Q: I recall an instance when, during a training session for Readers, the pastor from Poland sat in. During the training, I mentioned the phrase (from Vatican II, I believe) “the table of the Lord’s Word, and the table of the Lord’s Body”.

The Polish pastor chimed in and said that in Poland, the ambo is often referred to as the “ALTAR of the Word.” What are your thoughts on this? I know that my TLM friends do not like the two-altar idea, and I understand that, but the idea lends a special dignity to the proclamation of the Word of God. Is the two-altar idea something that’s best left unsaid?

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A: GIRM 57 and 355 call the ambo a table, but not an altar. The table metaphor works for both altar and ambo, but I think the altar metaphor does not. The altar is the place of sacrifice—not the ambo.