This week s question comes from Angela who asks a great question about church furnishings. The architecture of churches is much more symbolic than most people would believe. Great basilicas were built as upside-down ships or arks with the ribs showing through. Indeed, the central room in the church is rightly called the nave, a Middle English word related to the navy. Some cathedrals were built in the shape of crosses and stained glass windows were added with the intent of providing picture stories for the people, most of whom were illiterate.
Today there are still vestiges of such symbolic architecture.
Many churches have seven windows on each side of the nave, numbers some consider holy. Churches with raised platforms in front often have three steps or three levels representing the Trinity. And so on. And then there s the pulpit. Before the church had pulpits there were scrolls.