I was sort of at a conference for several days;
catching up to this thread, what struck me
is that apparently none of you have ever visited
a Catholic cathedral -- I was going to say "in Europe"
but I suppose (I'm not Catholic despite my Italian name)
it's the same in America:  The big front door
is only for the bishop.  The rest of us have to
go in the door(s) on the side of the facade,
or enter the transept from a side of the building.

It seems plausible that there was something of
a trickle-down effect, not just to smaller churches,
but to American houses.

At 05:07 AM 6/24/2010, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>The two doors on churches has its origins in the Scotish Presbyterians ;who hae thier origins in Cromwell ; One do was for wimmin and one do was for men ;(something about looking into the eyes of the woman before entering church that had everybody riled up ;
>You won't find this with the episcopaliens or the Catholics ;nor at temple or the Mosque;it was just the presbyters who got caught looking and decided they better do something about it .
>I think I understand this ; the church I am working on has a bridge and decking ; behind the plywood  is the portajohn ;  sometimes I think people pray in there ;and its not unusual to witness grim looks from those entering and exiting it  ; so  having two doors ( with two portajohns ) makes perfect sence   /Py  ;

Martin C. Tangora
University of Illinois at Chicago
[log in to unmask]

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