of Christ: a pagan hopes; a Christian believes.
And so, at the beginning of this season, the beginning of the liturgical year, we start with things certain—not wistful or dreamy, but things we proclaimed true. Without a doubt, Christ was born, and with equal confidence we anticipate his return. While we cannot mark with certainty the specific day of ether event, it is fact as sure as a birth: God arrives.
Wandering through the reason for the season, I remain,
With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor
Dear Gardening Pianists:
I became a pastor just as mainline Protestantism was on the decline. I’ve never served a congregation that didn’t have members with fond memories of having significantly more members, larger programs and ever-expanding budgets; but that’s okay. My call to and preparation for ministry occurred in the 1980s, not the 1950s, so any wistful notion that I could have been a better pastor if I had started before I was born strikes me as silly. We are called to work, serve, pray and plan in the time we find ourselves; it is the only time in which God is present. C. S. Lewis noted that the one prayer God almost never grants is “encore.” Lewis wrote that our nostalgia for “golden moments in the past” can be nourishing and sustaining only if we see them for what they are—memories, not blueprints. “Properly bedded down in a past which we do not miserably try to conjure back, they will send up exquisite growths,” Lewis wrote. “Leave the bulbs alone, and the new flowers will come up. Grub them up and hope, by fondling and sniffing, to get last year’s blooms, and you will get nothing.” (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, 1964)
Perhaps because it is Annual Meeting time, I’m thinking about our past. It’s so tempting to fill in the trend lines and conclude we’re not anything like we used to be, but such
Dear Thermodynamic Ones:
In 1892, Scottish chemist James Dewar (no relation to John Dewar of the Scotch distillery) invented the thermal flask. His goal was to measure the specific heat of the element palladium. Dewar needed to stabilize the sample’s temperature before heating it in order to generate consistent data for his calculations. To solve this problem, he formed two brass containers and nested one inside the other. By heating and sealing the space between them, Dewar created a vacuum between the walls of the two flasks. Heat is transferred through the friction of molecules in motion as they crash into each other; the kinetic energy of their movement is absorbed and given off as radiated heat. If you reduce
Dear Auditors:
The problem with welcoming doorways is how they work both ways—if it’s easy to get in, it’s easy to get out. In the 1980s and ‘90s, the seeker-sensitive megachurch offered a slow and gentle ramp extended to the unchurched. The goal was to make the church experience less churchy and more in line with an individual’s secular tastes. Narthexes became Welcome Centers, Sanctuaries became Worship Centers, and pastors traded clerical collars or suits and ties for waffle henleys and denim. Sunday School became Life Groups, and traditional liturgies were traded for motivational sing-alongs followed by self-improvement lectures.
On the one hand, it worked extremely well. The gathering crowds dwarfed the attendance at more traditional churches, and it appeared the megachurch, with its economy of scale and high production value, quickly outstripped the modest accouterments
Dear Consuming Congregation:
I’ve been rethinking how we deliver content on Sunday mornings to meet modern attention spans. One concept would be that we would serve donuts and coffee, but after every few sips of coffee, a tiny lid would cover the cup until you listened to two minutes of a sermon; then the lid would open again so you could sip more coffee.
We could also interrupt the last line of a favorite hymn, forcing you to listen to another minute of a sermon before playing the resolving phrase.
Speaking of hymns, I’m going to talk to Doug, who prepares our worship slides, about getting sponsorships
Dear Pomp Processors:
Well, another Presidential Inauguration is in the books, as yesterday we witnessed the rites of the transfer of presidential power for the sixtieth time in American history. And while some of the proceedings may have been perceived as unorthodox, the pomp and regalia (think Village People) occurred, and the illusion of continuity was upheld – God bless America! The echoing “oyez!” stir an inner peace, calling the faithful to reverent submission. That’s the great thing about ritual; it spackles over the cracks of dissociation and conveys a smoothness of transition, no matter how large the underlying gaps.
