Ping!
Very interesting. I assume he’s suggesting that most of the congregation should stand, when they are not kneeling.
I can see my teenagers’ insisting on bringing lawn chairs to Mass.
Ivy on walls and such is destructible. Better it stays on the ground or structures meant for it.
Pews - how can one ‘slide over’ to allow others to sit if the pew is upholstered - ??
I am very happy to have a swivel chair to sit in during Sunday service when I run the church sound system. If I had to stand, I would end up bending over at nearly 90 degrees for the service.
Our church has names on the back of the pews. There are small plaques listing who paid (donated funds) for the pew when the church was built many decades ago. These are not to indicated who “owned” the pew and was allowed to sit there, but just a little memorial of who provided a sitting place instead of having to stand in church because there were no seats.
Perhaps one reason why pews were a Protestant “innovation” is that Sunday services in many of the denominations, like the non-conformists in 17th century England and Puritans in America, went on for hours on a Sunday. It wasn’t show up, genuflect, hear a couple hymns, a homily, take communion, and you’re gone. Most of the Sunday was spent in the church. So in those circumstances having the congregation seated was advisable. Although a downside, besides those listed by this author, may have been the occasional sound of a snoring miscreant who enjoyed his Saturday evening a bit too well to make it through the next day’s marathon.
I need to not agree in regards to the above article.
When you pray, you can knee, or stand, or even sit. The pews are a needed blessing.
Pews are a decidedly Western innovation and are rare to unknown in many Orthodox countries. Here in the United States one will often find them in Orthodox churches purchased from Protestants or Catholics. Also the Greek Archdiocese and the Antiochians seem to have adopted their use. But the Russians Serbs and Jerusalem patriarchate generally shy away from them, though it is not uncommon to find a few chairs or benches near the church walls for the elderly and infirm. Pews are often criticized as being contrary to the Orthodox Praxis because the ordinary posture for worship is standing. Prostrations are also very difficult in a church with pews though I note that kneeling is a penitential act and prohibited by church canons on Sundays and during the forty days following Easter. See the below link for a pewless church.
http://orthodox360.com/tours/stnicholas-dc/
However, I think I come down on the "Like" side of the pew question!
**The above image is the interior of Center Church on the Green, a colonial era Congregational church in New Haven, Connecticut.**
Guess I don’t get to sit in pew 1. <sarc off
"Spare us from those pews whose “kneelers” crash to the floor like thunder."
ROTFL! Who cannot identify with that one?!
I was in the choir at the parish I grew up in. I was the youngest, and we all had robes. A gigantic bee from the bell tower got in with us- all I could think of was the poor elderly people and what would happen if the bee got up their sleeves!
Well, the thing landed on the choir loft floor amd I saw my opportunity. A three- inch solid wedge platform shoe, with a four-inch heel came crashing down on the bee- and unfortunately, the floor... And it sounded like the Armageddon! I gave Monsignor, who was in the middle of a homily, a thumbs up to let him know no one needed extreme unction- although I would have needed it if our choir director could have reached me. Boy, how things used to echo!