The history of Church Architecture is a fascinating study because it always reflects the church's theology of worship.
In addition to the Jerusalem Temple, Christians at first worshiped in private homes. When persecution drove them out of the Temple, homes were the only places where they could gather.
Such archaeological evidence as we have suggests that there were only two items of furniture provided: a chair for the presiding elder (sitting was the posture of authority - Jesus sat to teach (Matthew 5:1) as did all rabbis), and a table for the Lord's Supper. They usually met in a dining room, the only large room in the house, frequently occupying the entire top floor. This "upper room" was normally furnished with a table and three surrounding couches; but as the Christian community expanded and the liturgy developed, the assembly rooms became larger. By the 3rd century, they were furnished with a special table, or mensa, for the Lord's Supper. The officiating elder sat near this table in an armchair, or "cathedra" ... which eventually gave its name to the cathedral, which, in contrast to a parish church, is one over which a bishop presides.
There was no other seating - the congregation stood throughout!
The house church was superseded by the "Church House". Since public buildings were not an option - they'd be pulled down in the next persecution, almost as soon as they were put up - Christians with the means to do so built private homes with a view to their use for worship. Their plan was basically the same. Sometimes a central open court was the meeting place, sometimes the "upper room".
When the Emperor Constantine made Christianity an official religion, Christians were at last free to erect permanent buildings. They did so on the plan of the most common architectural design of public buildings in the Empire, the Basilica, which was used primarily as a law court.
The Basilica was a simple structure: a roof supported on two rows of columns, and extended on both sides by lean-to additions. The one feature, architecturally, was the apse, a semi-circular recess in the far end wall which focussed attention. In the semi-circle of its wall seating was located, central being the Magistrate's or Emperor's Seat. Along the chord of the apse stood an altar on which libations were offered to the locally recognised deity, and forward into the main hall were two lecterns which bore the books of Roman Law out of which judgment was given.
Christian basilicas were structurally no different, but some furnishings were changed. The altar was replaced by a large table, and placed central in the building, after the pattern of the house church ... as the ruins of many basilicas in North Africa show. The seating in the apse remained the same, the Emperor's Seat becoming the seat for the presiding elder (later the Bishop), and the lecterns remained, the Scriptures being read and the sermon preached from them.
As congregations grew, a crush barrier around the table became necessary, tending to push it further back toward the apse, from which a fence extended outwards into the body of the building to enclose it.
Chrysostom, the great preacher, brought the lecterns much further forward then, so as the better to be heard, and with that development the pattern had almost completely reverted to the Roman model. The table now lay along the chord of the apse where the pagan altar had once stood, with a screen to frame it, and the scene was set for the development of the familiar and traditional Cathedral plan.
In Mediæval times, the Table was more and more seen as an altar, where the sacrifice of the Mass was offered. It ceased to be a table on legs, and became a slab altar again (not infrequently the sarcophagus of a martyr - through a hole in whose lid bread and wine were sometimes dropped to the dead saint below!). The "holy mysteries" there enacted were hidden from the profane eyes of the laity by the erection of more and more elaborate screens, so the altar finally was placed against the rear wall.
There is some evidence to suggest a further reason for this recession of the altar to the rear wall. The first basilica to be orientated East-West, it seems, was so built to enable the officiating priest to face the rising sun (a symbol of the resurrection) across the Table as he broke the bread and poured the wine. The congregation immediately wanted to face it with him, with the result that subsequent East-West basilicas required the priest and congregation to face the same way. The stage was thereby set for the altar to be placed against the apse wall.
With the establishment of cathedrals as the "chapels" for their resident religious community, the choir stalls assumed their familiar chancel configuration, rows of pews facing each other across an aisle; this facilitated antiphonal chanting, but it also left a narrow viewing corridor for the congregation in the nave to observe what the screen was opened to allow them to observe!
Baptisms had normally taken place in nearby rivers or streams. When baptisteries were built they were often circular or octagonal stone tubs, with steps leading down to a space in the centre which allowed room only for the candidate to immerse himself by kneeling there. Few were large enough for an officiate to lay the candidate down backwards in simulation of a burial. When immersion was phased out in favour of infant christening, the font came to be placed near the church entrance, since baptism was the "doorway" through which you entered into the fellowship of the gathered Church.
The congregation was almost never seated until the Reformation. In the great Cathedrals, the only place to sit was along the low stone shelf that ran along the side walls of the building, where sat those who were too weak or ill to stand; hence the saying, "The weak go to the wall."
