Kneelers: were they removed from your church? Reinstalled? Never had them?

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Kneelers: were they removed from your church?

Never had them?

Were they reinstalled at some point, or perhaps retrofitted into a church that never had them?

Did your priest (or anybody else) ever teach on the importance of having kneelers? Or perhaps teach on why they are not important?

How did you and the people react to any of the above?
 
lepanto said:
Kneelers: were they removed from your church?

Never had them?

Were they reinstalled at some point, or perhaps retrofitted into a church that never had them?

Did your priest (or anybody else) ever teach on the importance of having kneelers? Or perhaps teach on why they are not important?

How did you and the people react to any of the above?
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For the first 150+ years my parish had no pews or kneelers. People stood or sat on the ground. In the latter 1800’s it got wooden pews with kneelers with little swinging doors on the aisles. After WWII it got new unpadded wooden pews with padded kneelers.
 
In the last 30 years, quite a few Churches in our diocese were built without kneelers. As a result, the faithful do not kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer. Thankfully, our Archibishop recently published new guidelines which specifically address this issue. Kneeler-less Parishes are now expected to have them installed and any new Churches built in our diocese MUST have kneelers in the design plans.
 
We have always had kneelers. I have never been in a Catholic Church without kneelers. I went to Mass once where the parish was meeting temporarily in a public building with folding chairs. They pass out pads.
 
The parish I belong to was built in the early 80’s and all pews have kneelers. It has no kneelers around the alter to kneel on when going up for Holy Communion.
DonnaG
 
The only church I know of without kneelers is the Basilica at Knock:eek:
 
blessedtoo said:
In the last 30 years, quite a few Churches in our diocese were built without kneelers. As a result, the faithful do not kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer. Thankfully, our Archibishop recently published new guidelines which specifically address this issue. Kneeler-less Parishes are now expected to have them installed and any new Churches built in our diocese MUST have kneelers in the design plans.
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:clapping: 👍 :dancing:
 
feargalmac said:
The only church I know of without kneelers is the Basilica at Knock:eek:
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I’ve been to many Churches and the only time I have seen them without kneelers was in a Catholic Church that called itself a “community.” I.E. - St. (Fill in the blank) Catholic Community. As opposed to St. (Fill in the blank) Catholic Church. I stay away from those places now.😦
 
blessedtoo said:
In the last 30 years, quite a few Churches in our diocese were built without kneelers. As a result, the faithful do not kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer. Thankfully, our Archibishop recently published new guidelines which specifically address this issue. Kneeler-less Parishes are now expected to have them installed and any new Churches built in our diocese MUST have kneelers in the design plans.
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See, the excuse they give is that GIRM 43 says “In the dioceses of the United States of America, they should kneel beginning after the singing or recitation of the Sanctus until after the Amen of the Eucharistic Prayer, except when prevented on occasion by reasons of health, lack of space, the large number of people present, or some other good reason.” Then, they build a church with no kneelers. Then they say: “Oh! No kneelers! We won’t kneel, then, and we have a good reason!”
 
Our neighboring parish just built a new church several and has nice padded kneelers. The padding is much appreciated by us over 60 people. I’ve never been in a church without kneelers. And I’ve been in quite a few.
 
My parish has kneelers, always has. All churches I’ve attended have kneelers. Since my family is young and healthy, I guess if we encountered a church without kneelers, we would just kneel on the ground.
 
The Cathedral that I attend, my parish and my childhood parish all have kneelers. Most of the churches I’ve attended over here in the States have also had kneelers, with the exception of a few newer churches.

But many of the extremely old churches and cathedrals that I visited in Europe, such as the ones built during the Middle Ages or during the Rennaissance, do not have kneelers or pews. There are individual chairs set up. Some of the chairs did have kneelers attached, but many did not have that. From what I understand they were always without them.
 
A brand new church was built in our diocese and is technically our parish - without kneelers. I was so appalled the first time I went that we never have been back. The no kneelers thing is only the tip of the iceburg. There is no sacred art, the tabernacle is hidden, the music is rock and roll, they have jumbotrons for the music lyrics on both sides of the altar. A friend was there the other week, and told me they played “When you wish upon a star” for the communion meditation. He wasn’t lying.

