Shaping the Assembly : Messenger Publications : 9781788126113 : 1788126114 : 25 May 2023 : Space is all around us ? and we constantly refer to it. He is taking my space! This place is homily! This room is very impersonal! We need more room! We need to de-clutter! I was lost in the vastness of the hall! I felt locked in and had to go outside!We also know that how space is arranged affects us: we want ?round table talks' and we do not want to be put in the back row. Churchill captured the importance of built space in a couplet: We shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us. 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.Strangely, we out do not think about this aspect of space when it comes to liturgy ? yet every religion (and every Christian denomination) has used buildings as part of their worship: from Newgrange to classical temples to churches build of steel, concrete and g