“We Shape Our Buildings; Thereafter They Shape Us.”
Spaces shape people. That is basic truth that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill summarized in his speech on October 28, 1943, when he said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” The chamber of the House of Commons had been destroyed by German bombs in 1941. Churchill wanted it rebuilt exactly as before.
Its form was distinctive and quite unlike those built for legislatures in the United States and elsewhere. The arrangement was derived from the monastic choir stalls in which Parliament originally met. Where monks had once sung alternate verses of the psalms between the cantorial and decanal sides, members of Parliament forming the government faced the opposition. Churchill argued that if the space was not restored as they had been, the governmental system would not survive.
Often church leaders and worshipers have agreed with Churchill and insisted that the arrangement of spaces for worship was very important. In the sixteenth century, Protestant and Catholic reformers shaped new spaces to shape worship according to their convictions. Others sought to maintain the old spaces and old ways.
“Space matters.” “The space always wins.” These and other aphorisms expouse the importance of the environment space for Christian worship.
This post is part of “Spaces for Worship: A Birmingham-Based Introduction,” a section of Magic City Religion, written by the editor, published in 2024, and funded by Samford University’s Center for Worship and the Arts.
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