The origin of the Choir loft according to MB

MB said:

LOL! Can you imagine if a liturgical censor were assigned to each
service? Actually, in some Slavic churches, that's the role of the
grandmothers or babushki, who will whack you with a walking stick if
you're doing something "wrong." And priests are not excluded. A well-
respected archimandrite friend of mine was disallowed by a babushka
to venerate an icon in a Russian church (i.e. in Russia), because she
wasn't convinced he was Orthodox (in spite of his beard, cassock,
etc.) -- she put her cane between him and the icon.

Maybe that's really why they started building choir lofts only a
couple centuries ago and then, in some urban churches, only hiring
professional singers for the services, to distance themselves from
the angry cane thrashings taking place down below

MB

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