“Watch Woodside Reach Up Higher! Come to the Steeple Topping.” is being proclaimed by Woodside Presbyterian Church as excitement is growing in preparation to raise a steeple on their new building on Saturday, June 6, 2009.The event is planned to begin at noon, and hot dogs, hamburgers and sundaes will be topped with all kinds of condiments as everyone feasts on the goodies and watches the steeple being planted on the top of their church.
Many churches in the United States have a steeple on top of their roofs. An article in Your Church Magazine, a publication of Christianity Today, from May/June 2001 tells us that the “spire” originated in the twelfth century. However, the steeples used on America’s churches descend from those designed by architect Sir Christopher Wren of Great Britain. He was commissioned by King Charles II to design and rebuild St Paul’s Cathedral and many other churches that were destroyed in 1666 after the Great Fire of London. His designs included steeples, because he wanted to direct the gaze of people upward toward God.
Most of the new settlements that were built in America had the Church as the center of their communities. The steeple on a church was meant to be the tallest structure in the town and was placed so that travelers and newcomers could see and be lead to it. Many of the steeples house bells for calling people to worship. Although present-day steeples are constructed in a variety of shapes and sizes with a multitude of materials, they still serve their traditional purpose of guiding people’s eye toward Heaven, the dwelling place of God.
