Chapel

From Srafopedia

In Our World

A chapel is a holy place or area of worship for Christians, sometimes small and attached to a larger institution such as a large church, a college, a hospital, a palace, a prison or a cemetery, sometimes large and unattached to another building.

Architecturally, a chapel may be a part of a large church set aside for some specific use or purpose: for instance, Gothic cathedrals typically have a "Lady Chapel" in the apse, dedicated to Mary; parish churches may have a "Blessed Sacrament Chapel" attached to the main church where the Eucharist is kept between services.

In the Catholic Canon Law a chapel, technically called an "oratory", is a space dedicated to the celebration of services, particularly 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).

The word chapel is in particularly common usage in England, and even more so in Wales, for many non-Anglican Protestant church buildings; and in Scotland and Ireland many ordinary Catholic churches are known to locals as "the chapel".

Chapels are generally non-denominational when part of a non-religious institution.

(Source: Wikipedia)

In Lyra's World

In line with Esoteric Renaming, and perhaps to emphasize the blurring of boundaries between Science and Religion in a world where the Magisterium is all-powerful, Pullman often reverses the expected meanings of common words. Thus, a chapel becomes a scientific laboratory, where theologians (physicists) perform their experiments; whilst the chapel of Jordan College is called the Oratory.