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

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We have penitential kneelers and penitential pews…that is they are plain wood and too close to the next row…in a word horribly uncomfortable!!!
 
Melanie01 said:
We have penitential kneelers and penitential pews…that is they are plain wood and too close to the next row…in a word horribly uncomfortable!!!
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The hardest kneelers I have ever experienced are at the St. John’s Abby Church. Very hard wood with no padding.
 
Melanie01 said:
We have penitential kneelers and penitential pews…that is they are plain wood and too close to the next row…in a word horribly uncomfortable!!!
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I had to kneel on a marble floor a couple weeks ago. I offered it up as mortification.
 
japhy said:
I had to kneel on a marble floor a couple weeks ago. I offered it up as mortification.
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I can totally sympathised. I had to do that for a year as a cantor and really screwed up my knees (as a 25 year old at the time) that I couldn’t kneel anymore without major pain and had trouble walking/running until they finally got little cusions for me and the altar servers. It took me about three to four months to heal my knees.
 
Actually the University of Dayton, a Catholic [resisting the scare-quotes urge] school run by the Marianists, has a chapel that should be in the dictionary were “wreckovation” ever to become a regularly accepted word. Beautiful stained-glass windows above the sanctuary with Saints in them… in the back of the church, huge abstract blue, clear, black and yellow windows. I think they might even have a sort of reredos. But the seating is blue plastic chairs, with a wire under the front, as if someone had said “How can I design a plastic chair that will be especially awkward to kneel in?” My brother told me they do not kneel at Mass. I’m pretty sad. Do you guys have any ideas?
 
I am sorry to tell you, but where I am at, a good many of the churches I attend have no kneelers.

I travel quite a bit too in the Eastern US and have often been to churches without them, mostly in city suburbs.

I did not think anything of it until I had my girlfriend from the South visit and she was appalled. You can still kneel if you want, some do, but not many. There isn’t any room really.

She was mostly concerned about a mass we attended where there was kneelers, but *everyone *stood after communion and then sat. I know what you are thinking; it didn’t stop us- we did our own thing.

But I can tell you, my fathers parish has no intention of installing any. And believe me, here in the Great Lakes area, there is no concern over the issue.
 
bil751 said:
But I can tell you, my fathers parish has no intention of installing any. And believe me, here in the Great Lakes area, there is no concern over the issue.
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If you don’t mind – which diocese?
 
We have them and always have as far as I know (thought I wasn’t in the church building when it was built, so I can’t know for sure…)
 
Here in the Archdiocese of Vancouver every parish I’ve come across has kneelers except the chapel at UBC (my school). It has chairs rather than pews, though a couple of the chairs do have kneelers…just not most. I attend daily mass at the chapel and most people kneel regardless.
 
We have always had kneelers. Back in the day, they were unpadded and kneeling on them was rather penitential.

I’ve been to a few churches without kneelers and don’t like them at all.
 
My parish has kneelers and judging from the shape some of them are in they have been well used and there for a very long time.

In my diocese the norm in every parish and mass I’ve been to has been to kneel during the consecration and most people kneel after receiving communion also.

ChadS
 
japhy said:
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!”
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A couple points: * No kneelers by itself isn’t really a good reason. However, the lack of space in churches without kneelers often is - the more limber members of the congregation could surely kneel, but the people weighing 300 lbs or more would probably start knocking over the individual chairs. In such a setting, I think respecting uniformity of posture is the best course, even though I’m one of those who could probably kneel without too much chair movement.* The GIRM you cite is the current one, which was not in place when most of these churches were built. I’d be interested in hearing what the previous GIRM said about this issue - it may not have addressed this as explicitly.
 
Digitonomy said:
No kneelers by itself isn’t really a good reason. However, the lack of space in churches without kneelers often is - the more limber members of the congregation could surely kneel, but the people weighing 300 lbs or more would probably start knocking over the individual chairs. In such a setting, I think respecting uniformity of posture is the best course, even though I’m one of those who could probably kneel without too much chair movement.
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See, abandoning pews for individual chairs makes the kneeler problem easier to come by. And why would you build a church that was too small to begin with?
Digitonomy said:
The GIRM you cite is the current one, which was not in place when most of these churches were built. I’d be interested in hearing what the previous GIRM said about this issue - it may not have addressed this as explicitly.
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I’ll check my 1985 Sacramentary on Friday and let you know.
 
Our parish is composed of the main parish church and 2 chapels. All of them have kneelers. I cannot imagine not having them.

However, the neighboring parish took out their kneelers. This is my SIL’s parish. This parish lacks orthodoxy, lots of liturgical goofiness going on.

Blessings,
oremus
 
I’ve got a bit of a different problem at my parish. We’re undergoing a rennovation of our church building. In the meantime, we’ve been having mass in our activity center (read gym). Now, we are all about kneeling in our parish. But since we’ve been temporarily relocated, our pastor has told us it’s okay for us to sit instead of kneeling. Well, pretty much the entire parish with the exception of a few die hards at each mass sits now instead of kneeling or standing (something we never did). I’m just terrified that when we go back into our remodeled church that everyone is going to continue sitting. I’m hoping, though, that since our renovation was all about returning from a 1976 post V-II contemporary design back to a more traditional worship space that the more reverent church will inspire folks to quickly return to our previous liturgical routine.
 
Digitonomy said:
The GIRM #44] you cite is the current one, which was not in place when most of these churches were built. I’d be interested in hearing what the previous GIRM said about this issue - it may not have addressed this as explicitly.
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The GIRM, fourth edition, 27 March 1975, which is prepended to the Sacramentary (from 1985) says the following:
  1. … They should kneel at the consecration unless prevented by the lack of space, the number of people present, or some other good reason.
 
I am not aware of any churches in my area without kneelers. We have a good number of European tourists who travel on the Mississippi steam ships. They stand during the Consecration with huge eyes!
 
Brian_C said:
I’ve got a bit of a different problem at my parish. We’re undergoing a rennovation of our church building. In the meantime, we’ve been having mass in our activity center (read gym). Now, we are all about kneeling in our parish. But since we’ve been temporarily relocated, our pastor has told us it’s okay for us to sit instead of kneeling. Well, pretty much the entire parish with the exception of a few die hards at each mass sits now instead of kneeling or standing (something we never did). I’m just terrified that when we go back into our remodeled church that everyone is going to continue sitting. I’m hoping, though, that since our renovation was all about returning from a 1976 post V-II contemporary design back to a more traditional worship space that the more reverent church will inspire folks to quickly return to our previous liturgical routine.
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Brian,

Hopefully old habits die hard and when your church is renovated they will all return to kneeling. In my experiences I’ve been to masses in auditoriums and convention centers where kneeling was impossible due to space constraints and most of the people around me sat or half-kneeled, yet the ones from my parish were back on the kneelers the next Sunday in church. You’ll have to let us know how things turn out at your parish.

ChadS
 
My parish has kneelers for every pew:thumbsup: . Our sons parish has kneelers for every pew except the first ones in each row.:confused: The crypt at St Vincents has no kneelers for the TLM so we kneel on the floor.:eek:

When we attend Mass in a gym or other non traditional meeting place we, as a family, still kneel. LOL I’m 60 years old and it is getting harder every year.🤷 But then my daughter or grandchildren help me up.😃
 
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