The altar rail (also known as a communion rail or chancel rail) is a low barrier, sometimes ornate and usually made of stone, wood or metal in some combination, delimiting the chancel or the sanctuary and altar in a church,[1][2] from the nave and other parts that contain the congregation. Often a gate, or just a gap, at the centre divides the line into two parts. Rails are a very common, but not inevitable, feature of Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist churches. They are usually about two feet 6 inches high, with a padded step at the bottom, and designed so that the wider top of the rail can support the forearms or elbows of a kneeling person.
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary, at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. It is generally the area used by the clergy and choir during worship, while the congregation is in the nave. Direct access may be provided by a priest's door, usually on the south side of the church. This is one definition, sometimes called the "strict" one; in practice in churches where the eastern end contains other elements such as an ambulatory and side chapels, these are also often counted as part of the chancel, especially when discussing architecture. In smaller churches, where the altar is backed by the outside east wall and there is no distinct choir, the chancel and sanctuary may be the same area. In churches with a retroquire area behind the altar, this may only be included in the broader definition of chancel.
The nave is the central part of a church, stretching from the main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type building, the strict definition of the term 'nave' is restricted to the central aisle. In a broader, more colloquial sense, the nave includes all areas available for the lay worshippers, including the side-aisles and transepts. Either way, the nave is distinct from the area reserved for the choir and clergy.
The altar rail is a modest substitute for earlier barriers demarcating the chancel, the area containing the altar, which was reserved (with greatly varying degrees of strictness) for officiating clergy (including boys as choristers and altar servers). Although it only emerged after the Protestant Reformation, it has been found convenient by both Roman Catholic and more traditional Protestant churches (such as the Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches), although it is disliked by many Reformed and nondenominational churches.
History
English 17th-century wooden rails at Saint John's Church
Barriers of various kinds often mark off as especially sacred the area of a church close to the altar, which is largely reserved for ordained clergy. The templon was typical for the Late Antique period. In the Armenian Apostolic Church, curtains are still drawn to cut off that area during the holiest moments of the liturgy. In Eastern Orthodox and related rites, this evolved into a solid, icon-clad screen, called the iconostasis, that has three doorways which usually have doors and curtains that can be closed or drawn aside at various times.
A templon is a feature of Byzantine churches consisting of a barrier separating the nave from the sacraments at the altar.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the national church of the Armenian people. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian communities. The Kingdom of Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion under the rule of King Tiridates in the early 4th century. The church originated in the missions of Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus in the 1st century, according to tradition.
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic, and certain Eastern Catholic churches. The most common subjects include Christ, Mary, saints and angels. Though especially associated with "portrait" style images concentrating on one or two main figures, the term also covers most religious images in a variety of artistic media produced by Eastern Christianity, including narrative scenes.
Following the exposition of the doctrine of transubstantiation at the fourth Lateran Council of 1215, clergy were required to ensure that the blessed sacrament was to be kept protected from irreverent access or abuse; and accordingly the area of the church used by the lay congregation was to be screened off from that used by the clergy. Apart from the congregation, pet dogs were often taken to church, and a dog-proof barrier was needed (more recent rails often fail in this). Barriers demarcating the chancel, such as the rood screen, became increasing elaborate, but were largely swept away after both the Protestant Reformation and then the Counter-Reformation prioritized the congregation having a good view of what was happening in the chancel. Now the low communion rail is generally the only barrier; despite being essentially a Counter-Reformation invention, this has proved useful and accepted in the Protestant churches that dispense communion. However the screen enjoyed a small revival in the 19th century, after the passionate urgings of Augustus Pugin, who wrote A Treatise on Chancel Screens and Rood Lofts,[3] and others.
Transubstantiation is, according to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the change of substance or essence by which the bread and wine offered in the sacrifice of the sacrament of the Eucharist during the Mass, become, in reality, the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
The Eucharist is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper; giving his disciples bread and wine during the Passover meal, Jesus commanded his followers to "do this in memory of me" while referring to the bread as "my body" and the cup of wine as "the new covenant in my blood". Through the Eucharistic celebration Christians remember both Christ's sacrifice of himself on the cross and his commission of the apostles at the Last Supper.
The rood screen is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or wrought iron. The rood screen would originally have been surmounted by a rood loft carrying the Great Rood, a sculptural representation of the Crucifixion. In English, Scots, and Welsh cathedral, monastic, and collegiate churches, there were commonly two transverse screens, with a rood screen or rood beam located one bay west of the pulpitum screen, but this double arrangement nowhere survives complete, and accordingly the preserved pulpitum in such churches is sometimes referred to as a rood screen. At Wells Cathedral the medieval arrangement was restored in the 20th century, with the medieval strainer arch supporting a rood, placed in front of the pulpitum and organ.
There were medieval structures like communion rails, but the various types of screen were much more common. A church in Hasle, Bornholm claims to have "a rare 15th-century altar rail";[4] perhaps, like other examples, this is in fact a sawn-off medieval screen. The origin of the modern form has been described by one historian as "nebulous",[5] but it probably emerged from Italy in the 16th century, though the German Lutherans and the Church of England were not far behind in adopting it, perhaps without being aware of the Italian versions. In England the rail became one of the focuses of tussles between the High Church and Low Church factions, and in many churches they were added, removed and re-added at different times.
Hasle is a town and a former municipality on the west coast of the Baltic island of Bornholm, Denmark. Its population is 1,638 The former municipality covered an area of 115 km2 (44 sq mi), and had a total population of 6,382. It is now included in the municipality of Bornholm. With its pleasant setting, smokehouses, galleries and harbour, the town attracts many tourists.
The Church of England is the established church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor. The Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the third century, and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury.
