University of Virginia Library

Altar And Pulpit

He sees the church primarily as a shelter for
the people who come to gather around "the
table of the Lord's supper." Thus the "table"
or alter should be the first thing one sees when
he enters the sanctuary. In designing the
church, he tried to figure out how large the
congregation ("we") would be and find a design
where the "table" would be most accessible to
that number of people.

He sees the pulpit as a place for teaching, so
the teacher should be audible and visible. It is
with these ideas in mind that the triangle shape
for the sanctuary evolved, which places the
altar in the center and the pulpit on one side in
full view of the other two sides but also on an
equal basis with them.