The early church did not have separate areas for liturgical teaching and reading. Rather, the local bishop sat in a central place and his students (the congregation) gathered about him. Even today, the bishop's chair takes its name from the "cathedral" or teaching chair.

As Christian communities became more numerous within cities and towns, church buildings began to include raised platforms from which lessons were read and chants led. By the Fourth Century, city churches often had two platforms for these functions, one reserved for the Epistle, the other for the Gospel. Finally, in the Fourteenth Century, pulpits and lecterns as we know them became normative in cathedrals, universities, noble and royal chapels. Only in the Nineteenth Century did it seem that all churches should have the divided chancel in the "new" way.

Saint Nicholas' offers a return to earlier tradition on the basis of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and its high regard for Scripture. That is, Saint Nicholas' now has a single center for the Word that is equivalent to the dignity accorded the altar.