Temples and Churches

Temples and Churches
1 Kings 6: 1-38

The little church building where I worship each Sunday holds only fifty or sixty people, but it divides into three parts. The congregation sits in the main body of the church; there is a little step up to the choir stalls; and finally there is another little step and a rail separating off the area where the altar or holy table is. That is not the only traditional way to build a church; some have a more open plan. Yet it is the pattern of most of the larger churches in England with which I was familiar and where I was a pastor. In one of those churches I remember an old lady who felt that her place was in the main body of the church and who was certainly very hesitant to go beyond that second step into the railed off area. It was as if it was a very holy place. You could say she had reacted in a way that corresponded to the message the architecture of the church gave her..