Lighted Window goes back to its roots

Blue skies, puffy white clouds and a crisp breeze could not lend themselves enough to a picture perfect ribbon-cutting at what was formerly known as Church of the Lighted Window.

La Cañada oldest church changed its name for the seventh time in as many decades to La Cañada Congregational Church Sunday morning. Pastor C.L. “Skip” Lindeman, clad in a blue minister’s robe and green stole and holding a giant pair of scissors, cut the ribbon in front of the old entrance to the church, which faces, at an angle, the intersection of Foothill and La Cañada boulevards.

“I put out here ‘A New Name,’” said Lindeman about the title of his sermon posted on the church’s marquee. “Maybe I should put out there ‘A New Old Name.’ I hope when people see ‘Congregational’ they’ll know something about what kind of church we are.”

According to Melissa Patton, executive director of Lanterman House in La Cañada, archived parish bulletins since 1897, the year of the church’s founding in the home of Jacob and Ammoretta Lanterman, show the church has been known as La Cañada Congregational Church (1897), La Cañada Valley Community Church (1898), Church of the Lighted Window (1925, one year after the dedication of the present sanctuary), La Cañada Community Church/Church of the Lighted Window (1937), Community of the La Canada Valley/Church of the Lighted Window (1940), and in 1954, simply Church of the Lighted Window once again.

As of Sunday, it is the original 1897 La Cañada Congregational Church name that the historic landmark Church of the Lighted Window is known as since a decision to change the name of the church was agreed by committee earlier this year.

“I certainly hope that it will make it more aware in the community that we are an actual Congregational church, not a non-denominational church,” said congregant Sally Emerson, who has been a member of the church for about 40 years.

Church member Stephen Fletcher believes the name identifies the church clearly.

“I think the whole name of the church should be in all of our literature,” joked Fletcher on his way to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “The ‘Congregational Church of La Cañada/The Church of the Lighted Window/Affiliated With the United Church of Christ’ — three lines!”

Reaction to the name change has been mostly positive, Lindeman adds, given the church’s original name was not Church of the Lighted Window. “Church of the Lighted Window” is based on words written in 1925 by former congressman and California poet lauteate John Stephen McGroarty. He wrote: “The window bears a beautiful picture of the Wanderer of Galilee, his tender hands knocking at a closed door, a lighted window that shines out upon a lonely night; and the Wanderer at the Crossroads looking down to greet you.”

The window — at night, the lighted window — that hundreds of people see daily on their way past Memorial Park is the centerpiece of the church’s stained glass windows. It was presented on April 25, 1925, as a gift from the Lanterman family in memory of La Cañada pioneers Ammoretta and Jacob Lanterman, whose home was used for services in the early days of the church. Today it is the home of former La Cañada Mayor Carol Liu.