Station: [3] The Temple de Charenton

A congregation has come together for divine service. It's actually quite an ordinary scene. And yet a lot of what we see here has little in common with the usual images of church interiors. There's no cross hanging in this church, and the entire space is flooded with unusual white light. There's a complete absence of opulence or colour. Even the windows are clear glass. There are no paintings on the walls, and there's no altar. 
The large picture shows a detail from a 17th century watercolour. You're witnessing a service taking place in a church in France, the Temple of Charenton. Many Reformed church buildings inside France and beyond were modelled on the Temple of Charenton – until it was demolished by royal decree in 1685. 
According to Reformed teaching, a church building is not in itself a sacred place or the House of God. The focus is on the community of the faithful, on gathering for worship and on the sermon. 
This is how the reformer John Calvin explained the main idea behind Protestant worship in his "Institutes of the Christian Religion":
But there must be no ostentation and no striving for human glory, and there must be pure, true devotion that dwells in the secret of the heart. 
Altars, crosses, relics and pictures of all kinds were banned inside the church – in keeping with the prohibition of graven images in the Ten Commandments. Only the two tablets with those Ten Commandments were permitted to hang on the wall, by way of decoration and as the word of God. In the picture of the temple, they're right at the top, above the congregation.
From now on, the focus was on the pulpit, where the sermon was preached. Around it sat the congregation in pews arranged in a horseshoe shape. Calvin banned organ music from the Reformed service as well as the singing of polyphonic hymns that didn't originate in the Bible. On the other hand, the communal singing of biblical psalms played an important part in the services.

Foto: © DHG