Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Finding your way around a Byzantine Altar
First point:
First of all, to be technically correct, in the Byzantine tradition, what is called the "Altar" is what would be called the "Sanctuary" in the West, and what is called the Altar in the West is called the Holy Table in our tradition. That does do a bit of violence to the plain meaning of the term "Altar" in English, which denotes a thing and not a place or area. So for the sake of convenience I will use "Altar" and “Holy Table” interchangeably to mean that upon which the Holy Sacrifice is offered.
