Much of the sacramental worship of the Western church is predicated on the assumptions (formed mainly in the last fifty years but linked with the theology of the early church) that the Eucharist is best understood as a communal meal and that God's presence is therefore best apprehended in the gathered community. The theology of Eucharistic sacrifice has been increasingly marginalized. The architectural ideal expression of these assumptions is a centralized communal space, with the altar in the midst of the people. A rigid adherence to these principles has had a drastic architectural and...