Certainly, with this introduction, it’s easy to discern that I’m not happy with what the new administration portends for our national identity, but that’s also part of the problem. I think I know which direction the arc of justice should bend, so when my preferred narrative
Dear Frozen Chosen:
For the past hour or so, a little committee of nine Fahrenheit degrees has assembled around my backyard thermometer. They show little sign of inviting another into their club. This is somewhat annoying, as I have attempted to continue my morning dog walks (only these days without a dog). In the absence of a cold nose nudging me towards my boots, I have little incentive to head out on a morning with such poor temperature attendance, so I’ll wait a bit to see if more degrees arrive to make my participation in the great outdoors a little warmer. That’s the funny thing about calefaction—the more the merrier, until there are too many and somewhere in August it’s a crowded thermometer that keeps me inside.
A few weeks ago, I found myself back in Peotone for the funeral of my former organist. A dozen or so former members of the Presbyterian church inquired about the good folks of La Grange Presbyterian Church. First Presbyterian Church of Peotone has closed, and the congregation merged with the much larger church in Manteno. The building
Dear Wise Ones:
Our annual officer training day is this coming Saturday, and each year it gives me an opportunity to consider how the year ahead may be shaped by our great team of leaders. I write most of my Monday Musings with an eye towards general appeal, but this week, while my musings may apply to other churches, I’ve been thinking quite specifically about our church. After eight years with FPCLG, I have come to the conclusion that our committee system seems out of sync with our congregation’s goals. It’s not for lack of commitment or creativity among committee members, but if we consider the programs and events that have flourished, there seems to be little correspondence between our administrative structure and our best work.
Making a list of things that have ‘taken off’ over the past few years is risky—I know I may leave something out; but considering what we have
Dear Remembering Ones:
A few months ago, a clergy colleague of mine told me to go back and listen to Jimmy Carter’s famous “malaise” speech given from the Oval Office on July 15, 1979. (If you wish to listen to it too, I’ve linked it here.) This speecj, delivered by a president seated at his desk with riveting eye contact, is credited by some as the beginning of the end of his one-term presidency.
In his nationally televised address President Carter outlined what he felt were failures in his administration. He quoted both other politicians and ordinary people
Dear Loved Ones:
From time to time there’s a problem that arises for the class clown, the smirking commentator, the sardonic jokester—things can go off the rails when you’re trying to be sincere; people who know you keep waiting for the punch line. The shtick gets old for those who have to live with it. Just ask Dani, who tells people to wait for the second thing that comes out of my mouth, because the first thing is usually an attempt at humor. She says “attempt” because after years of togetherness, it’s hard to generate new material. I used to make her laugh; now I tend to make her cringe. “If that wasn’t funny,” I’ll ask,
Dear Christmas Tree Huggers:
With the weather feeling more like April than December, it’s a little harder to get into the Christmas spirit, but calendars are unrelenting, so for inspiration I’ll dig back into the past hoping to find that little thread that will amusingly unravel that ugly Christmas sweater of memory.
When I was little, about this time of year the family would head down to Omaha’s Old Market looking for our annual tree. That area of downtown Omaha is now filled with trendy shops and high-end restaurants, but back then it was a dilapidated wholesale produce market where tree sellers would unstrap their wares priced by the foot. Of course, most of us kids wanted the tallest tree possible. Knowing our living room ceiling was about nine feet, subtracting for the tree topper which looked a little like an eight-inch satellite with a silver spire, and adding about six inches to the bottom for the tree stand, we figured an eight and a half foot tree would max out the height, leaving a little space
Dear Lovers of Life:
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs case, returning the jurisdiction over abortion legislation to the states, anti-abortion activists have aggressively mounted their case attempting to limit women’s choice in every state. I would like to say at outset that I am firmly pro-choice; however, in today’s Monday Musing I am not going to weigh in on specific legislative proposals but focus instead on what I believe is the misuse of Scripture by the anti-abortion right. Repeatedly we’ve heard it said that the Bible is against abortion, or even more aggressively, “God hates abortion”, but on the specific topic of pregnancy termination, the Bible says no such thing.
