June 28, 2009
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The New Trier Extension Program organized a tour that included four places of worship from four demonimations. |
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We began with the Chicago Loop Synagogue (16 S. Clark St.)
and went next to Holy Trinity Cathedral (1121 N. Leavitt) (American Orthodox), St. Michael's (455 W. Eugenie) and the Midwest Buddhist Temple (435 W. Menomonee). |  |
Crammed with symbolism and rather esoteric, but impressive: the 30x40 foot
window by Abraham Rattner was executed in Paris and installed in 1960.
Upper left (yellow): The Tree of Life, surrounded (squares) by the 12 tribes. The
branching yellow structure (right) is the Palm of Shins, from the Succot harvest festival.
The inscription across the bottomr reads: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
On the left, two letters from the inscription.
The window on the right portrays the holidays of the liturgical year.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, designed by Louis Sullivan
Built 1902-3, seems small outside--about 50x100 feet--but not
inside.
A sterling Sullivan signature.
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As much as anything, I loved the contrast between the traditional ornamentation and the start
modernism of Sullivan's architecture.
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St. Michael's
A war memorial erected in 1959, when the German heritage of the parish had probably
absorbed the shock of World War II as well as that of the Great War.
The Michael of the 1870s (right) is much superior to his modern cousin!
The hinges on the front doors & the statue overhead. Much is made of the Romanesque look of
the exterior,
but in truth it seems neither Romanesque nor Gothic. The church was destroyed in
the Chicago Fire of 1871
but rebuilt by 1873. The altar is nearly 60 feet high.
Overhead, the four evangelists.
"Econciliation," I was thinking, must be something new, confession & absolution
in a
Tweet, perhaps, or via email? Probably, however, we're just missing the R here.
The religion of less is more.
July 5, 2009