Early Christian architects also developed the centralised plan, based on the circle, the square, the polygon, or the Greek cross (arms of equal length). In a centralised plan the centre of the structure, usually surmounted by a dome, becomes the liturgical focus. (The dome was universally understood from Roman imperial times to symbolise the dome of heaven.) Altar and lectern were placed geometrically central. The plan generally worked because the congregation was not seated; people were free to stand around on all sides at their convenience. There are many surviving examples, notably in Greece and Turkey. The Eastern Orthodox branch of the church favoured the Central Design, whilst the Western Roman branch of the Church favoured the Basilica (Cathedral) Plan. A striking modern example of the centralised plan is the Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Christ the King in Liverpool, U.K.
With the Reformation, a radical change affected church design. The pulpit now became the dominant feature, usually standing above and behind the Communion Table, which replaced the altar. In Non-Conformist meeting houses the Table frequently extended well out into the body of the congregation. Where fonts were still used they tended to be near the entrance, after the Anglican pattern; but open baptisteries tended to disappear beneath a floor covering under the Table. Curiously, where they were free standing, they shifted either to the side of the pulpit, or in front of it; the practical requirements of easily accessible clothes-changing facilities tended to over-rule theological considerations! (Its location behind the pulpit in the Brisbane City Tabernacle Baptist Church is almost unique.) Much the same applied to the organ. Its array of pipes came to assume a commanding position above and behind the pulpit, so that with its attendant choir pews it became the dominant architectural focus ... which is theologically terrible, as though we worshipped the great god Pan! There were designs that located organ and choir behind the congregation, usually at gallery level (e.g, the Zion Baptist Church, Cambridge and the Marylebone Presbyterian Church, London), which is more appropriate, as the choir is an oral, not a visual aid to worship. But the pride of organ builders tended to over-rule theological considerations. In Cathedrals, the organ was normally more apropriately located in a transept.
Overall, theological considerations have generally determined church architecture ... until today (!), when theological considerations, it seems, are hardly taken into account at all. Table and pulpit/lectern have become moveable options; only the baptistery is fixed. Almost all recent Baptist churches in Queensland are not sanctuaries at all, but auditoriums. Their design reflects a total lack of any theology of worship. The prime requirement has become a stage for the band, as though what we really believe in is a stage performance. No Bible, no Chalice, no Pulpit, and often no visible Table.
With the Baptist church built in Poverest Rd, Petts Wood, Kent during my pastorate there, we attempted to restore the basic theological concepts to church architecture. We submitted a theological brief to our architect, John Fagg, and left it to him to render their requirements into his plan of shapes. spaces and features. Essentially, the brief required that the pulpit be placed so that the congregation is in a situation of "encounter" with the preacher, for that human encounter is the basis for the divine encounter which occurs in all true worship. In Christ the "Word", God stands over against us to address us. It is this "over against" character the placement of the pulpit should have, not centrality; the table is central. The table serves the Covenant Meal where Christ the Bread of Life is "in the midst", and we gather round Him. The table's placement must reflect and bear this "family meal" emphasis. The baptistery should be placed near the entrance (the Anglicans have always been right about this) for it is the gateway into the fellowship of believers who gather to the Word and the Bread which are Christ.
The architect's original concept was of an elliptical plan for the pews, rising in tiers, with the baptistry and the pulpit located at the twin foci of the elipse with the Table midway between them, enabling people in the pews to attend to any one of the three naturally, without having to twist in their seat. The church built after World War II to replace F. B. Meyer's old church in South London was in fact designed to this plan exactly. Considerations of cost at Petts Wood modified the original elliptical design.
The final plan was for a square church oriented down one of its diagonals between pulpit and baptistry. The pews were arranged with the Communion Table as the fulcrum of a fan. The square plan enabled the provision of a hyperbolic parabaloid ceiling and roof (convex across one diagonal, concave across the other) depressed at the corner above the plulpit and elevated over the entrance so that the congregation felt they were sheltered under an overshadowing wing. The organ and choir were integral to the congregation along one side. At a baptismal service the congregation simply stood in their pews and faced back toward it. When the candidates returned from the change rooms (off the entrance lobby) , the congregation stood as they had for the baptisms, and turned with them as they came down the aisle to be received into membership in the Communion Service that followed, "enfolding" them as they did so. I used to lead the prayers either kneeling at the Table or standing midway down the centre aisle facing the same way as the congregation so my voice rose out of its midst as befitted their spokesman.
The Ultimate Plan of the Poverest Road Baptist Church, Petts Wood, Kent
The Interior of the
Poverest Road Baptist Church
The Baptistry, shaped elliptically in blue tile, is located behind
the point at which the photograph was taken
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