Presider's Chair
The priest's chair expresses his ministry of presiding over the gathering and directing its prayer. It should avoid the appearance of a throne.
Key points
- The chair identifies service to the assembly in Christ's name.
- Look for: A chair facing the congregation.
- An illustrative Roman Catholic parish in the Latin rite, assembled for study rather than surveyed from a single building. Plans, devotional furnishings, music, and the locations of the font and tabernacle vary; Eastern Catholic churches have other traditions. Sizes, materials, and spacing are illustrative, and displayed vessels represent different moments of worship.
- A rebuilt church with courts, seats, and an altar barrier (Historical connection): Eusebius's dedication address describes an outer enclosure, a colonnaded court with fountains, entrances admitting light, seats for those presiding, and an altar enclosed by carved wooden lattice-work. He reads the rebuilt church through biblical restoration imagery, including Haggai's promise of a greater latter glory.
- This is a celebratory description of one church, not a measured archaeological plan. Its altar barrier is not evidence for a fully developed modern iconostasis. Eusebius's application of Haggai is a Christian interpretation of a passage originally addressing the restored Jerusalem Temple.
- A church order arranges readers, ministers, and people (Historical connection): This church order prescribes a long, east-oriented building, a bishop's seat with presbyters, deacons attending the assembly, a reader in a raised place, psalm responses, and standing for the Gospel. Its arrangement links proclamation, oversight, and the congregation's participation.
- Despite its title and apostolic speaking voices, this is a fourth-century pseudonymous compilation, not an eyewitness architectural instruction written by the apostles or Clement of Rome. Its instructions, including social seating divisions, describe a prescriptive ideal rather than universal practice.
Scripture
- Haggai 2:6-9 — A rebuilt church with courts, seats, and an altar barrier: Eusebius's dedication address describes an outer enclosure, a colonnaded court with fountains, entrances admitting light, seats for those presiding, and an altar enclosed by carved wooden lattice-work. He reads the rebuilt church through biblical restoration imagery, including Haggai's promise of a greater latter glory.
- Deuteronomy 27:9-10 — A church order arranges readers, ministers, and people: This church order prescribes a long, east-oriented building, a bishop's seat with presbyters, deacons attending the assembly, a reader in a raised place, psalm responses, and standing for the Gospel. Its arrangement links proclamation, oversight, and the congregation's participation.
- 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 — A church order arranges readers, ministers, and people: This church order prescribes a long, east-oriented building, a bishop's seat with presbyters, deacons attending the assembly, a reader in a raised place, psalm responses, and standing for the Gospel. Its arrangement links proclamation, oversight, and the congregation's participation.
Sources and further reading
- 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 - World English Bible
- Deuteronomy 27:9-10 - World English Bible
- Haggai 2:6-9 - World English Bible
- Eusebius - Church History X.4.37-45: the church at Tyre
- USCCB — GIRM: Arrangement of Churches (nos. 288–318)
- Catholic Encyclopedia - Apostolic Constitutions: date and pseudonymous authorship
- Apostolic Constitutions II.57 - arranging the assembly