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On a December day not many years ago, an American traveler stepped into one
of England's most beautiful churches, the Anglican Cathedral in Lincoln. It was
sunset time, and although no one was in the pews, the service of evensong was
about to begin. As the fading light filtered through the high window, and the
great Gothic columns moved the heart toward heaven, and the music of the organ
and the singing of the choir burst out of the silence like an angel chorus, that
mysterious, half-darkened cathedral became a place apart. And the moments there
are remembered by the traveler as an experience of rare and precious beauty.
Perhaps it is no wonder that as a Congregationalist he should come away
asking: Why doesn't my tradition have cathedrals like that?" Most
Congregational church buildings in America are very simple, their decor is
plain. And if tradition be followed our Congregational church buildings are not
even churches"; they are "Meeting Houses". For three hundred
years Congregationalists of America have rejoiced in their simplicity, and have
been uplifted by their plainness.
Whence came this tradition? Why were these places of worship so revered by
their puritan congregations? For Congregationalists, what is the meaning of the
Meeting House?
1. GATHERED BY GOD
From the earliest days of their separation from the state church in England,
Congregationalists have thought of their Churches as "gathered
Churches". Gathered by God. "Where two or three are gathered together
in My Name," they remembered the Lord's promise, "there am I in the
midst of them." They believed that a Christian Church was formed when
Christ gathered a few people together and promised to be with them, and to teach
them, and to guide them.
In other words, they thought a Church was a company of people among whom a
living, acting Lord was present. Two things then, were needed: the Lord of life
who had come to speak to His people, and the people who had come to hear what
the Lord said. And it is this relationship of speaking and hearing that has
dominated the whole conception of the Congregational Meeting House.
Our Roman brethren make elaborate use of symbol to express the relation of
people to God. Statuary crowds their churches. Vaulting columns suggest the
mystery of the divine presence. Incense and pageantry in the service deepen the
sense of awe.
But the Congregational Meeting House was never meant to be a symbol at all!
It was a place for Christian people to meet and for the Word to be preached and
prayer to be offered. Almost in spite of themselves, these buildings have had a
meaning. In village after village among New England's hills and valleys the pure
white lines of Congregational Meeting Houses have reminded the generations that
people of God made those towns. And the character of the God they loved is
reflected in the buildings they built. Plain and white. Pure and clean. Simple,
yet rich. But always, the place for worship. Always, the place where people were
to meet on Sunday morn to hear the living God who would speak to them there.
2. WITHIN THE WALLS
But come inside. What does the Meeting House mean when viewed from the pew?
What symbols do the people see, and how does this building "fitly framed
together" bespeak the God they serve?
From the pew a person looks up to see first, what? - the pulpit, probably.
High, and lifted up, in the center of the Meeting House - and if not there, then
just to one side only to make room for the Table, but still dominating the room
like a throne. Why so prominent? Why have most of the Reformed Churches placed
the pulpit in the center of the people's attention? Because this, to them, has
always been the symbol of the Word of God dwelling in their midst. It may be the
minister who stands there and speaks, but through it all it will be God's Word
the people strain to hear! The pulpit is a kind of throne for the Word of God -
a visible sign that the living God is one who speaks to His people, and that
they have tried to make the place of the Lord's speaking a fit place for that
Word to be heard.
And on that pulpit is another symbol, this one a book. The Book. The Bible -
which is God's Word written and recorded on the pages of history. Not only
through the speaking of a person but also through the reading of a Book comes
the Word of the Lord to His people. And that Book is open, to suggest that God's
Word is free to everyone - no longer closed to the people, written in a language
they could not understand, and chained to the pulpit as in medieval times!
And yet the greatest symbol is on the floor of the Meeting House in front of
the pulpit - or perhaps raised up, in the center of the sanctuary; a simple
Table. Beautifully made, and strongly built, but still a Table. The Communion
Table. The Holy Table at which Christ and His friends ate the Last Supper and
where we eat it too, in remembrance of Him. It is a Table at which the Church's
treasured communion silver is set, perhaps only six or eight times a year. It is
a Table at which the people gather 'round, and symbolically at least, sit down
to eat.
Here the Good News of what God did for us all is acted out in broken bread
and poured-out cup. The Word spoken from the pulpit is acted at the Table.
Nor is the Table, an altar. An altar- in both the Roman and the ancient
Jewish view - is where a sacrifice is performed: a sacrifice performed by a
priest, on behalf of the people, as an offering to God. But we do not so
understand Communion. Christ performed His sacrifice for us once on Calvary, and
the Table is one Christ spreads for us as a supper in which Christ, alive and
risen, comes to be with us in power and in truth, if we believe.
3. THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES
Finally, it is the people themselves who show perhaps most clearly the
meaning of the Meeting House. They are gathered for one purpose: to hear God's
Word and to respond to it. They are gathered by their Lord around that Word. The
pews are often placed so that the people sit almost literally on three sides of
the pulpit, the better to hear what is most important in their worship.
But even as they come, eager and expectant, and fill that House with their
praying and their listening, the gathered people suggest something fundamental
to the nature of their Meeting House. It is a Meeting House. It is where God's
people are called together. It is where they come to meet God and each other. It
is where corporate worship is exalted even above private worship. It is where
our name receives its fullest meaning: "congregational". It is where
the life of the whole people - not just individual believers - is seen to be the
meaning, and the hope, and the purpose of our Way.
Yet this very gathering in a Meeting House suggests that this building which
we love and into which our labor has been poured is not our home. It is no
permanent resting-place. It is only a meeting-place. A place where Christians
come, only to go out into the world where the real work lies. This is perhaps
why the old church buildings of New England had only a place for worship, with
no room for offices, parlors, kitchens, halls and the rest. The Congregational
place of worship was but a Meeting House and therefore to be used only on the
Sabbath at the hour of worship. The work was in the world.
There is a place for cathedrals. But for us the Meeting House is a place
built for a living congregation to meet a living Lord, and from there to go out
to serve Him. For us of the Congregational Way this is as stirring, and
exciting, and as beautiful as anything in life for the Christian.
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