How to Read the Epistle From the Lectern

Lectern at Shadyside Presbyterian Church

This post is one of four covering the principal worship centers.  The lectern, compared to the pulpit, font and communion table, sometimes seems to accept a secondary status. This may be because its purpose is misunderstood and diluted.  From the lectern we receive the grace of hearing God'due south Word read.  In many churches, much of worship (other than preaching and the sacraments) is conducted from the lectern.  This is fine, as long as we exercise not lose sight of the sacramental nature of four main worship components.

View of chancel at Shadyside Church – lectern toward right

In the Reformed tradition, our worship is in Word and Sacrament – as is true in some other traditions, too. The Sacraments are the Lord's Supper and Baptism.  We take, also, the Word proclaimed (preaching) and the Word read (scripture).  Since the Reformation, so much accent has been placed on preaching that scripture reading may exist perceived as but preliminary to proclamation.  There is, however, a distinct and inherent grace  imparted during the agile hearing of the Word read.

A properly chaste lectern at Bower Hill Presbyterian Church

A loftier view of the importance of a lectern is neither universal nor a continuous element of  worship through Church building history.  Today, many abet a "table of the Discussion" from which scripture is both read and preached.  In 1964, the influential author on Protestant worship, James F. White wrote, "…why should the reading of the lessons be separated from the preaching of the Word?  Indeed, placing the Bible on a lectern apart from the pulpit suggests that the sources and authority of printed Word and preached Word are different.  Would information technology not be meliorate to take the Word read from the aforementioned spot where it is expounded?"

A Table of the Word of Ambo in a Roman Catholic Church

There is no indication whether the Primitive Church set aside a place to read scripture in worship.  We do know that some early firm churches had a "bishop'south chair," and that Jewish custom was to stand to read scripture and to sit to teach from it.  Obviously, the lectern shares a common origin with the pulpit:  the ambo.  The ambo was a raised platform extended from the chancel into the nave.  Its roots were in Roman civic buildings, where the ambo was used to expound upon a point of view.

Ambo extending from chancel in an early basilica church building

A clearly distinct lectern came into utilize in the middle ages, specially in churches intended for utilise past monastic orders. Worship in such places took place importantly within the chancel.  The portion of the chancel at liturgical Westward (toward the church entrance), called the choir, was occupied by  "pocket-sized clergy."  On the chancel centerline in the choir, a lectern served to read the scripture lessons.

St. John's Chapel Chichester, Sussex, England

Afterwards the Reformation, many experiments with the shape and organization of the worship infinite were tried. In some cases, such an emphasis was placed on preaching and the pulpit that the lectern was omitted.  Meetinghouses sometimes made a effectively functional distinction and employed the and then-called "triple decker."  A hierarchy of peak placed the pulpit at the top, a lectern in the middle for reading scripture and a desk on the lesser for conducting other worship elements.

During the nineteenth century, the Cambridge-Camden Society called for a return to medieval architecture and worship. The use of a lectern was i aspect they advocated.  This was favored besides in the "2nd wave" Gothic Revival, led by Ralph Adams Cram.  In his book "Church Building," he instructs:

"When the pulpit stands on the Gospel side of the church, every bit should ever be the case, the lectern is unremarkably placed in a corresponding position on the Epistle side; but a usage that is now existence restored is the placing of the lectern in the eye of the space between the rows of choir stalls…In many ways this position is more convenient and dignified than any other."

The Gospel and Epistle sides are the left and right, respectively, equally the congregation faces the chancel. Never reticent, Cram proscribes and prescribes the course of the altar:

"There is no possible reason why it should exist in the class of an eagle;…The realistic bird with natural feathers is, of course, bad fine art…The triangular lecterns, such as nosotros find all over Europe, are not only convenient, but uniquely cute; and we tin can only hope that their utilize may be restored."

Cram's recommendation for the lectern on the Epistle side became nearly a standard of church architecture in Protestant churches through at least the first half of the twentieth century. As the auditorium worship space regained ascendance, specially in Evangelical churches, the lectern (and eventually the pulpit) disappeared.

Triangular lectern of the type Cram recommends – Calvary Episcopal

Cram was meticulous in his utilise of Christian symbolism.  The ample symbolic carving on Shadyside'due south lectern is the design of his former employee, Charles Marcus Osborne.  The reading desk is supported by the iv winged creatures representing the Gospel writers.  The pedestal is formed past three intertwined columns, symbolic of the Trinity.  Between the columns nosotros find the rose and thistle, emblematic of Christ and humanity.  On the reading desk a book is carved:  the Bible, God's Give-and-take.  The legend "Lux In Tenebris" means calorie-free in the darkness.

In this church building, where the Word proclaimed, the Discussion read and the Word made visible in the sacraments are crucial in worship, the lectern is substantial, meaningful and beautiful; as is the Word.  Learn about The Font.

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Source: https://shadysidelantern.blog/2017/10/09/four-liturgical-centers-the-lectern/

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