Altar Bookstand | Goldens Woods

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Church Altar Bookstands

While I made this bookstand for a church, it's style would serve well as a tabletop bookstand in any setting.

My pastor, a wonderful priest named Father Raymond McDaniel, was using a clear acrylic book stand on the altar for reading the liturgy of the Mass. While functional, it was not a very good looking piece. The altar should have something appealing yet not a distraction... a stand made of wood and this is what I have made for him. It was not a surprise, though.

Since I was going to do something nice, let's do it right and ask if there's any customizing he would like. Sure enough: rather than the book's bottom be right down on the altar as it is now, Father asked for it to be raised up about 4". Also he asked that the angle of the stand's face be raised up a few degrees. So it has been done.

When I was complete with this project, I had enough material left over to make an altar stand for our ACTS retreats Masses. That is displayed below the stand for the parish.

I used white oak, stained simply with 'Natural' color stain so as not to interfere with the wood burning. Then I applied a few coats of clear satin poly.

The edges of the frame are slightly chamfered, but not the edges of the slats. Look at the two photos I shot during construction. The two slats under which are the legs of the stand are full thickness of the frame while the other ten slats are only 2/3rd thick. The dado is 1/4" cut by dado blade in table saw. I simply use 5/8" long x 1/4" 'spacers' between the slats. This method is a whole lot easier to construct than drill cutting spacer holes, 26 in all, in the rails of the frame. It may not satisfy the purist woodworker but this worked out great.

Notice also how much wider the tray is 20+" versus the width of the stand legs 9+". This design of a smaller "footprint" allows Father to place the stand to the side of the altar, close to the edge and the book can actually be over the side. This minimizes the space it takes on the altar.

The image burned into each leg of the stand are the old brand "Come and See" and the new brand "SP" of the parish, St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church in Lewisville, TX. "Come and See" us some time.

For those unfamiliar with the phrase, in John's Gospel 1:46, to Nathaniel's question "Can anything good come from Nazareth?” , Philip responds "Come and see."

I used a mortise and tenon joint but rather than drilling separate holes for each of the stand's slats, I cut a 1/4" dado in the upper and lower rails, I then cut small 1/4" "nibbles" to be the space filler between the slats. Once the piece was finished, you wouldn't know the difference.

Below is the portable altar stand for ACTS. I made a box for it.

It is slightly smaller than the first creation, so it could be portable.