One Last Look at Abominable Advent Altars

Yes, I know it's Christmas Eve, and maybe I should be posting something more pious and uplifting...but really, this is kind of amusing.

Besides, I'm looking at it in a positive light: a side benefit of Christmas - in addition to the general wonderful-ness of the season - is that you won’t have to look at abominable Advent altars for another year!

A reader sent in this photo of the altar at his parish:

He notes:

We were told that the stump (they called it a tree) represents Our Lord, and the branches are his people. I don't know what the tags represent. The first Sunday of Advent the stump showed up. The second Sunday it had the tags on it with no explanation.

He went looking for the answer, though, and discovered that the tags on the stump were decorations made by the school children; maybe they are just decorations and nothing more, with no other significance?! No,wait! I think maybe they are the "leaves" on the tree...

My correspondent adds:

I hope yesterday was the last day I have to look at it. This is something that should have been kept at the school and not in front of the altar.

  
Here's the "big picture":

When I commented on the rather…uh…tasteless design of the sanctuary, this poor soul told me:

If you think it looks bad now, you should have seen it before the remodel. There was this thing over the alter that looked like a space ship. The joke was "beam me up Scotty".

He also added:

The band was up and running yesterday: Three guitars, one piano, and a few wind instruments. We have an organ but it wasn't used. Maybe someday it will get back on track.

Hope spring eternal! Let us pray, pray, pray. There’s been a rumor circulating that a very orthodox, liturgically-correct bishop may become the new Archbishop of Portland! And that could initiate a big swing back toward good liturgy in archdiocese as well as the neighboring dioceses!