St Anselm’s is a lovely little chapel with a very simple altar and furnishings and lots of natural light. Even though I love the space, ever since we started worshiping there I’ve felt that something just wasn’t quite right with our physical setup.  Take a look at this picture and see if you agree:

Yes, chairs, chairs, chairs!  Maybe I’m just a bit on the claustrophobic side but I felt generally hemmed in by a liturgical fence of too many chairs and hymnal racks.  We were set up in a U-shaped configuration rather than traditional straight rows but it still seemed too stilted.

Here’s another shot facing the altar:

Still crowded, both in the “pews” and around the altar.

So, we decided to experiment:

• First, some of those chairs just had to go!  We moved about 15 chairs out.  Instant open space!
• The altar is massive and appears permanently fixed where it is.  The pulpit on the left of the altar and piano on the right, on the other hand, could be shifted.
• We moved the piano to the back corner and now have a flexible spot for singers and guest musicians to set up music stands and/or equipment.
• We moved the pulpit to the opposite end of the room, facing the altar.  Our priest typically does not use the pulpit to preach; however, the pulpit is still available for reading the Gospel or for visiting preachers.  We now have more room to gather at the altar for Eucharist.
• We moved out all of the connecting book racks.  With the chairs are not hooked together we had the flexibility to form curved rows in a semicircle from the altar to the pulpit.  At first it was TOO big a circle—too much space!  We brought the rows in just a bit and that seemed to fix that issue.

Here’s where we are so far.  See what you think:

There’s more to come (Makeover Pt 2?)  If you have any suggestions, let me know.  Thanks for reading!