At Cyberbrethren, Paul McCain posts about the beautiful Magdeburg cathedral in Germany, its history, and its demonstration of the “un-iconoclastic” nature of the Lutheran reformation.  He promises more photos yet to come!

This may end up making me sound like a hippy.  Oh well; hear it out, anyway! 

A lot of churches would appreciate a beautiful piece of traditional liturgical art in their church, but genuinely can’t afford it.  So, what would it take to get a whole bunch of Lutheran artists together for six months; set them up on bread, water and inexpensive housing; and have them work like crazy on a number of pre-determined projects?  Just provide the raw materials.  It wouldn’t take long before a number of stained glass windows, paintings and reproductions of old masters, altar cloths, paraments, vestments, and altar wares were created.  Various churches could receive items for free or for very cheap.

This would, of course, require a bunch of skilled laborers being willing to work for almost nothing.  Well, if missionaries can do it, why not skilled laborers?  Then there’s the issue of getting everyone together for six months.  I suppose that this could work as a “long-distance network” as well; or people could simply work on projects in their generously-donated free time.

I kind of like the idea.  It would take more administrative-mindedness than I have, though.  For now, I’m doing this on my own.  But just think if a few dozen were on the job!

At some point during the course of my web-browsing, I ran across some really beautiful Mexican tin nichos, which you can see here.  Nichos can be used for secular purposes like any other shadowbox or “scrapbook” kind of collection, but they are also often used in the context of a family altar or a mini-shrine.  I really enjoy the architectural space and individual environment created by a niche, which is partly why I’m using them in my Hebrews 11 painting series.

Something I rather dislike in terms of household Christian aesthetics:

Cute crosses.

Discussion?  Would anyone like to post any links to particularly irksome examples of cute?  Oh, why not, I’ll go ahead…  “Who crucified the angel…?”