KROTOV'S DAILY

March 10, 2001, 23.25 PM, Moscow

Rakowski: lityrgical similarities of Western and Eastern parts of Christianity

Christopher Rakowski. The Arrangements of Western Medieval and Byzantine Churches Compared and their Relevance to Liturgy Today. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Styx/3121/western_medieval.html.

I've decided to make the digest of this article because it reminds about the common past of Christianity.

"The great tragedy in the West is that since at least the time of the Renaissance increasing liturgical minimalism (what I choose to call the " Low Mass mentality ") and the demise of the public Divine Office have completely obscured the nature of liturgy as a corporate act and duty. Liturgy is not meant merely to be attended out of a sense of obligation or even of piety but to be lived".

"In many of our medieval cathedrals the chancel (usually that limb of a cruciform church building which lies east of the crossing and transepts) is an enclosed and self-contained unit, often with its own set of (eastern) transepts, and completely closed off from the nave by a heavy stone quire-screen or pulpitum. In the Middle Ages the pulpitum would have been supplemented by another screen -the rood screen- one bay further to the west. ... It would have been equipped with two doors, one on either side of the Nave Altar, which in the Sarum rite, were used by the Deacon to pass around the Altar while censing it. Where the High Altar in the chancel was also given a reredos this too would have had two doors as one still sees today at Westminster Abbey and Winchester Cathedral. The pulpitum, on the other hand (often ten feet or more in thickness), would have possessed only a single entrance in the form of a vaulted passageway into the quire. This corresponded to the " Royal Doors " in an Orthodox church which lead from the narthex into the nave (as distinct from the " Holy Doors " of the Iconostasis)."

is only one remaining example of this screen in Britain - that in St David�s Cathedral, Wales. In other churches its original position is sometimes marked by the presbytery step at which, more recently, altar rails have often been introduced. It is this screen which would have corresponded to the Iconostasis which one still finds in Byzantine churches separating the sanctuary from the nave. Like the Iconostasis, the presbytery screen may have carried sacred images, which could well explain its disappearance at the time of the Reformation."

"The presbytery was divided into two large parts by a second step or set of steps - the presbytery step - a number of feet further to the east, and the presbytery screen (if there was one) was also positioned here. As we have already seen, the siting of a screen at this place is exactly analogous to that of the Iconostasis in an Orthodox church and many of the same arguments for the use of the Iconostasis can be applied to a screen placed in this position in a church of the Roman rite. The sanctuary with the High Altar is the most sacred part of the church where heaven and earth meet in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist".

"The space between the quire and presbytery steps formed a raised platform just as in an Orthodox church there is a raised space before the Iconostasis known as the solea. The steps of the solea usually have a semi-circular extension before the Holy Doors, known as the ambo, from which in Russian churches, the gospel is sung. In some medieval Uses the Gospel (together with the Epistle, Gradual and Alleluia) was sung from the platform on top of the schola cantorum or quire. It would seem appropriate, then, for the Gospel to be sung on this elevated portion of the presbytery in full view of all, and that an ambo or lectern be placed here on the Gospel side just as it is in a Greek church."

"In English cathedral churches the bishop�s episcopal stall was also placed in this area on the south side (the right when facing the Altar) - exactly the position it occupies in a Greek church facing the elevated Gospel ambo on the other side."

"Finally, in some of our medieval cathedrals the Bishop�s Throne, or Cathedra, was still situated in its ancient position behind the High Altar, facing westwards. This placing dates back to the very dawn of the Christian Era when the Bishop on his Throne dominated the assembly of the Faithful. It is not, as some commentators have assumed, associated with a versus populum position at Mass, nor necessarily with the practice in some churches of having the entire quire behind the Altar, but it does, of course, exactly correspond with the arrangement of every Orthodox church which is always equipped with a bishop�s throne behind the Altar and where the Divine Liturgy is never celebrated facing the people. The notable example in England is that of Norwich Cathedral where the Throne occupies a very elevated position in the centre of the apse immediately behind the High Altar. ... Also, the apse is often raised above the level of the Altar by steps, as in the Basilica of St Ambrose in Milan - in an Orthodox church it is actually known as the High Place."