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Significance Of Church Architecture

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PT6920 Church Architecture-Site Visit Vikato Kappo
Final Paper on Church Architecture July 3, 2015

“The Significance of Pulpit in the Church Architectural Settings”

Introduction
The term ‘Church Architecture’ refers to the architectural buildings of the Christian churches and cathedrals, which evolved over two thousand years. The churches have witnessed varied styles of architectural buildings from the early period of the birth of Christianity till today. Some of the most significant church architectural buildings are from the church architectural designs of Byzantium, Romanesque Abbey churches, Gothic Cathedrals, and Renaissance Basilicas. Till today, the architectural building styles of the early church …show more content…

The word “Pulpit” is derived from the Latin word “pulpitum” meaning platform or an elevated stand of stone or wood for the preacher or reader to stand on. Pulpit is essentially a place where something important happens in the church. Generally in almost all churches, pulpit is used for preaching, whereas in some churches pulpit is used both for preaching and reading of scripture. In early Christian times, ambo was used for preaching instead of pulpit, and lectern, a speaker’s stand in the church, which means ‘to read’ was used for reading scriptures by laymen, and also used for announcements, and to lead congregation prayers.
Every Christian believes that God speaks to us through the proclamation of his Word; hence, the place where the Word is proclaimed should be one of the focal points in the church. Some argues that it is not essential and necessary to have two places for proclaiming the Word (i.e. pulpit and lectern). In fact, many people prefer to have only one place for proclaiming the Word since having two platforms confuses the congregation and also having lectern and pulpit were often limited to wealthy congregations since many cannot afford it. Robert S. Brightman writes on the pulpit and lectern

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