www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy Platform in the nave of old Rusyn churches?

The center of the church--beneath the dome--was the location of the Ambo in Hagia Sophia. That's where all the readings, the homily and the final blessings wer given. It was connected to the sanctuary by a raised causeway called the Solea, the purpose of which was to allow the homilist and the readers to move between the Ambo and the sanctuary without getting mobbed. According to Archimandrite Robert Taft, many of the features of the Byzantine church were intended for crowd control.

Migrations most likely from persecution ... in both directions

The link takes me to two guys arguing, it seems, about watermelons. ???

A close reading of this text alone as provided, the first paragraph being a summary description, the second a quoted (translated ) excerpt says to me:

1. there is "the central bema found in a number of ancient Syrian churches"

2. it included "the altar-like table called “Golgotha” that stood in the middle of the bema and held a Cross and the book of the Gospels"

[Is this shown here [youtube.com] and here [youtube.com] in present usage?]

3."'Until the seventeenth century the ambo was found the Byzantine churches of western Ukraine, in the form of a circular or sometimes semicircular platform.'"

4."" above-mentioned altar [viz. the “Golgotha”], on which the Cross and the book of the Gospels are laid, and which is called the Tetrapodion (four-foot), stands also until the present day over against the sanctuary, moved more toward the middle of the nave. '"

1-2 addresses "ancient Syrian churches"
3-4 addresses "'churches of western Ukraine'"

1-2 speaks of a central bema
3 refers to an ambon

4 the Syrian central Golgotha/altar-on-bema is called the Tetrapodion and is now in western Ukraine and "still today in the old churches of the Bačka Ruthenians", "over against the sanctuary, moved more toward the middle of the nave."

Breaking it down this way I see a loose comparison between 1-2 (Syrian only) and 3-4. The conclusion from what is stated is that the altar/Golgotha on a central bema in Syrian churches is like the Tetrapod which "'stands also until the present day over against the sanctuary, moved more toward the middle of the nave.'" There is a jump from bema (1-2) to ambo (3-4) terminology with presumably some intended connection. I don't find a direct link in the text between the bema and ambo. The link that emerges for me is between the Golgotha and Tetrapod.

Some general background links and comments:

To me (before) th bema was a kind of "central pulpit" ( Siena Duomo pulpit [en.wikipedia.org] ) but really central to the nave.

Present Architectural terminology: Parts of the Church Building: the Bema [blog.marcantonioarchitects.com]

Parts of the Church Building: the Bema [google.com] but what stands out is the synthronon, and what the liturgy calls the chair-on-high (literally the high chair) [Deacon: Master bless the chair-on-high. link [patronagechurch.com], tēn anō Kathedran]
Another one Venice [itwillalwaysgetworse.tumblr.com]; and way up and out there, Paros [rolfgross.dreamhosters.com]

The polity of the Christian church of early, mediaeval, and modern times [books.google.com] an 1881 translation of ca. 1771 work of Allesio Aurelio Pellicia: many interesting and wild arrangements of basic structures. Another link: The polity of the Christian church ...dern times By Alessio Aurelio Pelliccia [books.google.com]

A final musing: I always wondered about the rubric directing the prayer "behind the ambon," (Molitva zaamboniaja, p. 279 [patronagechurch.com]; and in Greek [patronagechurch.com] outside the bema, eksō tou bēmatos.) If the bema is the total raised "east" portion of which the solea extends beyond the iconostas and the ambon juts out from that, then if the solea were large enough, there would be no reason for the ministers to leave the bema/solea/ambon during the liturgy except for an explicit rubric to do so as noted above.

Sorry to be so tardy in replying to this, but back in March I tried several times and for some reason was unable to sign in. Then I got distracted by some other topics. Now again I can sign in without trouble.

ajk's analysis seems sound to me; that's pretty much the way I read it. Louis Bouyer to the contrary notwithstanding, the Syrian-style bema was never current in the Greek-speaking area. The ambo, as in Agia Sophia, did not have seats for the clergy. In Greece proper, there was an ambo, but it was off center, in contrast to those in Constantinople, and the aisles were fence of by a low barrier from the nave; the connection between this sort of layout and liturgical planning has yet to be clarified.

The Syrian bema also was not found, to judge from our present archaeological evidence, in the southern part of the Syriac-speaking area, and certainly not in all churches in the northern part.

The zaamboniaja terminology still supposes a layout like that of pre-Turkish Agia Sophia. The priest pronounced the prayer from the western entrance to the elevated ambo, as the people were leaving the church. Originally in Constantinople it seems there was no prayer after the exclamation "Let us depart in peace": one was added in imitation of the practice of Jerusalem.

What I am particularly interested in is Rudejko's assertion that there was a circular or semicircular platform in the middle of the nave in Byz-rite churches of W. Ukraine until the 17th century, and that such platforms can still be found in Vojvodina (where they would be an example of "marginal survival"). He gives no sources and little discussion, so I am looking for more information. I expect that this is somehow connected with the use of the tetrapod in churches of the same area, where it usually holds the icon of the day (in Russian and Greek usage, an analogion does this, and the tetrapodion is tucked away somewhere unless there a special blessing of something is to be performed). If the ambo Rudejko mentions was present until the 17th century, it is worth inquiring whether its disappearance was caused by the Unia. So his brief statement raises several questions.

Belated thanks also to Chtec, who provided photos of the interiors of three Serbian churches with circular platforms that fit Rudejko's description, one at the monastery of Lepavina, one at Kanjiža in the Vojvodina, and the third showing the enthronement of Patriarch Irinej at St Michael’s Cathedral in Belgrade. (I presume that the church in Kanjiža is Serbian Orthodox rather than Rusyn Catholic, as I can find no reference to a Ruthenian community in Kanjiža, although there certainly is one in neighboring Subotica.) At http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Coronation_in_Saborna_crkva.jpg, you will find a photo of the coronation of the coronation of King Peter I, in 1904, in the same cathedral in Belgrade; the king is seated on a square platform with a canopy.

In Russian usage, a bishop serving a hierarchical Liturgy is usually seated on a platform in the middle of the nave for much of the service.



Look at http://www.flickr.com/photos/9605368@N03/2050416871 for an interior view of the Ruthenian Catholic church in Novi Sad, where there is an apparently circular tetrapod (I suppose; the legs are hidden by a tablecloth) at the east end of the nave.

At http://www.flickr.com/photos/9605368@N03/2050969615, you will find a photo of the interior of the Franciscan Byz.-rite chapel in Sybertsville, PA, showing a rectangular tetrapod holding a cross, standing toward the eastern end of the nave. This is the sort of thing that is common in Rusyn churches, Orthodox or Catholic.

The solea of the church in Novi Sad is ginormous. At first, I thought the altar was at the same level as the nave.