Copyright: © 2000 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.

If you were to ask me to choose, from among all the Chapels at all the Lutheran Seminaries in North America --and I think I've seen them all-- which one was the handsomest, and the most congenial to Christian worship, especially since the Second Vatican Council, I'd select, without much hesitation, lovely little Loehe Chapel at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.

The Loehe Chapel exterior is a handsome, brick-and-timber structure, with leaded windows and pointed arches, and, inside, a splendid tile floor. It had been designed and built in the early 20th Century, in a "neo-Gothic" style -- like many another Seminary Chapel and many another parish church building!-- following the principles of the then- enormously-popular and influential "Oxford Movement," which regarded the High Middle Ages as the "Age of Faith." (As I suggested in an earlier essay in this series: Ask Martin Luther his opinion about the High Middle Ages as the "Age of Faith"!)

In any case, Loehe Chapel originally was designed following the precepts of the "Neo-Gothic" syle: a "two room" space, with clearly-defined chancel and nave; the chancel elevated three steps above nave-level, with "divided" choir pews at north and south chancel walls; an "east-wall" altar bolted to a handsome east-wall wooden reredos; and, in the nave, eastward-facing pews bolted to the tile floor. A handsome wooden pulpit was fixed to the south chancel arch, four or five feet above nave-level. Where the lectern and font were originally located is unknown to me.

But Loehe Chapel has changed significantly, and for the better, in recent years, inspired by the reforms of Vatican 2. In a very sensitive re-configuration, the pews have been removed, in chancel and nave, and replaced with attractive and comfortable wooden chairs with rush seats. Altar, reredos, and pulpit remain as they were, but largely ignored, at least at Daily Worship, and a new, moveable altar- table and ambo have taken their places at nave-level. A splendid new moveable font --an enormous plexiglas bowl-- is supported in an elegant wooden frame; it's used regularly in worship at national events of Wartburg's parent, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The whole interior space, at nave-level, is thus altogether flexible, and teams of Seminarians have varied the interior configuration of altar, font, ambo, and seats, with real creativity, depending on season or occasion.

(It should be noted that the old chancel area has served, during Lent and other penitential seasons and occasions, as a kind of Reconciliation Chapel, with two chairs and two kneelers positioned in the middle of the chancel space.)

I've spent some time describing Loehe Chapel to you because I feel it provides a worthy model for other chapels and parish churches in their attempts to re- design and re-configure their own worship spaces. And I see the success of Loehe's re-configurations in stark contrast to that of another Seminary's.

In the Chapel of that institution, which shall be kept nameless, the pews remain, steadfastly bolted to the floor. To provide space for a free-standing altar, the chancel's handsome tiled floor has been extended, to the front pew's "modesty screen", where everybody trips over it. The lovely old Victorian pulpit, with brass railing and green velvet skirt, has been banished, I-know-not-where. And, most tragic of all, the lovely old Victorian lectern -- a majestic bronze eagle with wings outspread to hold the volume of Scriptures; You've seen one like it.-- has been banished as well. In their place in the enlarged chancel stands a new moveable wooden ambo, of unexceptionable "modern" design.

But I find myself asking: Couldn't that majestic old eagle lectern have been saved, and used as ambo in a newly-re-configured worship space?

The pulpit or lectern or ambo is still another of the primary architectural signs in Christian worship. (Ambo = from the Greek ambon = a "rising ground" or "raised space".) I'd use the terms interchangeably: they are all names for the place where the Word is read and proclaimed. This designation, the Place of the Word, once again reflects a concern that is first of all functional and utilitarian. Before any symbolic claims may be made about the ambo, its utilitarian reality must stand clear for all to see: it is simply a reading desk.

Inherited traditions in church architecture derive from late Roman and early Byzantine imperial law courts, where the judge sat with other elders and officials in a semi-circle behind an altar honoring a god, and prosecuting and defense attorneys each stood at an ambo or lectern, one at the left, the other at the right. This architectural arrangement was, unhappily, carried over into early Christian church buildings; hence the architectural plan familiar to many of us: a divided chancel, with pulpit in the north, lectern in the south.

As I have argued in Essay 32 above, there are surely better architectural metaphors for Christian corporate worship than the Byzantine imperial law court. (The Pastor as judge? The people as plaintif? or accused? Come on!)

A loving family gathered around its dining table for a common meal suggests itself, to me, as a more appropriate model.

In any case, following this inherited Byzantine architectural tradition, many parish church buildings, to this day, have been provided with two places for the Word: lectern at the "south" for reading the Word; pulpit at the "north" for proclaiming it.

(Here's some liturgical trivia for you: The pulpit was in the north, anciently, because, in the Mediterranean world, that's where the barbarians lived. You preached the Gospel to the north, therefore: to the pagans!)

It is worth noting, however, that contemporary piety suggests that one location for the Word is sufficient and indeed preferable, for both reading and preaching, so as to allow the sign itself to speak more unambiguously. When there's only one Place of the Word, call it an ambo.

Not incidentally, as I noted in Essay 32, there is precedent for dispensing with pulpit / lectern / ambo altogether, reading scripture and preaching from the altar itself. Nevertheless, such an arrangement will, in the long run, probably not satisfy congregations who think of themselves as churches of the Word. Contemporary ecumenical consensus suggests that it is both prudent and right to provide the Word with its distinctive location, even as we provide the Meal with its distinctive location (the table), and the Washing with its distinctive location (the font).

As with font and altar, so with ambo: we will want to reserve it for its intended ritual function. So the ambo will normally be utilized only for reading and proclaiming the Scriptures, in lessons and sermon (and on occasion for announcements and song-leading). The lectern may also be used, following Reformed tradition, as location for the leadership of the Service of the Word. But in services of Holy Communion, the ambo will not be utilized until the moment when the scriptures are to be read and proclaimed.

Again, the instinct behind this ritual punctiliousness is simply to allow the sign -- here, the ambo -- to speak with the greatest possible clarity and force, and to honor its meanings: "Here is the Place of the Word". The sedilia, not the ambo, is the location for the leadership of worship, especially during services of Holy Communion: see the essay on the sedilia to follow below.) You do yourself and your people a favour when you keep firmly in mind these architectural and ritual principles (ie. the principles of "Ritual Clarity." See Essay 5 by that title above.):

• table / Holy Meal / bread and cup...
• font / Holy Bath / water...
• ambo / Holy Word / Bible...

One final word: What signal are we sending, when, in a worship space with a strong central "east- west" axis, we position the altar squarely on that central axis, but the pulpit/lectern/ambo just off-centre, to right or left? I suggest we're thereby giving proper honour to our sacramental centrality, but not sufficient honour to the Word. Can we find a spot along that central axis for the Place of the Word? It's for this reason, and others, that I have come to be converted to some kind of "collegiate" or "choir" configuration: the people facing each other across a central aisle in seats at "north" and "south," with font, altar, ambo, and sedilia all ranged along that axis/aisle, perhaps in that order, from "west" to "east."

Any comments?