A choir, also sometimes called quire, is the area of a church or cathedral that provides seating for the clergy and church choir. It is in the western part of the chancel, between the nave and the sanctuary, which houses the altar and Church tabernacle. In larger medieval churches it contained choir-stalls, seating aligned with the side of the church, so at right-angles to the seating for the congregation in the nave. Smaller medieval churches may not have a choir in the architectural sense at all, and they are often lacking in churches built by all denominations after the Protestant Reformation, though the Gothic Revival revived them as a distinct feature.
The choir of Bristol Cathedral, with the nave seen through the chancel screen, so looking west
The Quire in Palencia Cathedral in northern Spain, an example of a monastic quire
Choir stalls at Boston Stump, Lincolnshire. A seat has been lifted to reveal the misericord.
Elaborately carved choir stalls at Buxheim Charterhouse in Bavaria, by Ignaz Waibl
Canon is a Christian title usually used to refer to a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule.
Four canons with SS Augustine and Jerome by an open grave, with the Visitation. Master of the Spes Nostra [nl] (active c. 1500–1520, Northern Netherlands)
Petrus-Ludovicus Stillemans (1821–1902), brother of Antoon Stillemans and honorary canon of St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent
Another Flemish canon in official clerical dress of canons
A canon ceremonially receives Cardinal Franc Rodé.