What anti-abortionists do with Scripture is cobble together some poetic passages
Dear Long Weekend Spenders:
When policy or politics seems to be careening out of control, I often take comfort in history, finding how we have endured even greater upheavals in past disasters. It’s a technique found in several Psalms (41, 61, 71, 91, 140 and others), where the author reminds the reader of God’s help and provision during great calamities of the past, concluding that God will surely be present for us now. Perhaps the best hymnological example is “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past,” where Isaac Watts (1674-1748) paraphrased Psalm 90 into a glorious congregational song (sample here). A more contemporary example can be found in Tom Trenney’s soulful hymn, “God Wouldn't Bring You This Far to Leave You” (2022, sample here). I find singing this affirmation even more reassuring than reading it.
So with survivorship in mind, my musing today turns to Black Friday, the annual retail frenzy spurred by an extra day off after Thanksgiving. It seems exploitative to pin a day of spending immediately after being loosened up by a day of thanks, but it’s the same logic that in worship places the offering right after the sermon and prayer. Like so many traditions,
Dear Happy Campers:
In 1930, Walter Strong, publisher of the Chicago Daily News, constructed his country getaway summer home for his wife Josephine and their five children. Josephine’s brother, architect Maurice Webster, designed the home to resemble a Tudor castle, knowing Strong’s affection for his European travel and the writings of Sir Walter Scott. Quarried from local limestone, the house sits on a perch above the Rock River with sixteen bedrooms, nine baths, eight fireplaces, gargoyles and several playful secret passageways. Strong, however, never fully enjoyed this fanciful retreat house, as he died suddenly in 1931.
Widow Josephine Strong maintained the home just outside of Oregon, Illinois, splitting her time between The Castle and her residence in Wilmette. When she passed in 1961, her children had scattered beyond the Midwest and did not wish to maintain the eclectic property, selling it to the Blackhawk Presbytery as a camping facility for
Dear Election Deniers:
Well, another election is in the books, and I am beyond disappointed. I cannot discern the motivation of individual voters, but the collective count seems to be a win for anger and misogyny. Unfortunately I fear had it gone the other way we would have chalked up a win for complacency. You know my preference, but we all must live with the results and determine how to move forward.
Like many post-election executives, my job now is to discern the outcome’s impact on my business. I know the metaphor may feel unseemly, but as a minister I need to evaluate my industry which is religion, my brand which is Christianity and my model which is Presbyterian. Given the election results, I feel like a horse collar manufacturer in 1920s Detroit.
I don’t think the problem is the quality of the product—it’s whether or not anyone is buying.
Dear Spam-Call Warriors:
The phone rings. You don’t recognize the number, but you’re waiting for a call, so you say, “Hello?” There’s a long pause and then that strange boip sound that you know connects you to an AI-controlled recorded voice. Yep, it happened again…Spam Call! Against all reason, you try to interrupt sometimes with insults or questions, but the bot hasn’t been trained in irony, so you get back a very disappointing, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. Would you like to…” Sometimes you wait and eventually get connected to a live operator. Guess what—even though it’s a living breathing person, they cannot be insulted. There is no expression of annoyance they have not heard before. Of course, they hang up before you can explain your frustration. Their only hope is volume, scooting on past your indignation to the next voice,
Dear Subscribers:
Once an organization or association has approved by-laws and built a website, it seems the next project is to create a newsletter or magazine. In addition to collecting dues, the staff, whether volunteer or paid, is tasked with keeping track of the industry’s trends and legislative agendum. Many of these periodicals now exist only online, but who can forget the importance of Potato Chipper Magazine or the National Tire Dealers and Retreaders Association newsletter? (When I was a kid, the latter arrived for my dad at the house each month.) It matters not your hobby, interest or profession, you can bet there’s a periodical that fits even the narrowest of interest. Some titles explain themselves, like “Private Island Magazine”; others feel a tad more obscure, like “Emu Today and Tomorrow” or “Miniature
Dear Hangry Diners:
Having just stepped away from my morning news feed, I’m inclined to observe that the world is a mess. Of course, 24-hour news cycles and constant doom scrolling would lead even the most stable among us to become unmoored, assuming the great apocalypse is only moments away. But that’s how it works when attention is monetized. The financial incentives are out of whack—the purpose of information is not to keep me informed, but to keep me glued, to awaken in me an insatiable hunger for the next screen. I’m ashamed to admit how well it works, because even as I write this I am tempted to click back on the updates of some story, issue, poll or commentary. It all triggers in me a
Dear Real Intelligence (RI?) Seekers:
Last year my brother Bruce (Prof. Emeritus electrical engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, and Founding Director CMU Africa) was interviewed by CNBC Africa regarding current technological developments on the continent. In the interview, which may be found here, he discussed the importance of context in Artificial Intelligence (AI) learning models. In our conversations, my brother has talked about the vast difference between American and European AI models and African continental models relating to everything from logistics to health care to banking.
