Saturday, September 08, 2007

The Catholic vs. Protestant view of the sanctuary

In the Bible belt, it is common for Protestants to call the whole nave of the church the "sanctuary," which I've always assumed was an evangelical way of saying that the whole of the people are holy and that nothing having to do with the altar is uniquely holy. But this is just conjecture on my part. Does anyone have a reference or know of some source to explain this? I ask because it is very common in the South for Catholics to pick on up on this word to describe the entirety of the worship space. Any help would be appreciated.

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