Saturday, June 20, 2020 –
Today we are going to discuss the basic layout of a cruciform church. And by basic, I mean the most bare bones terms, starting with “direction.” Yes, I mean: North, South, East, and West.
While many churches built today do not actually face East, traditionally Churches were built that way. You may or may not remember back in our Q&As about Mass a term called “Liturgical East.” This goes hand in hand with “directional East.” There is a long-standing tradition rooted in Scripture that tells us Christ will come again…from the East.
“For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west: so shall the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:27, Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)
So, back in the day, Churches were built facing East. Of course, they meant the altar faced East (not the front door!) because remember that back in the day when the Traditional Latin Mass was still the Ordinary Form of the Mass, Priests faced WITH their congregation towards the Lord!
Facing a whole Church East was a lot easier way back when because Churches were usually the first thing built in a new town, and everything just sort of was oriented and built around your spiritual home (AKA Church). Nowadays, Churches are plopped down wherever we need them, and land use doesn’t always allow for a traditional Eastward facing Church. However, we can and still should use the traditional directional terms in order to orient ourselves inside a Church.
Funny side note: our Church ended up facing mostly North-ish. When it was time to design and purchase the stained glass windows I begged Mr. Flusche and our Priest to let me have the “East” transept windows because of the Matthew 24:27 quote. I was determined to traddy-up the building! LOL! Okay, so not terribly funny, but #TrueStory!
Back to our directional terms…
So “East” is the part of the cruciform that contains the altar. It **used** to face actual East, but now is more of a “loosely understood idea of Liturgical East.”
So then what is West? West is the other end, or the entrance to the Church (AKA the front door).
Okay, we have East and West, but what about North and South? This is where we have to start adding in more terms, but do not worry! These “new” terms are ones you have seen before, in our discussions of the Mass: Gospel and Epistle. See what I did there? It all ties in together!
Going back to the Traditional Latin Mass, we recall that the big red book—ahem, the Missal—moves from one side of the altar to the other. It starts out on the Epistle side because that is where the Priest reads the Epistle as well as the introductory and concluding prayers.
Since our traditional Church layout mirrors cardinal directions, we can see that the Epistle side is the same as the “South” side. So, when looking at a cruciform church layout, the transept (or arm of the Cross) that is at the “bottom” is the South Transept. It is also sometimes called the Epistle Transept.
That only leaves North. In the TLM, the Missal moves to the Gospel side. This is where the Priest reads the Gospel as well as the prayers for the Consecration of the Blessed Sacrament. This is the same side as the “North” side. When looking at our little cruciform church, the transept (or arm of the Cross) that is at the “top” is the North Transept. It is sometimes called the Gospel Transept.
Again, Churches used to be built facing East, so a cruciform church was basically a little compass rose.
Now with roundish Churches, you do not have a typical and tidy compass layout, but Liturgical East is still Liturgical East regardless of the shape. So, where the altar and (hopefully) the Tabernacle (place we keep the Blessed Sacrament), there is “East.”
There are only two more terms I want to cover today: the Crossing and the Nave. These are super easy terms and will help us get a better footing for when we go deeper into the layout of a Church.
The Crossing is literally where the transepts (arms of the Church) CROSS the body of the Church. For a Church in the round, you are not going to have a crossing. You sometimes have what I like to call “wagon wheel spokes,” but there is not a crossing.
The Nave is the main body of the Church where the people, the congregation, sit. For a Church in the round, this is the same. Where people put their butts in pews is where we call the nave.
Confused? Good news! I made a basic layout image to show where each thing is located (see below).
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mother, have mercy on us!
