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Rh 3. The Churches, Vestments, and Sacred Vessels.

The commonest form of Orthodox church is a long building with transepts and with three apses at the east end, of which the central one is very much the largest. There are generally several cupolas, often of a bulbous shape, in Russia, covered with bright-coloured tiles — green, with a yellow design or gold and blue — bearing gilt crosses. Sometimes there is a belfry standing separate by the church. All the larger churches have a narthex across the west end; it is used for various services and for a great part of the funeral rites. From the narthex one or three doors lead into the nave of the church. This is the place of the laity. The men are separated from the women; either they go to different sides or the women have a gallery. Beyond the nave, usually raised by a few steps, is the choir, where the singers have their places right and left, as with us. In the middle of the choir stands the deacon's ambon , which is not a sort of pulpit like the old Latin ones, but a raised platform on which a small reading-desk is placed when it is wanted. The first thing a stranger notices in any church of the Byzantine rite is the great Ikonostasis (, picture- screen) that stretches across the church behind the choir, reaches high up towards the roof, and hides the sanctuary and altar. It has three doors — the royal door in the middle, deacon's door on the south (to the right as one looks towards the altar), and the door for other servers on the north side. These doors have curtains behind them. The whole of the screen is covered with holy pictures. On the royal door itself is always an Annunciation, and there are generally the four Evangelists too. The other pictures are usually arranged in this order: Our Lord on the right of the royal door, and the Blessed Virgin on the left; these fill up the spaces to the other doors. On the other side of the deacon's door St. John the Baptist (the Orthodox do not forgot that he is the greatest of all Saints) and on the other side of the servers' door the patron of the church. Above the doors comes a row of pictures of the events of the chief feasts, above that are the twelve Apostles, higher still the prophets, and above all a great cross (not a