Pews are a Heresy?

[Nine_Two]

You’d be wrong on that score. I object to pews, but not chairs, as a simple matter of practicality for byzantine worship and general cleanliness.

Chairs are readily movable, but pews are affixed to the structure. You can’t readily remove pews to make room for prostrations, nor for cleaning the floors. Pews are inherently less suitable for public worship space than freestanding chairs, or even chairs that bind to each other.

Further, pews that are suitable for when the bishop is celebrating the HDL leave a very wide aisle in the center the rest of the time; meanwhile, with individual chairs, the aisle can be widened when the bishop is celebrating the HDL, but narrowed down again when celebrating only the normal liturgies (without the clergy stainding and sitting in the middle of the aisle).

While you make valid points for why chairs might be superior (and I’ll agree they might be easier for the reasons mentioned, though pews certainly aren’t impossible - though I’ve only ever attended Hierarchical Divine Liturgies at churches that either used chairs or only had a half compliment of pews so it wasn’t an issue), the kind of person who is declaring that pews are heretical isn’t going to make that sort of distinction, and that was what I was aiming my responses at.

 

[Oldtimer_7]

I visited a Greek Orthodox church in Roanoke, Virginia. They bought the church from a Protestant group, Methodist, I think. The church had pews because they got the church that way and saw no reason to throw them out. My grandmother grew up in pre-revolutionary Russia and they stood during the service. Personally, I am glad to be able to sit, since I have spinal stenosis. The pain from standing for an hour leaves me in a very non-spiritual state.

 

[Nine_Two]

I visited a Greek Orthodox church in Roanoke, Virginia. They bought the church from a Protestant group, Methodist, I think. The church had pews because they got the church that way and saw no reason to throw them out. My grandmother grew up in pre-revolutionary Russia and they stood during the service. Personally, I am glad to be able to sit, since I have spinal stenosis. The pain from standing for an hour leaves me in a very non-spiritual state.

I have chronic back issues myself. When it is acting up standing or sitting for long periods of time is painful. I’m glad to have the option to sit and stand as needed.

 

[Aramis]

I have chronic back issues myself. When it is acting up standing or sitting for long periods of time is painful. I’m glad to have the option to sit and stand as needed.

I’ve a bum knee - and I, too, am glad to be able to sit.

 

[MichaelinMD]

I have chronic back issues myself. When it is acting up standing or sitting for long periods of time is painful. I’m glad to have the option to sit and stand as needed.

^ This!!

Unless I’m somehow mistaken, I think God hears our prayers (corporate and private) whether we are sitting, standing, or kneeling. He probably also knows the degree and depth of our reverence, respect, and glorification of Him whatever our physical posture is. It is, after all, in the heart, is it not?

 

[SteveVH]

I have sat in pews in Church, folding chairs while our Church was being built, and even a couch when we had Mass in my home. I suppose, under certain circumstances, I might even sit on a rock if we were required to have Mass outside for some reason.

Heresy has to do with error in doctrine, not the type of furniture one uses or doesn’t use. Holy Moley!

 

[Elizium23]

The rarity of chairs from ancient times comes forward in the respect we give to the “chairman” , “the judicial bench”, or even the “chair of St. Peter”. In ancient times, rather than stand, a Rabbi would sit in order to indicate he was teaching - so our Lord would have certainly had a chair at the Last Supper. The others… perhaps not.

This tradition is carried forward in the Catholic Church as the *cathedra * and presider’s chair in the sacred liturgy. The cathedra is a special throne for our bishops which we use to signify his teaching office. The priest sits in the presider’s chair during the Mass to indicate he presides over the whole assembly.

It is interesting to note that as I was practicing Lectio Divina with Psalm 1 in our Bible study, this thought occurred to me. I did not know about the rarity of chairs in ancient times, but the image of a man who “sits not in the company of sinners” made me think of the cathedra and its significance in the Church today. So yes, perhaps this particular psalm signifies something more than we are accustomed to in modern times when everyone sits, even for the Mass.

[BIBLEDRB]Psalm 1[/BIBLEDRB]