The Presbyterian Church of Kane, Pennsylvania

It's a small but beautiful building in the downtown area of Kane, Pennsylvania--which is surrounded on three sides by the Allegheny National Forest.  There's an image of the enthroned Christ in the round window above the altar.  The altar sits down on the same level as the congregation, and each of the side windows up in the "clerestory," or the second level, depicts the lives of one of the 12 disciples.  That way, churchgoers are seated around the Table with the Apostles, and Jesus is seated as the host.  Kind of a clever psycho-spiritual arrangement.

But my favorite window in the room is rarely seen.  It's this lovely blue one hidden away in the choir loft.  It depicts nothing at all, but it does express a mood, a calm, a peace.  I was astonished when we found the church doors unlocked on a weekday afternoon in late May.  The purple Lenten "paraments" (or cloths) were still on the pulpit and table--even though Lent was long over.  But of course, all the churches emptied out in mid-March, and the Lenten paraphernalia was left in their wake.  This is a very special place in my history.  

As far as this blog is concerned, it's just a curious building.  Here's a view from the pulpit.  There are so many lovely sacred places tucked away in small towns, and on side streets, and among the fields and woods of the nation and the world.  Temples, mosques, churches, synagogues, shrines.  Communities have historically expressed their highest ideals and aspirations in the bricks and mortar of their sacred places.  See how shadow and light create an atmosphere of...otherworldliness.  See how the Sacred is expressed in our constructed environment.