If you were to use models trained with data from legacy countries and inquire as to how developing nations in Africa could improve the delivery of goods and finances, the AI output would most likely commend grand infrastructure projects requiring the construction of massive dams, highway systems and power plants. However, African nations are currently using networks
Dear Art Dealers,
From 1870 to 1871, impressionist painter Claude Monet lived in London, where he had arrived from Paris in self-imposed exile to avoid conscription in the Franco-Prussian War. That first exposure to London’s smoggy air inspired the young artist, who was fascinated by what the moisture and pollution did to the refraction of light. After returning to Paris, Monet was determined to revisit London, which he did many times over the subsequent decades.
Among his favorite subjects for painting were the Parliament buildings along the River Thames capturing the various angles of light and fog. Throughout his career, Monet captured those
Dear Happy(?) Campers:
Happiness is a byproduct, not a goal. I heard that quote during a podcast interview last week and it is stuck in my head.
A little research reveals that Mahatma Gandhi may or may not have said something similar. His abbreviated quote usually reads, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Except that seems to be a memeification (yes, invented word) of a longer, more verifiable Gandhi quote: “Happiness is a direction, not a place. Happiness
Dear Busybodies,
Labor Day—that last gasp of summer as we slip our summer whites into storage and prepare for the seasonal responsibilities of harvest. A day for workers to set aside the drudgery of Mondays for one fleeting glimpse of how life could always be had we been born into the luxury of the leisure class. Except these days we no longer mark success as freedom from responsibility, but rather prove our worth by a flurry of perpetual busyness.
Imagine Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos lingering over one more game of croquet on the lawn while sipping lemonade. Or Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg touring aimlessly down a coastal highway, windblown with
Dear Seekers:
This past week I attended a required clergy continuing education program hosted by the Presbytery of Chicago. A portion of the day was devoted to helping us understand the importance of monitoring our stress. When we are under pressure, we are more likely to violate the personal boundaries of others; we become less supportive of their needs, and our tolerance for their behavior wears thin. At the same time, the presenters wanted us to appreciate how stress helps us grow, building our resilience, so they offered this illustration...
Biosphere 2 was a research project constructed in the Arizona desert in the late 1980s to determine if it was possible to create a closed ecological system which, in the future, might sustain human life on other planets. It’s a massive domed structure that replicates
Dear Wealthy Investors:
If you’ve missed the fact that I think a “prosperity gospel” is heresy, then we haven’t talked. Religious hucksters have been around since the beginning of time. Even the early church struggled with that brand of phony.
In Acts 4.32, we’re told how many people sold property to place the money before the Apostles so they could distribute it to any who were in need. In Acts chapter 5, Ananias and his wife Sapphira wanted in on the action. Christians were digging deep to support the work of the early church. So Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property, but they held back
Dear Political Patrons:
I’m not a Chicago native, but I’ve spent nearly three times as many years as a resident of the Windy City as I had in my hometown of Omaha, and all of that time on the South Side (if one counts Hyde Park as the South Side). When I arrived in Hyde Park, Michael Bilandic was Mayor, and the fact that he was Croatian was of little consequence to my newfound awareness of Chicago politics. The Irish were kings of the South Side ever since Mayor Richard J. Daley’s mother, Lillian, announced that she wanted more for her son than being a policeman. Richard J. didn’t disappoint.
