Copyright: © 1995 Paul F. Bosch.
This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit to the author and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.

Here at Wartburg Seminary I'm currently teaching a course in church architecture. In a recent visit with my class to the local Roman Catholic basilica, I became aware, not for the first time, of the tremendous ritual power and appropriateness of a one-room space for worship, with a free-standing altar.

The basilica is itself an exuberant example of nineteenth-century churchly triumphalism -- as a teacher of mine used to say, "rather much of a muchness." But following the dictates of the Second Vatican Council, its interior spaces have been modified -- as in every Roman Catholic parish in Christendom! -- to reflect the liturgical reforms of the Council: the "high altar" respectfully ignored; a new altar in place, free-standing and close to the people.

And it set me to reflecting -- again, not for the first time -- on our own impoverished "Protestant" worship spaces -- impoverished precisely because they are so often resolutely un-modified: a remote "east-wall" altar; a two-room space, the nave here, the chancel there, sending out its non-verbal but stunningly clear signals: "Stay out! This space is for priests only!" (Our English word "hierarchy", after all, comes from two Greek words meaning literally "priests first".)

Should we be surprised, under these circumstances, that our laity have a difficult time grasping a vital understanding of the classic Reformation principle of the "priesthood of all believers", or acting it out in their lives? Can it be that today's modified Roman Catholic church buildings -- thanks to the Second Vatican Council -- are more congenial to this quintessential Lutheran doctrine than most contemporary Lutheran church buildings?

Another thing: My dad was a Lutheran pastor who preached the Gospel every Sunday. But he was, in those days, alone in the chancel: reading scripture, leading the prayers, distributing the bread and cup. That's the way the people wanted it, too, you can be sure; it was a persuasive, weekly reminder of the relationship between Christian pastor and Christian people, in that place, at that time: the people expected my Dad to live out the Christian disciplines, for them, during the rest of the week as well, so they wouldn't have to.

In how many Lutheran parishes may we observe the same phenomenon, Sunday after Sunday? Rubrics in LBW to the contrary notwithstanding, many of our parishes have yet to discover the critical importance of allowing -- insisting that! the non-ordained serve, at every Mass, in distinct and irreplaceable roles of public leadership in Christian worship.

Again: In the face of this impoverishment, is it any wonder that the "priesthood of all believers" is only dimly perceived and hesitatingly lived-out among us?

Still more: Can contempt for incarnation and creation be far behind, in our thinking and in our doing, when, Sunday after Sunday, the scriptures are read, in too many of our churches, from a throw-away disposable pamphlet, rather than a worthy, handsome, hardbound volume, with hubbed binding, and ribbon page-markers?

And last but perhaps most importantly: In how many of our parishes are our congregations routinely offered, Sunday after Sunday, in lieu of the Eucharist, a Service of the Word? Or a form of "ante-communion"? Or Morning Prayer? Or worst of all! -- a nineteenth-century tent revival entertainment, dressed up in 1990's glitz? Not bread, but a stone! Are our people spiritually starved? Over-fed by "spiritual junk-food" which does not satisfy, and under-nourished on the Living Word, Spoken and Enacted?

If I could wave a magic wand over all our churches, I'd decree four things:

1. Mass -- Holy Communion -- every Lord's Day;
2. a one-room space, with a free-standing altar, the pastor presiding facing the people;
3. laypeople in their rightful roles of leadership in public worship at every Mass;
4. no throw-away pamphlets, but a large, handsome, ribboned volume for reading scripture, and the church's "altarbook" (the LBW/Ministers Edition) for leading worship.

Then surely the Dominion of God would be almost within sight!