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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: and crowns are of a circular shape, and we decorate our house of prayer, i. e. the church, on feast days, with wreaths and garlands of flowers. A circle is significant of something without an end, i. e. eternity. It also denotes joy. CHAPTER III. THE TEMPLE AND ITS DIVISION IN PARTS. The Church, or, proper, the Temple, is divided into three parts: 1. The Sanctuary (for the Clergy); 2. The Nave (for the Faithful); 3. The Porch (for the Catechumens and the Penitents). The Sanctuary must be at the east side of the building. It is separated from the body of the auditorium by a screen or wall, called the Iconostasis. This is a Greek word, and signifies a place for pictures or images. There are three doorways in the Iconostasis, which are furnished with doors opening inwards, the central ones being double, and called the Royal Gates. The latter are not solid throughout, and behind them hangs a curtain, which is drawn and withdrawn as the ritual requires. In the middle of the Sanctuary stands the holy table (Altar), vested, first, with a linen covering, and over this with one of rich brocade. Behind the Altar there stands a candlestick with seven lights. Upon .the holy table is kept an ark or casket, often in the shape of a temple, and usually made of metal, which contains the Holy Sacrament, reserved for the Communion of the sick (and sometimes for the absent), or for the Liturgy of the Presancti- fied, which is sung in the days of Great Lent. At the Celebration of the Liturgy, a cloth containing Relics,called the Antirnins, is spread upon the Altar, and upon this are placed the sacred vessels with their coverings or veils. The Antimins are blessed only by the Bishop, and by him they are distributed among the churches. The holy Liturgy is offered over them in respect to t...

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