Worship Without Words: The Signs and Symbols of Our Faith
Patricia Klein has put together an immensely useful handbook for all  elements of Christian worship. Using drawings, definitions, and brief historical  explanations, she maps out the large landscape of liturgy with clarity and  brevity. Chapter 1, for example, moves from the most obvious starting point (the  church building itself, including explanations of the terms cathedral,  basilica, and oratory) through monastic architecture, the interior and  exterior spaces (buttress, cloister, apse, chancel) and then into church  furnishings (ambo--"a raised desk from which the Gospels or Epistles were read  or chanted") and liturgical furnishings (processional cross, alms basin).  Subsequent chapters explore the altar, the cross, the liturgical year,  liturgical worship, music, sacraments, vestments, as well as church dogma (the  Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed). A delightful book for browsing and  reference, it can get positively addictive for anyone with an interest in the  outer forms of the inner faith.--Doug Thorpe--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.