The description implies but does not say that they are singing the Gospel on the centre line rather than on the Gospel side, but proclaiming the Gospel to the North as the E.F.

Also I wonder how these rubrics worked in say Rochester Cathedral, this has a very interesting layout. The other thing we need to bear in mind is a normal cruciform church as common in England the rood or entrance to it would be on the east side of the crossing, this would be the centre (middle) of the Church. Of course I presume like the EF the priest would have already read the Gospel at the high Altar. So moving through the quire to the people in the Nave to sing the Gospel between the people and those in quire would be logical. With the later changes Cranmer et al., I suspect that the ceremonies of the sanctuary and of the Rood declined so the the centre of the church would have moved to the middle of the Nave.

There are numerous rood lofts surviving in Britain. They all have organs atop them: Westminster Abbey, King's College, a number of the cathedrals, and others. I have XVIIIth century engravings of one at Magdalen, Oxford. There used to be one at St Paul's, London. All with organs atop them.
I think that I have seen a very old Roman church with one such organ-laden rood loft. Rood screens, particularly but not exclusively in England, are somewhat more in evidence these days than rood lofts.
Then there is the choir screen, which is like a rood screen without a rood scene atop it.
Then there is the mere rood beam, wihich has no screen beneath it.

And to think that this fascinating information about rood screens will only be discovered by future readers who search for "Why are there 3 options for the Memorial Acclamation?"

Happily, search engines index the content of web pages as well as their titles, so there is hope for future generations to find whatever is discussed.

Unless you are Google.

way of telling us

or that 4 pages of results from a forum search for "rood screen" don't include this thread, and that a search for "jubé" shows only this one thread, which can't be correct either.

"Yes, we are all individuals." - "I'm not!"

And I thought we were in for a rood awakening.

Stimson,

Doesn't that law merely allow a minority nearly absolute authority to derail intelligent conversations?

Rather, Sarumdipitydoodah, doodah doodah / Sarumdipity doodah day, o doodah day.

Everyone, thank you for the phenominal amount of information. It clears up a lot. It also shows what I've been afraid of... all the options of the OF. Music deeply influences the liturgy... what leave it to so much choice from musicians who are generally not liturgists or theologieans? However, that question is a whole other can of worms.

Thank you again!

what leave it to so much choice from musicians who are generally not liturgists or theologieans?

... and all the people in other 'ministries'? While it is certainly a good thing that laity is active in the religious life of parishes, it is a big challenge to live up to the tasks that come along with claiming influence. Who dares say that (s)he is not up to it, and prefers to leave responsability to those really responsible?

On the other hand, decent basic formation of church musicians should enable them to cope with the (music) options in the OF Missal ... as preferably also with people in the 'liturgy commitee'.