Daley (the elder) had a keen sense of optics, making sure that his base constituencies were well represented when handing out credit and meting out power. His was a carefully crafted machine in which the component parts were not
Dear Collective Clergy:
As you may gather from my sermons over the past several weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about community, about interdependence, about sharing. Perhaps because there are few things less independent or self-sufficient than caring for someone who is ill; or perhaps because I am old enough to realize there are some things I will never accomplish in this life. Whatever the reason, I’ve been musing about how spirituality has become a personal responsibility. We’ve privatized it. We are taught that each of us is responsible for working out our own salvation, our prayer life, our meditation, our scriptural devotion, even our emotional health and faith. I’m not so sure that’s right.
Much of this started with the Reformation. The reformers denounced the special position priests held in mediating God’s presence for the people through the
Dear, Dear Friends:
Letters from the pastor are traditionally epistles of reprimand. Seeing oneself as constrained by a stiff-necked people, the pastor attempts to write the congregation into submission. Confident that the only limit to their ministerial wonderfulness is spiritual stubbornness, they dedicate their pens and preaching to browbeat the very congregation to which they are called. I sometimes wonder how church members tolerate such dismissive paternalism. There must be something irresistible in the friendships, or the choir rehearsals, or the coffee that brings people back to endure their weekly scolding. I have on occasion, submitted my congregations to such smug condescending judgmentalism, and now looking back, I am sorry. My regret arises not only from the absurdity of ‘biting the hands that feed me,’ but
Dear Welcoming Worshipers:
This may come as a bit of a surprise, but occasionally I muse about things other than political temperament or cultural erosion; sometimes I muse about the church—and not just its niche in society or role in public discourse. I sometimes think about how we ‘do’ church and how we ‘are’ church.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been rolling around in my head our metrics. What we count, how we measure progress, where we look for trends. Most often we consider ‘how many’, as in attendance, and ‘how much’, as in offerings or expenditures. But independent from this annual report data, I’ve been thinking about people, as in those who are not yet part of our fellowship, and I’m beginning to believe our systems of connection may be upside-down.
The centerpiece of our community in both energy and focus is our gathering
Dear Fatigued Faithful:
Now that the state of Louisiana has codified posting the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, attention has been given to commandments 7 (Thou shalt not commit adultery) and 9 (Thou shalt not bear false witness) and whether or not the politicians who endorse the policy live up to these commands. Those who defend the posting of the Decalogue claim it is a bedrock document of American law, and as such a piece of history without religious prejudice. My musing over this issue, and the recent state school superintendent of Oklahoma mandating the teaching of the Bible in schools, has less to do with the documents themselves and more to do with the qualifications of those who will interpret their meaning for young minds.
Of course, the Ten Commandments is a religious document. Let’s start with #1, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” There is nothing secular about that! Of course, moving on, the next three commandments are equally sectarian: #2 Thou shalt not make any graven image, #3 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain and #4 Remember
Dear Bugged Ones:
As many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre emerged a few weeks ago in our region of Illinois. With great anticipation, people dreaded the endless sound of their mating screech. It was amazing how finding a single cicada in the house and courting him outside could fill the air with so much noise. While larger than most bugs, it still seemed to emit more sound than its size could resonate. The crunching sound too—of thousands of exoskeletons littering the sidewalks—created its own fascinating cringe.
Love them or hate them, they’re now nearly gone.
It will be 2041 when our brood emerges again. If I’m still around, I’ll be 80.
Dear Gathering People:
If you have endured my long-form tour of our worship space, you’ve heard me ramble about the architectural work of Charles Edward Stade, who designed our Sanctuary. Fresh off his commission for the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University in 1961, Stade’s Park Ridge firm was engaged by FPCLG to bring modern interpretation to classical Christian forms. To my taste, we caught Stade at just the right moment in the development of his style. Stade’s later designs were stamped by an obsession for A-frame structure. Literally hundreds of churches built in the 1960s and ‘70s reflect his direct and indirect influence. Long sloping roofs covering little checkerboards of windows became his hallmark. You can see local examples, including Winnetka Presbyterian Church, Trinity Lutheran Church of Lombard and Bethel United Church of Christ in Elmhurst. Our windows in both the cloisters and clerestory reflect his early fascination with tiny boxes of color, but unlike later works, ours are muted blues, grays