Church facing East

[Chris_in_Mich]

I’ve taken many self guided tours lately of some of the older Churches in my area, I was always told that a church would normaly be built so that the people (and in those days Priest’s) would be facing East, however I’ve been to 30+ churches over the last few months and have not noticed this being any kind of a majority, in fact the direction the church faces seems random, can anyone advise?

 

[prodromos]

I can’t speak for others, but from what I have seen, all Orthodox churches are built facing East, though in the USA there are many mission churches which hold services in existing buildings (such as an old Anglican church) which may not face East.

There is an interesting church in Thessaloniki, St George’s, built next to the Rotunda. The shape and size of the location was such that the church building could not be built East-West, so instead of the narthex being at the West end of the church, it is actually at the South-East. When you go into the church from the narthex, you enter from the right side of the iconostasis (which is towards the East of course ). Internally, the church is wider than its length.

John.

 

[Deacon_Ed]

The tradition (note the lower case “t”) was to build churches so that the people faced east. This is a tradition that is maintained in the Byzantine churches (both Catholic and Orthodox) today. However, if a church was purchased that did not face east, the area where the altar/holy table is was simply labeled “liturgical east.”

This tradition in the West was dropped simply because it was not always possible to build a church facing east. This was due to either the layout of the property or, in some cases, the local restrictions.

Deacon Ed

 

[mercygate]

Architecturally, whatever direction the building may face, we speak of the altar end as “East” and the main entry end as “west.” So in Westminster Abbey, the Poets’ Corner is in the “south transept” – and would be even if the building were not oriented to the east.

 

[puzzleannie]

I have heard this but thinking back to all the Catholic parishes I have belonged to since the 50s, I can’t think of one oriented so that the people face east. Isn’t there a hymn that begins “People, look East” can’t remember if it is for Easter or Christmas.
St Mary’s, priest and people faced west until 1965 when altar turned around
Guardian Angels, west
St Jerome south
Our Lady Queen of Peace, north, I think
St. Margaret of Hungary, north
St. Andrews, northwest I think, (this was an oddly shaped Church in Rochester Hills Mich supposedly shaped like an Ark, the liturgical relevance of which escapes me)
OLPH west
St Pius X west
St Joseph west
I have been to 2 Greek weddings in Orthodox churches, the one I remember the people faced south

 

[mercygate]

puzzleannie:

I have heard this but thinking back to all the Catholic parishes I have belonged to since the 50s, I can’t think of one oriented so that the people face east. Isn’t there a hymn that begins “People, look East” can’t remember if it is for Easter or Christmas.

Advent

puzzleannie:

St Mary’s, priest and people faced west until 1965 when altar turned around . . .

St. Peter’s in Rome is backwards: The great “west” doors are in the geographical east and the altar end (east end) is in the geogrpahical west! :whacky:

 

[Hesychios]

There was a time when burials were done, if possible, on an east-west axis.

The idea was to rise facing eastward on Judgement Day.

Christ was expected to come to us from the direction of the rising sun.

It seems that we moderns pay lttle to no attention to these things now.

The Byzantine Catholic parish I belong to was deliberately constructed to have the altar on the true East, as were both of it’s predecessor parishes. However, the property is a low hill on the west side of the road, with a long driveway up around the building. It gives people the impression that the door is in the “back”. But it conforms to the tradition!

 

[nordskoven]

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Church orientation is towards Jerusalem, the City of God, the East, the Orient. A particular obscenity is the Mormon (Independence, Missouri faction) tenet which states that “Christ” will, on his return, come to Independence, Missouri first, touching his foot down on the pointy tip of their spiral tower (Babel-esque). OUCH!

This is a lie which displaces Christ’s prophesied entry into Jerusalem through the now-sealed Eastern Gate. So also is the gnostic, Freemason influence in modern Catholic church architecture which seeks to replace Jerusalem with their various replacement theologies of place. We forget that singular command Christ reiterated from the Old Testament. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

Kansas City area church remodels show gnostic influence in the twin panels theme of their dualism of equal good and evil. Crucifixes will commonly be displaced to one side of the altar, with an empty panel balancing the other side, ready for the depiction of the Anti-Christ, says I. This is a common them in new currencies, with figures off to one side of a blank cartouche. May the Lord grant us discernment and protection of the Holy Angels led by St. Michael, most blessed servant honored with thanks on his wondrous feastday.

 

[akemner]

A particular obscenity is the Mormon (Independence, Missouri faction) tenet which states that “Christ” will, on his return, come to Independence, Missouri first, touching his foot down on the pointy tip of their spiral tower (Babel-esque). OUCH!

I know the Temple well (for i used to live in the area, and have performed often in the Auditorium across the road). For all the belief of the Community of Christ people (as they call themselves now, but once they were RLDS-Reorganized LDS), this Temple Jesus will not touch, for He is supposed to come to the parking lot across the street-that is where the building was supposed to be built, and then perhaps slide down the spiral roof.

In Christ,
Adam