Sanctuary?

[Kenneth Brostrom]

A small footnote to this discussion and to Will Ryan's previous note
in order to suggest the confusion that surrounds these terms among
many Protestants in the US.  In my own Methodist congregation (which
certainly has not forgotten its English origins), located next door
to the University of Michigan, 'chancel' seems to have primarily a
liturgical meaning for most younger members (below age 50), since it
is used exclusively among them to identify the Chancel Choir (one of
five choirs).  I think a sense of physical location has essentially
been lost for most of them.  And 'nave' has been completely replaced
by sanctuary, the term that identifies for all church members the
entirety of the worship area, from the stain glass window behind the
altar to the narthex (also a term that would provoke head-scratching
among the majority, I think--I haven't heard it used spontaneously in
years).  This does nothing to advance this very interesting
conversation, I know, but it does suggest how fluid the meanings of
these terms have become in the West.

Ken Brostrom

>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.
>
>Will Ryan
>
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--
Kenneth Brostrom
Assoc. Prof. of Russian
Dept. of German and Slavic Studies
443 Manoogian Hall
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
Telephone: (313) 577-6238
FAX (313) 577-3266
E-mail: kenneth.brostrom at wayne.edu

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