With its new building under construction in Hadley,

Massachusetts, Wesley United Methodist Church needed an

altar that would blend with the open modern architecture of

the new sanctuary.  In November 2005 I met with Pastor Lyle

Seger and offered to fabricate the altar, pulpit, and font.  Lyle

and I met in January 2006 with Building Committee chair

Cyndi Arbour and architect Kevin Chrobak to discuss ideas for

design, materials, and size.  The altar was to be 8 ft x 3 ft x 3

ft (5.3  cubits x 2 cubits x 2 cubits).  I decided to fabricate the

altar in cherry with birch panels and made detailed design

drawings for the altar, pulpit and font.  These were approved

by the Building Committee, and fabrication began in late

February 2006.  Jim Harvey helped find a source of rough-

sawn cherry at a supplier in Enfield, Connecticut, select good

boards, and transport those boards to my shop in Pelham. 

Jim also made numerous useful suggestions for fabrication.

This website has six pages, mostly documenting the

construction of the altar, its journey to summer storage then

to reassembly on the chancel at the Wesley's new church, and

to its first use in a service on September 10, 2006.  This also

includes a page on Biblical altars, both Old and New

Testament.

A special word of thanks to Jim Harvey, Cyndi Arbour, Lyle

Seger, Kevin Chroback, Terry Tarr, Lee Hines, Rich Blatchly

and Brad Crenshaw for their generous help in this project.  I

also thank Lyle McGeoch for his warm wonderful photographs

of the September 10 first service. 

Keith Carver    September 23, 2006