Which was does your altar face at Mass?

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Just curious as to how many face east still. We came up with about 75% of the parishes we’ve been to face east, and at least 15% more face west, and the rest have been south.

By facing, the direction the priest faces when saying Mass; the opposite direction from which you face. 🙂
 
I put down ‘West’ but it really depends.

Our parish offers both the OF and EF Masses. They are offered off of the same altar.

When our pastor offers the EF Mass, he is facing East, when he offers the OF Mass, he is facing West

The faithful look to the East.
 
I wonder why the newer churches went away from this tradition.
 
Does it, or did it matter what direction the altar faces? And if so, why did it matter? I am unfamiliar with that whole concept.
Thanks!
Kris
 
ccmcmg said:
By facing, the direction the priest faces when saying Mass; the opposite direction from which you face. 🙂
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So I face east and the priest faces west. Hope I did right by answering with “west,” then! 🙂
 
I assume you are asking which direction the priest faces rather than which direction the altar faces. I answered West, as in the opposite of liturgical East. I don’t know that there really is a liturgical concept of liturgical NE or SW. :confused:
 
In Manhattan, NYC the direction in which the Altar faces depends upon where the church is located.
Ijn Manhattan, all Streets run East and West; Avenues run North and South.
Thus, if the church is on the uptown side of the street, the Altar and Tabernacle will be on the Northern side of the Church and the priest will face South when saying the OF of the Mass. If the church is on the downtown side of the street, then the Altar and Tabernacle will be on the Southern side of the Church. If the church is on the East side of an Avenue, as is St. Patrick’s Cathedral, then the Altar and Tabernacle are on the East side of the Cathedral. If the Church is located on the West side of an Avenue, such as is the Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, then the Altar is on the West side of the building.
Since the street layout is different in the other foru boroughs of NYC, Church Altars can and do face in all directions depending on how the Church building is situated.
 
The altar doesn’t face anything.

In my parish, the congregation faces north, and the priest has the option to face either north or south. I selected “north” for the poll since the church was built with the intention that the priest and people both face the tabernacle together.
 
Although the priest offers Mass in the OF only, I answered the question from the point of view from when the church was built in the late 1800s. That means that the altar faces what should be north but is actually northwest.
To complicate matters further our town was surveyed in such a way that our “north” is closer to west-north-west.
I could explain further (I worked for surveyors for a long time) but I won’t.
 
East.

Haha, thank God I go to a Byzantine Parish.

But it used to face north before we renovated the church (that was before I joined, though).

My old Roman parish faces north. The Latin Mass community uses two different parishes - one faces south, and one faces east. The really old church building downtown faces north - it was built in 1793.
 
I couldn’t choose any of the answers. (I suppose I could choose more than one if the poll allows it.)

Our Church is roughly round with the roughly square altar in the center so the priest can be facing either north, south, east, or west depending on how the altar is set up that particular day. And the priests orientation to the people will depend on where they are seated and where the priest is facing.
 
michaelmas said:
I wonder why the newer churches went away from this tradition.
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This is a fascinating read that really touches on this question actually. I found it just this weekend.
As attractive as that thesis is, its one big drawback is that it is largely untrue. Bad church architecture is not primarily the result of bad ideas about the liturgy—however much those abound. No, bad church architecture in America is the result, quite simply, of America having bad ideas about architecture…
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sacredarchitecture.org/articles/dont_blame_vatican_ii/
 
most of the Parishes I have been a member of point East or South.
 
Our church (built late 40s) is built east-west axis (main doors and vestibule on the east side, altar on the west side). Interestingly enough, when the priest says Mass ad populum, he is facing east.

He recently told us that, after our church is renovated (and de-wreckovated) in the fall, he is going to start saying Mass facing “liturgical east” like “it should be.” Ironically, ad orientem in our church is actually facing west.
 
Just a note to the OP; we face the same direction as the priest in our church (EF). We have to share a church that celebrates the OF but we are fortunate that the Altar faces east.
 
Our church has seating “in the round” with the altar in the center. The altar has no front or back. The priest often walks around it during the homily. I think for the canon of the Mass, he faces West. This is probably incidental.
 
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