# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1861_S315
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Regulation for Evangelical Church Building. 315

chapel, or else in a chapel specially fitted out for the purpose beside the choir. Where baptisms are performed before the assembled congregation, its most suitable position is in front of the entrance to the chancel.

It may not be replaced by a portable table.

10. The pulpit may stand neither before, behind, nor above the altar, nor anywhere within the choir at all. Its proper position is where choir and nave meet, at a pillar of the chancel arch facing outward (toward the nave); in large multi-nave churches, at one of the more easterly pillars of the central nave. The height of the pulpit depends essentially on that of the galleries (13), and is in general to be kept as low as possible, so that the preacher may be visible both above and below the galleries.

11. The organ, at which the precentor together with the choir of singers must also have his place, finds its natural position opposite the altar, at the west end of the church, on a gallery above the main entrance — provided that the perspective view of nave and choir from it is not impaired by the gallery framework.

12. Where a confessional or a lectern (reading desk) is found, the former belongs in the choir (7); the latter either in front of the altar, on one of the steps leading up from the nave to the choir — but so placed that the congregation's view of the altar is not obstructed — or at a pillar of the chancel arch, so that it may be moved forward before the altar for the purpose of catechesis, Bible study, and the like.

13. Galleries, apart from the western one (11), must, where they are unavoidable, be so placed on the two long sides of the church that they do not disturb the unobstructed view of the church. Under no circumstances may they extend into the choir.

The width of these galleries, whose benches are to be arranged rising one behind the other, must not — unless the projection of transepts allows a greater width — exceed one-fifth of the whole width of the church; nor may their elevation above the floor of the church exceed one-third of its clear height.

Of several galleries one above another there should in any case be no question.

In planning a new building in which galleries must be provided, it is fitting, instead of long windows that would be interrupted by the gallery, to place higher windows above the gallery to light the church, and lower windows below the gallery to light the space nearest it that is shaded by the gallery.

14. The seats of the congregation (pews) should as far as possible be so arranged that from them both altar and pulpit can be seen at once throughout the whole service.

Adequate space is to be left free in front of the steps of the choir. Also, according to liturgical need, either a broad aisle should run through the middle of the nave's seating toward the main entrance, or, where no such need exists, two aisles of suitable width are to be laid out at the pil-