Sanctuary?

[Paul B. Gallagher]

William Ryan wrote:

> Yet more nuances. Paul Gallagher suggests chancel as a translation and
> quotes a Webster dictionary definition. BUT the advisability of using
> this word would depend very much on the context of translation and the
> intended readership. Chancel in English has a dated, perhaps C of E
> ring to it, and is now more an architectural term that a liturgical
> one. The authoritative and non-denominational Oxford Dictionary of
> the Christian Church (1997) says of 'chancel' that originally it was
> applied to that part of  the church now called 'the sanctuary', and
> is now normally applied to the whole area of the main body of the
> church east of the nave and transepts (i.e. it works with older West
> European church architecture from Gothic onwards but is hard to apply
> to Russian cross-in-square or wooden church configurations). Under
> 'sanctuary' the same work says: 'sanctuary, Greek hieraticon or more
> commonly bema. The part of the church containing the altar ... in
> Byzantine churches it is enclosed by the iconostasis ...' .
> So sanctuary gets my vote.

Thanks. This is precisely the kind of information I was hoping for when
I offered the term as a candidate and said "I defer to those more
learned in the Eastern Rite."

--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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