ORIENTATION. As Christians from an early period turned their faces eastward when praying, so Christian churches for the most part were placed e. and w., in order that the worshipers, as they looked towards the altar, might also look towards the east. Modern observation, however, has found that few churches stand exactly c. and w., the great majority inclining a little either to the n. or to the south. Thus, of three ancient churches in Edinburgh, it was ascertained that one (St. Margaret's chapel in the castle) pointed e.s.e.; another (St. Giles's cathedral), e.-by-s.is.; a third (Trinity college church, now destroyed), This deviation from the true e. has received, among English ecclesiologists, the name of "orientation." Its origin or cause has not been satisfactorily explained. Some have supposed that the church was turned not to the true e., but to the point at which the sun rose on the morning of the feast of the patron saint. But, unfortunately for this theory, neighboring churches, dedicated in honor of the same saint, have different orientations. Thus, All Saints' at West Beckham, in
Norfolk, points due e.; while All Saints' at Thwaite, also in Norfolk, is 8° to the n. of east. There are instances, too, in which different parts of the same church have different orientations; that is to say, the chancel and the nave have not been built in exactly the same line. • This is the case in York minster and in Lichfield cathedral. Another theory is, that orientation " mystically represents the bowing of our Savior's head in death, which Catholic tradition asserts to have been to the right or n.] side." But this theory is gainsaid by the fact, that the orientation is as often to the s. as to the north. Until some better explanation is offered, it may, perhaps, be allowed to hold, that orientation has had no graver origin than carelessness, ignorance, or indifference.