The Chancel As Clergy's Space

The chancel is the space at the east end of a church surrounding the altar, historically reserved for the clergy and the choir rather than the general congregation, and it is frequently marked off from the nave by a change in floor level, a screen, an arch, or simply a clear architectural break signaling a shift from congregational to clerical space.

Within Anglican and many Protestant traditions the term chancel is used broadly for this entire clergy-and-choir area, sometimes including choir stalls facing each other across a central aisle in the manner of a monastic choir, while in Roman Catholic usage the closely related term sanctuary is often applied more specifically to the immediate area around the altar itself, with the two terms overlapping considerably in everyday description of the same general east-end space. The chancel's degree of separation from the nave has varied considerably across history and denomination, ranging from a fully enclosed space behind a solid screen in some medieval and Eastern churches to an open, only lightly marked area in many modern churches built after liturgical reforms that emphasized the congregation's visual and physical connection to the altar rather than separation from it.