No windows (page 2)

moshe

Maybe they just don't want worldly people looking in and seeing how bored they are during their meetings.

BlackSwan of Memphis

@ moshe, lol. yah, they would see way too many people counting ceiling tiles, whispering, sharing candy and gum, drawing toons of the speaker or defacing their Sunday watchtower.

mouthy: you've got it babe :)

cameo: ohhhhhhh there is some interesting stuff going on in that thread! thx for sharing!! I feel a little like nerd for not going further back in the discussion posts (i almost wrote topics of discussion, shudder)

diana: yah, the new weaponry of cultism :)

AdaMakawee

The thing I liked about UU was that you don't have to agree with them to go there, and you can go as long as you like. They don't ever disfellowship anyone or try to convert them to a particular viewpoint. Not only that, but when I went (a few times a few years ago) I took a tour of the kid's area and saw what they were teaching them in Sunday school. They spend (at least in that particular church/congregation) about a month learning about one religion of the world. They learn beliefs, customs, do artwork as if they were a believer, and as such learn diversity to other thought patterns. There was no attempt to make that particular belief system look bad for some reason. It also impressed me that athiests and agnostics both attended services there.

The divinity of Jesus was never an issue for me, I think he was a wise man like buddha and others, but not god. Anyway, the UU here where I live is waaaay too boring for me, they run it more like a Lutheran service. Put me right to sleep. So I no longer attend. They have to at least hold my attention.

As to the lack of windows thing, I think that was more a US thing, and I really think it originated from a time when they were vandalizing KHs. I remember ours being hit with graffitti, etc when I was a kid. The KH was located smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood and the kids didn't like it being there.

BlackSwan of Memphis

@ ada, this year for Rel. Ed at our church we're talking about world creation stories and this last month I have been volunteering with the Iroqouis story of The Woman Who Fell From The Sky, it's been so much fun. Then again I got the best job of making sea turtle cookies, which are more like big globs of sugar on sugar with a wafer cookie, but the point is there.....

Somewhere along the way someone created the Universe and then there were turtles and COOKIES :)

Our Reverend is actually a very Hindu inspired humanist

Ah yes I am starting to really see that there are some big differences in our experiences with KH's. :)

The Almighty Homer

There are numerous reasons why KHs don't usually have windows, at least not the newly built ones.

1 they're are easier and quicker to build at a lower cost by JWs who are not carpenters

2 the buildings themselves don't look like a church from Christendom, something thats an unspoken agenda

3 windows might distract members by looking out of them rather than paying attention to what is being said on stage

4 a no window building is more secure, less prone to vandalism

5 in colder climates windows are energy inefficient, which costs the congregation more to heat

My old congregation had plenty of windows on both sides with curtains to give a nice pleasant comfortable atmosphere

When they renovated a few years a go, they closed off all the windows, removed the incandescent lighting and installed

bright fluorescent lighting in the ceilings which made for very cold stark environment within the hall itself.

The ironic thing too was they raised the roof with a high pitch which looks very similar to what a common church looks like.

BlackSwan of Memphis

Wellllllll okay, it makes sense. And here in MI I can see how having fewer windows would make a difference with energy, especially in the wintertime.

One of the things I remember about virtually every KH I've been in is how classroom like they are. When I started to visit different churches, I noticed how very different they all were from the average KH.

Most of the time, despite the denomination, there is an aura of sacred space. A place to worship and pray and whatnot. The KH really has none of that.