Original Altar - Saint Paul's Lutheran Church in North Hollywood - Photo by Gerald Fecht for the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley 2008This beautiful white altar is now on the right side of Saint Paul's First Lutheran Church.
The actual altar is the table at the center of the photograph. The mensa or table represents the table at which Jesus sat during his Last Supper (His last Seder meal with his apostles). The altar linens are in origin, the table cloth and napkins associated with the Passover Dinner held on the Thursday before Good Friday, when Jesus was killed.
The higher part of the structure was a western European reversal of the icon screen that would have blocked the altar table from the view of early congregations. On the backdrop are symbols common to all branches of Apostolic Christianity. Just above the altar table is a structure called in ancient times, the Ark. Lutherans have moved the scriptures on to the center of the table, symbolizing a key element in their Reformation, the printing of the Bible in the language of the people.
In front of the altar are two candle holders that represent the fulfillment of the laws of the ancient Hebrews in the teachings of Jesus.
4 comments:
Our Museum Board Member Shel Weisbach comments:
Truly interesting - if I were
to guess, without having any information on the altar's bkgd I would
have thought it was from a small town, perhaps rural, congregation;
created by one or more members of the church who had had carpentry
training. But, a hundred years ago NoHo was a rural community! The
craftsmanship actually reminds me of older San Joaquin Valley churches.
The Lutheran Community may very well had a master carpenter among them in North Hollywood when this altar was built. German-Americans often came form wood-working backgrounds, as did the other northern Europeans.
This altar was built sometime in the 1930s, most likely 1933, by my Great Great Uncle Herman Marzolf, one of the founding members of the church, and my Great Uncle Enoch Berg. Both were furniture makers for the studios. It was built for the Hauser Chapel, the first church for the congregation. The altar was relocated to the chapel adjacent to the church that was built in 1954.
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