love for our lord: June 2010

The early church worshipped in whatever building was suitable and available: an existing temple, a hillside, river bank, or even somebody's home. The early church was dynamic and lively; the actual building design and architecture was unimportant. But like many other things in life, man's urge to enhance and improve things led to more elaborate, 'holy' structures.

Drawing on his knowledge and experience with Pagan worship, it would feel natural for a church building to have a sacred altar on which to place sacrifices. And even though teaching and believing that 'God is all around us', from the early days it was felt necessary and natural to have a central focal point to which everyone would turn and bow. For everyone to show reverence to this focal point would in itself, be a way for the congregation to pool and synergise their worship. The focal point would be to the East6, or elevated, believing that heaven was up there, somewhere.

The point is...(!)

(Strange that Church spires around the world point upwards. Is heaven really up there? And if so, where exactly? The point is, a church spire in the northern hemisphere points in the opposite direction to a church spire in the southern hemisphere. And a church spire on the equator just spins 360 degrees at 1,670 kilometres per hour8 with the earth's rotation every day.)

Of course it's symbolic, but the symbolism reflects the Pagan belief that heaven is physically up there where it's light. Once again we find Christians following the ancients by looking up at the Sun god16, yet they will tell you that heaven is in a completely different dimension and that the design of a church building is wholly incidental. Early church design was based on Pagan structures and that design, well-intentioned though spiritually baseless, remains today.