Go into any "traditional" church and you will find a raised platform, boxed in, made of stone or wood. It will typically (but not always!) be on your left side, as you face the front of the church. It may be high up, with elaborate carving. It may be near the front of the nave, or it may be more central. It may or may not be used during church services.
Yes, it's the pulpit, where the preacher stands to share God's message. Its form and position help to emphasize the importance and dignity of the sermon. In past times, before amplifiers and loudspeakers, it also made sure that the message could be better heard.
Some people date the idea of a pulpit back to the days of King Solomon, who "made a bronze platform...three cubits high" where he "knelt upon his knees in the presence of all and prayed" (2 Chr 6:13). But early Christians, when they met, had no such thing as a pulpit. Instead, when churches became grander, they had a raised platform between the choir (the "religious" part) and the nave (the "public" part). From here the scriptures were read during services.
It was called an ambo, a Greek word meaning a hill. This recalled the Sermon on the Mount, and recalled Isaiah's command: "Get up to a high mountain, and say to the cities of Judah, `Behold your God'" (Is 40:9). For convenience, churches often had two of these, one on the right side as one faced the front, from which the Old Testament reading or the Epistle was read, the other for the Gospel reading. This was between about 500 and 1200 AD.
At this time, sermons were rare. Scripture was left to speak for itself. If a bishop was present, he would explain and expand on the chosen readings, but would often do this from his cathedra, his special seat. A bishop who really wanted to get his message across might move his seat to the ambo, in order to be heard better.
Later, around the twelfth century, preaching became more widespread, partly because of the monastic movement, which led to an increased level of evangelization. The ambo, for the readings, gave way to the pulpit, for the sermon, and was pushed forward into the nave, the body of the church, to allow the preacher to be heard better. It remained on the north side of the church, the Gospel side, for it was the Gospel that was being proclaimed from it. (Occasionally, it might even be outside the church, or it might be moveable, for religious ceremonies were not always the staid mid-morning affairs we think of as "traditional" services.)
With the Reformation came a much greater stress on preaching, and majestic and ornate pulpits were built. This gave form to the Reformers' idea of the importance of preaching the word. But the older tradition still lived on - in Geneva you can see Calvin's chair from which he preached, and the French and German words for pulpit, chaire and Predigtstuhl, remind us of its origins (just as Kanzel, the chanting place, reminds us that the scriptures and sermon might be proclaimed from the gallery where the choir met the nave).
What remains of all this at St Ursula's? We have a lectern - a reading-stand - in the form of an eagle. (The eagle is the symbol of St John the Evangelist and recalls the word of God being carried on eagle's wings across the world. An eagle with a serpent in its talons was also an early symbol of Christ's victory over sin). And we have a pulpit from where God's message is shared. Its height allows the preacher to be seen and heard more easily, and a convenient shelf allows space for books and notes - and even marmots! Some of us may lament that there is no sandglass for us to check whether the sermon runs for the two hours that were expected in former days. Luckily, though, the preacher can see the clock above the entrance door!
HD