Directional Prayer Focus

I am at that stage in my spiritual life where I notice almost everything that fills a normal experience of Christian worship or teaching, and wonder where the practice or content first originated, and, more importantly, whether it is worthy keeping just for the sake of nostalgia. For instance, I have noticed for weeks now that when the pastor says the prayer of thanksgiving over the morning's offering, he instinctively turns towards the front of the church with the congregation to his back or mostly back. This is to indicate, in part, his solidarity with the congregation as they approach God with their offerings, but why the front of the church? And does it matter that his solidarity with us is broken by multiple steps and a rail?

The real issue for me, however, is the front of the church with its central altar (it really looks like an old Roman Catholic altar to me, it definitely is not a table), central golden cross sans Jesus, and prominent pulpit bible placed on a stand. Add some backdrop of old organ pipes from an organ no longer present, some curtains and a couple of candle and you have the closest this old Protestant Church can come to the holy of holies. Now it may be argued that God inhabits His word, or that the empty cross is the sign of our deliverance or even that 99% of the people are already facing this direction so it is a good place to turn to "face" the presence of God for this important prayer. But the reality is that God does not sit in the front of the church, sacred furnishings are no resting place for His presence, and our particular church faces to the northeast so there is not even a good historical precedent for the direction of our prayer. My thought was, how odd it is that we look to the front of the church to find the presence of God, when according to all that I read, God resides within the hearts of His congregation by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is in the pews that we need to seek the face of God for there it is most visible, no longer a lofty idea, but a gritty incarnation of divine spirit abiding in flesh. And that is a change of perspective that I welcome.