chancel

English

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Chancel

Wikipedia

From Old French.

chancel (plural chancels)

The space around the altar in a church, often enclosed, for use by the clergy and the choir. In medieval cathedrals the chancel was usually enclosed or blocked off from the nave by an altar screen.
- 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, The Dust of Conflict^[1]:
  Hester Earle and Violet Wayne were moving about the aisle with bundles of wheat-ears and streamers of ivy, for the harvest thanksgiving was shortly to be celebrated, while the vicar stood waiting for their directions on the chancel steps with a great handful of crimson gladioli.