Modern Usage
While the usage of the word "chapel" is not exclusively limited to Christian terminology, it is most often found in that context. Nonetheless, the word's meaning can vary by denomination, and non-denominational chapels (sometimes called "meditation rooms") can be found in many hospitals, airports, and even the United Nations headquarters. A Jewish chapel, noted for its award-winning architecture, opened on the grounds of the US Naval Academy in 2005.
The word chapel is in particularly common usage in the United Kingdom, and even more so in Wales, for independent or nonconformist places of worship; and in Scotland and Ireland for Roman Catholic churches. In the UK, due to the rise in popularity of independent or nonconformist chapels throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, by the time of the 1851 census, more people attended the independent chapels than attended the state's Anglican churches.
In Roman Catholic Canon Law, a chapel, technically called an "oratory" is a building or part thereof dedicated to the celebration of services, particularly the Mass, which is not a parish church. This may be a private chapel, for the use of one person or a select group (a bishop's private chapel, or the chapel of a convent, for instance); a semi-public oratory, which is partially available to the general public (a seminary chapel that welcomes visitors to services, for instance); or a public oratory (for instance, a hospital or university chapel).
Chapels that are built as part of a larger church are holy areas set aside for some specific use or purpose: for instance, many cathedrals and large churches have a "Lady Chapel" in the apse, dedicated to the Virgin Mary; parish churches may have such a "Lady Chapel" in a side aisle or a "Chapel of Reservation" where the consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist are kept in reserve between services, for the purpose of taking Holy Communion to the sick and housebound and, in some Christian traditions, for devotional purposes.
Common uses of the word chapel today include:
- Side-chapel or side chapel – a chapel within a cathedral or larger church building.
- Lady Chapel – these are really a form of side chapel, but have been included separately as they are extremely prevalent in the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. They are dedicated to the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
- Ambassador's Chapel – originally created to allow ambassadors from Catholic countries to worship whilst on duty in Protestant countries.
- Bishop's Chapel – in Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Law, Bishops have the right to have a chapel in their own home, even when travelling (such personal chapels may be granted only as a favor to other priests)
- Chapel of rest – not a place of worship as such, but a comfortably decorated room in a funeral directors premises, where family and friends can view the deceased before the funeral.
- Chapel of ease – constructed in large parishes to allow parishioners easy access to a church or chapel.
- Multifaith chapel - found within hospitals, airports and universities, etc; often converted from being exclusively Christian.
- Summer chapel – A small church in a resort area that functions only during the summer when vacationers are present.
- Wayside chapel – Small chapels in the countryside
- Wedding chapel (U.S.) - space used for weddings
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