Shaping the Assembly: How our buildings form us in worship.

”˜richly insightful, full of interest and new ideas and some insights into the past. Nothing will replace the real enrichment of mind and spirit that will come from reading it.' The Irish Catholic

Shaping the Assembly: How our buildings form us in worship is about how our built space is arranged affects us: "He's invading my space!"; “This room is very homely”; And in every society buildings have been used to project power and authority, to regulate society, and to project an image of how that group sees itself. This is what Shaping the Assembly: How our buildings form us in worship is about.

Every religion has used buildings as part of their worship: from Newgrange to classical temples to churches built of steel, concrete and glass. And it was this concern of the Second Vatican Council that led to the changes in the arrangements in Catholic Churches in the 1960s and 70s.

Shaping the Assembly: How our buildings form us in worship brings together nineteen Christians ”“ liturgists, pastors, architects, artists ”“ from several churches and from around the world who all address the question of how space affects us in worship.

The topics covered include the role of light in a religious building, the need for space to accommodate liturgical dance, the varying needs of spaces for different liturgies, accounts of how communities have become creative with space, and about how the liturgical renewal begun in Vatican II should continue today.

Thomas O'Loughlin is professor emeritus of historical theology in the University of Nottingham. He has written on this history and theology of worship and currently teaches for the Mirfield Liturgical Institute.