The assembled body of Christ is a primary visual symbol. The way people are seated affects the ways they relate to each other in worship and has much to do with their experience of community. There are six different architectural settings for worship currently in use. Each setting is briefly described and illustrated below with comments on its relationship to worship renewal.
Configuration is the heart of the seating issue. Here again, we are guided in particular by Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, #68. The arrangement must support all liturgies (Sunday Eucharist as well as funerals and weddings but other liturgies as well). It must also support singing, provide for emergency egress, and may need to be as functional with dozens as with hundreds. Configurations are here put into six categories. Each has its own characteristics and personality. All of the diagrams below have an identical scale and seating capacity (approximately 780 people for 18-inch seat spacing and 670 people for 21-inch spacing).
1. Gothic Plans are normally long and narrow with transepts and often with columns. Formality and hierarchical order dominate, with the climax occurring far from most of the seating. This configuration, especially when the capacity is large, is simply not able to function in support of the vision of liturgy articulated by Vatican II and the following reforms. It may support strong participation through song but can do little to uphold a strong and ongoing sense of assembly action.
2. Processional is an efficient pattern in rectangular spaces. Its regimented order is common in our present spaces. Processionally oriented actions fare well here, but not communal actions. From the similarity to theaters and other settings, we tend to think of ourselves as an audience in this setting.
3. Antiphonal, reminiscent of monastic seating, uses the processional aisle as the center of liturgical action as well, allowing for a large, flexible area. With the action in the midst of the assembly, proximity and interaction are good, but the line of view may suffer with larger capacities; bending the pattern lessens this problem. This plan fits readily into many spaces and can handle large capacities.
4. Juxtaposed lacks a shared focus, which increases the challenge of executing effective liturgical movement and ministerial actions. The multiple orientations tend to fragment the gathered community.
5. Central evokes theater-in-the-round. Its geometry suggests a highly interactive, close-up, participatory worship process, while creating distinct seating “neighborhoods.” This plan, perhaps more than others, needs a great awareness of choreography and acoustics.
6. Radial is amphitheater shaped, usually with a flat floor. Chairs are more easily accommodated in radial layouts and provide greater flexibility for the size of the assembly and for seasonal variations. Radial seating supports processions and community interaction. Capacities above eight hundred introduce awkward “rear-guard” areas, which are better used only for occasional overflow seating.
Conclusions. Liturgical practices and goals should have the greatest weight in determining the approach to seating. If seasonally responsive arrangements are intended, the extent and purpose of such flexibility ought to be carefully defined and the various configurations well investigated. Flexibility requires more versatile sound and lighting systems, which increase design complexity and associated costs.
In renovation, an existing structure’s size and shape act as constraining “form givers” to the seating pattern; this will often result in a hybrid configuration. In fact, older Gothic and processional forms are often adapted very well to the antiphonal, radial, and other patterns. In new construction, the need to attach to an existing building and/or site limitations sometimes inhibit the seating solution. More often, the seating pattern should be a priority so that it can give form to the architecture of the building, not only shaping its floor plan but also influencing the three-dimensional form.