chancel

Before he could say another word, men from each corner of the chancel hooted and howled.

Hearing a cautious step behind me, I glanced over my shoulder: one of the strangers—a gentleman, evidently—was advancing up the chancel.

She was a deacon, bell ringer and member of the chancel choir at Falls Church Presbyterian Church for more than 50 years.

By turns mournful and joyous, the instrument energized congregations and fostered a call and response between the chancel and the pews.

Above the chancel of Santa María la Blanca, a small, bustling parish church in Canillejas, sits an ornate wooden ceiling of stars and leaves that is among the finest, and oldest, in Spain.