The Pulpit reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
(provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Pulpit

For people who check facts
Image:Pulpit.JPG
A late 18th century pulpit in a small Roman Catholic church
in Spielfeld, Styria, Austria

In a church, a pulpit (from Latin pulpitum "scaffold", "platform", "stage") is a small elevated platform where a member of the clergy stands in order to deliver a sermon.

From the pulpit is often used metaphorically for something which is said with official church authority.