The good news is that I heard a rumor that the new pastor is installing kneelers. The church is literally 2 years old.
 
I have been to Catholic churches without kneelers but they are rare. In Europe, the churches I went to didn’t have them or even chairs such as in Notre Dame in Paris except for in the side altars, there are chairs but I don’t remember if there were kneelers attached to them.

My own Parish is relatively young, it was built in the late '70’s and was built with pews with kneelers, as money becomes available or donations in memory of are made we get more sacred art. The Parish I belonged to in Phoenix (Our Lady of the Valley?) had one large room that was used for both Mass and other events so they had removable chairs that had kneelers built in them - they had a Chapel where the tabernacle was and that was the more “traditional” pew with kneeler and altar and sacred art. This Parish was also built in the '70’s.

Brenda V.
 
We have kneelers in our Church, (or at least we normally do). We’re in the midst of a parish exansion, and are celebrating Mass in the the parish hall.

There are no kneelers there, everyone kneels on the floor instead.

The parishes that do not have kneelers ( leftovers from Cardinal Dearden’s era) are required (by Cardinal Maida) to put in kneelers if they undergo renovations.
 
Sarabande said:
But many of the extremely old churches and cathedrals that I visited in Europe, such as the ones built during the Middle Ages or during the Rennaissance, do not have kneelers or pews. There are individual chairs set up. Some of the chairs did have kneelers attached, but many did not have that. From what I understand they were always without them.
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I think in the bad old days people just didn’t sit at all during Mass. Standing room only! That is still the way in Orthodox churches–they just don’t have chairs, pews, kneelers, nothing.
 
I have been in chapels (in hospitals and some government buildings) where Mass is regularly celebrated that have no kneelers. Usually the Catholics can get some kind of kneeler set up eventually (money can be an issue) but where they have not the general thing was to stand. I have never been in a purpose-built Catholic church that had no kneelers.
 
Sr_Sally said:
I think in the bad old days people just didn’t sit at all during Mass. Standing room only! That is still the way in Orthodox churches–they just don’t have chairs, pews, kneelers, nothing.
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I believe that all ancient houses of worship just didn’t have the comforts of chairs or pews. I recall my Jewish voice teacher mentioning that regarding old synogogues and also the fact that for many years, they didn’t even have an actual synagogue to pray in. People probably either stood or sat on the floor. I don’t see anything wrong with it. Having chairs or pews are nice, but if I have to stand, I’ll stand. When attending mass at the Cathedral in Salzburg or at the Brompton Oratory in London, I’ve had to stand because the pews were packed and there was hardly any room to stand either. I’ve never seen so many people so eager to receive communion either. They all rush to get up there!!! No lines! 🙂 So, I think I got a really good idea of what it could have been like during those “bad, old days” when almost everyone attended mass and were packed in there almost like sardines – well not that bad, but being a little claustrophobic, it took a lot for me to handle tons of people in my personal space. :)ha!
 
Always had them and they are still there in ever church I have ever gone to in life. The only time I never had them was when the main worship space was under renovation.
 
Alas I seem to be in the minority. There are no kneelers at all in my church and no plans to put them in. The church in its old location had kneelers but once they built the new one, they left out the kneelers. According to my priest its just not important right now. I doubt as long as he’s around they will be put back in. Nice guy but ultra liberal.

Of course we have no sacred art, only one actual crucifix (all the others have the word Jesus carved on them), and only one picture of Mary (which is normally hidden) and that was provided by the Hispanic community. Our priest just turned down a beautiful 4 foot statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, because he felt we already had enough sacred art. And the outside of our church is ugly. If there were not a cross on the front yard, you would not know its a church. I think the priest tried to make it look as much like a Protestant mega church as possible.

Thankfully if I’ve got the gas money, the nearest parish, which is about an hour away, has a beautiful church. Lots of art, kneelers, absolutely beautiful and they too rebuilt their church around the same time we did. Not sure why we didn’t do our church like them, but I also wasn’t around then so I will probably never know.

Historybrat
 
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