Having been taking pictures inside churches for a long time now, I’m no longer surprised at how ‘un-straight’ and misaligned things often are. Sometimes, it’s just the Altar Guild not ensuring the cross is centered, but often, major installations — such as the altar itself — are a few inches out or the whole building, the chancel in Christ Episcopal Church, Springfield, is a great example — the chancel was built separately and is six or more inches out of line with the nave).

Why do I bring this up? Well, if you look up in Selby Abbey, there’s a clear misalignment with the chancel doglegging to the south (right) of the picture relative to the nave. At first, when I noticed it in the picture, I thought it was lens distortion, but, I checked with my own eyes. Sure, enough I couldn’t get things to line up.

For the picture I aligned the top of the cross on the rood screen with the center line of the chancel roof. Notice how I am way off to the left of the aisle from my vantage point near the back of the nave.

Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.