Archbishop Laud was a strong supporter of rails, but the common story that he introduced them to England is incorrect; he was trying to prevent Puritan clergy from continuing to remove them, and his pressure in favour of rails was bound up with his very controversial "altar policy", reasserting the placement of the altar in its medieval position.[6]Matthew Wren, Laudian Bishop of Ely, was imprisoned during the whole of the English Commonwealth and had to defend himself against charges of enforcing altar rails, which he pointed out had been found in many English churches "time out of mind".[7] In both Catholic churches and Anglican ones following Laudian instructions, the congregation was now asked to come up to the rails and receive communion kneeling at them, replacing a variety of earlier habits. This too was controversial in England, and the Laudian party did not push too hard for this in many dioceses.[8]
Matthew Wren was an influential English clergyman, bishop and scholar.
The Bishop of Ely is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire, together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its episcopal see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity. The current bishop is Stephen Conway, who signs +Stephen Elien:. The diocesan bishops resided at the Bishop's Palace, Ely until 1941; they now reside in Bishop's House, the former cathedral deanery. Conway became Bishop of Ely in 2010, translated from the Diocese of Salisbury where he was Bishop suffragan of Ramsbury.
In many of the parishes of the Lutheran Churches and the Methodist Churches the use of altar rails have remained more common.[9] There is typically no specific regulation concerning their presence or use, although they remain a common feature even in newly constructed churches. Their continued popularity results from a preference on the part of many to assume a posture of kneeling to receive the Eucharist. For those sanctuaries without an altar rail, in some cases a portable rail with attached kneeler is used for those who wish to kneel to receive the Eucharist.
Catholic Church
Altar rails at the Church of St. Nicholas in Compton, Surrey.
Newly constructed Catholic churches rarely have altar rails, which were once general in parish churches, those of the late nineteenth century being particularly decorative. Communicants receiving the Eucharist knelt at the railings to be given communion by a priest; today they typically stand. After the Second Vatican Council, many parishes removed their altar rails, and an unfounded idea arose that the Council or the Holy See had ordered the change.[10] Previously, only altar servers were allowed to join the clergy within the sanctuary during the celebration of the liturgy. Now, lay readers of Scripture and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion enter the sanctuary during Mass.
A set of altar rails in Saint Teresa's Carmelite Church, Dublin
Some Catholics and many architects and planners criticised some removals, often on liturgical, historical and æsthetic grounds. While in some states, the Roman Catholic Church has adopted a minimalist approach towards the removal of altar rails, in other countries, for example in Ireland, almost every re-ordering eliminated altar rails. Many Catholics resisted the changes: some took legal action to try to prevent the removal of altar rails and of other traditional features in pre-Vatican II sanctuaries. Not all liberal Catholics supported the changes to sanctuaries; some disputed the belief that the altar rails were a barrier, claiming that many churches were able to allow full participation by the laity in the revised Order of the Mass without removing altar rails.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal states explicitly that the sanctuary "should be appropriately marked off from the body of the church either by its being somewhat elevated or by a particular structure and ornamentation".[11]
While a diocesan bishop is competent to decide on concrete questions concerning the setting up or removal of altar rails in a church in the diocese committed to his pastoral care, he is required prudently to make that decision in accordance with the norms of law, taking into account the wishes of the faithful. Any decision taken by the bishop, however, may be appealed by hierarchical recourse to the competent instance of the Holy See which, in this case, is the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Lutheran Church
Lutheran chancel rails in Copenhagen, DenmarkAnglican chancel rails in Moggerhanger, England
Within Lutheranism, an altar rail is the common place for a pastor to hear a confession,[12] which generally is required to receive the Eucharist for the first time.[13] A common Lutheran practice from Scandinavia is to have an altar rail in the shape of a semicircle, with a similar stone half continuing outside against the sanctuary's outer wall in the church graveyard. The two halves symbolise the connection between the current congregation with those gone before.
Methodist Church
In many Methodist churches, communicants receive Holy Communion at the chancel rails, devoutly kneeling.[14] The rite of confirmation,[15] as well as the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday takes place at the chancel rail in many Methodist parishes.[16] The chancel rail also serves as the place where many individuals go, during the part of the Methodist liturgy called the Altar Call or An Invitation to Christian Discipleship, to experience the New Birth and some people who have already had the New Birth go to the chancel rails to receive entire sanctification,[17] while others go there repent of their sins, as well as pray;[14] during this time a Methodist clergyperson attends to each of the individuals at the chancel rail, offering spiritual counsel.[18]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Altar rails.
↑ "The Key Furnishings in the Chancel". United Methodist Church. Retrieved 2010-03-27. Also, there is usually a rail around, or within, the chancel where persons can kneel for prayer, commitment to Christ, or Holy Communion. This rail can be called the Communion rail or the altar rail.
1 2 White, Charles Edward (2 September 2008). The Beauty of Holiness: Phoebe Palmer as Theologian, Revivalist, Feminist and Humanitarian. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p.256. ISBN9781556358012.
↑ "Confirmation"(PDF). Trinity-Sarasaota United Methodist Church. 27 October 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2017. Candidates and parent(s)/sponsor(s) come as name is called and stand at the altar rail.
↑ Kimbrough, S.T. (2007). Orthodox and Wesleyan Ecclesiology. St Vladimir's Seminary Press. p.221.
↑ Traces of Old Methodism. The Primitive Methodist. 1869. p.737.
Cox, J. Charles, English Church Fittings, Furniture and Accessories, 2008 reprint, Jeremy Mills Publishing, ISBN1905217935, 9781905217939, google books
Spurr, John, The Post-Reformation: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain, 1603-1714, 2014 reprint, Routledge, ISBN1317882628, 9781317882626, google books
External links
Altar Rail - Article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
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