Our Sanctuary Speaks. What is it Saying?

Moving the Altar After Easter

When you come to church the Sunday after Easter, you will find the worship space rearranged. The Worship Commission has recommended, and the vestry approved, bringing the altar into the midst of the congregation for a season before we begin renovation. This change is a step toward discerning how our sanctuary can be used most effectively and most beautifully embody our beliefs about God and ourselves as a worshipping community.

Back Story

Saint Anne’s has done this before. In the 1990s, with the Rev. Theo Park, the altar was moved into the middle of the nave.  The Rev. John Cowan, in the early 2000s, placed the altar in front of the altar rail.  Those who were here in 2007 will recall that we moved altar, font, lectern, and chairs for the summer.  Since 2009 our early Sunday service has, every Sunday, moved chairs and gathered around the altar inside the altar rail. For many of our special services, we move chairs, lectern, and altar.  Over and over again, since 1990, plans have been started to make these changes more permanent, or at least to give us better capability for flexibility.  We get stuck because of changing leadership.  We get stuck because of cost to do it well, and make it beautiful.  Now that we are embarking on capital improvements, inside and out, it is time to move forward.

A couple of years ago, a group of 16 Saint Annians read a book together about church buildings.  Re-Pitching the Tent by Richard Giles led us through the foundations and development of Christian worship, and helped us tune our eyes and ears to how church buildings speak.  Everything about a building tells something about the values and theology of the people who use it.

Giles asks, “How do the followers of Jesus of Nazareth today organize themselves in such a way as to make his continued living presence a reality for them and for the world?  To be more precise, what are the distinguishing features of the followers of Jesus when they meet as a community, and how can they best use buildings ... to express their life together and the message they long to share?”

The Outward and Visible Sign (O&VS) initiative has helped us think about this in terms of the approach and access to the building, and the space we use for fellowship. Another important part of the work we will do this year will be the worship space.  Rearranging this spring will help us as we plan to refurbish and renew our sanctuary.

How does our sanctuary “speak” about what we believe? 

1. Worship is participatory, for the whole assembly.  When the altar is at a far end of the worship space, up some steps, behind an altar rail, the message is that clergy and other worship leaders are more important than the congregation.  It also implies that they are performing for an audience.  Placing the altar more in the midst of the congregation speaks a message of participation, and important roles for everyone.  Soren Kierkegaard once said that many people believe worship to be the responsibility of the clergy, who are prompted by God, and the congregation is the appreciative audience.  Kierkegaard said that really, the whole congregation is responsible for worship. They are led by the clergy, and God is the appreciative audience.  

1. Eucharist is a joyful feast, not a solemn sacrifice.  This shift in thinking was an important part of liturgical renewal in the 2nd half of the 20th century.  Older altars are solid, shaped like tombs, emphasizing the sacrifice of Christ.  Modern altars are more like tables, emphasizing that we gather to eat a sacred meal, as Jesus directed his disciples.  As we gather around the altar, we are reclaiming an understanding of Eucharist from the early time of the church, when Jesus’s first followers gathered at table after he had gone back to heaven, and found that he was among them as they broke bread.

1. God comes into the midst of the people.  God is not aloof but among us.  God is not only in the “Holy of holies”, behind the altar rail, up some steps, but in our midst and accessible to all.  At every baptism, the whole congregation welcomes the newly baptized:  “We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.”  All are worthy. All have access to God.  

1. The best we can afford, for that which we value most highly. Worship is at the heart of our life together. Shabby flooring, frayed and stained carpeting, chipped veneer, and mismatched furnishings do not speak well of the value we place on worship.  Organ pipes that are for show but not function silently speak of what is missing in our musical praise.  Chairs should afford flexibility, but ours are unwieldy, with difficult or missing kneelers.  Our O&VS work will address all these things, so that our sanctuary speaks loudly, without words, of what we believe and what we value.

So be ready. The Worship Commission will do their best to make the church beautiful, and to address issues of traffic flow.  There will be opportunity for evaluation and feedback.  More changes will be made as we learn what works, what is helpful, how our building speaks what we believe.

Remember: “Praying Shapes Believing.”  Our worship is both an expression of our beliefs and also shapes and forms what we believe.  Our building speaks -- not just to us, but to all who come.  May it express clearly our faith in God who loves abundantly, who welcomes all, who dwells among us.

Faithfully,

Lydia +