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Sometimes, you just don’t know whether to sit or stand
BY JEFF GILL • February 20, 2010
Lent surely has begun, Ash Wednesday not so much ashy as snowy, but the days are lengthening.
I mentioned my plan to avoid plastic and non-essential shopping or buying or consuming for this Lenten season, and many of you wrote or Twittered (“tweeted”) me your plans to give up pop or candy or swearing at your car, or the snow. My prayers are with your spiritual disciplines, that you learn from them and hold that commitment with faithfulness – and I ask that you pray for me.
Before Lent got going, I’d been writing about some of those “edge phenomena” around worship, “adiaphora” or “indifferent things” philosophically and theologically speaking. One was about coming late – or just as services start – and the other was about where to sit when you get there: these are matters that might barely intrude into the consciousness of those of us who attend church regularly, but are major questions for seekers and/or first time visitors.
Another of these “indifferent” matters is standing … or sitting.
Non-Catholics, and even cradle Catholics, make jokes about a typical church wedding in their tradition. Up, then down, then up, then – whoa, what are those things swinging down at me? – you kneel, then it’s back up and …
OK, I’m exaggerating, but not by much. It isn’t just a Catholic Christian thing, however, because some Protestant Christian services have a fairly good cardio-workout component to them, even without kneelers. And much non-denominational contemporary worship has the hovering question of when to stand hanging over their unstructured services, as well.
Before we ask when to stand, what about “why?” Why do we stand at certain points in corporate worship?
Actually, in the ancient traditions of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, you find in most of their worship spaces a distinct lack of seats. That’s right, no seats. None.
In this country, a Greek Orthodox church might have pews, but it’s a practice picked up from surrounding church life (or from buying a decommissioned Protestant church). Back in Russia or Romania or otherwise, the congregation gathers in an open space, with seats along some walls for the elderly and pregnant women, and children sit, if young, at the feet of their parents. Many American Orthodox sanctuaries still are this way, seatless, and standing. For two hours.
That accurately echoes the Roman law court, or basilica, which Christianity inherited after Constantine around 325 AD. The people gathered to watch and listen and participate, and Orthodox Christianity would also affirm participation in the act of worship through their active, attentive witness: but they stood, they stand out of respect and in veneration of God’s active power in worship. You wouldn’t sit in the King or Emperor’s presence, would you?
Full Article]
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BY JEFF GILL • February 20, 2010
Lent surely has begun, Ash Wednesday not so much ashy as snowy, but the days are lengthening.
I mentioned my plan to avoid plastic and non-essential shopping or buying or consuming for this Lenten season, and many of you wrote or Twittered (“tweeted”) me your plans to give up pop or candy or swearing at your car, or the snow. My prayers are with your spiritual disciplines, that you learn from them and hold that commitment with faithfulness – and I ask that you pray for me.
Before Lent got going, I’d been writing about some of those “edge phenomena” around worship, “adiaphora” or “indifferent things” philosophically and theologically speaking. One was about coming late – or just as services start – and the other was about where to sit when you get there: these are matters that might barely intrude into the consciousness of those of us who attend church regularly, but are major questions for seekers and/or first time visitors.
Another of these “indifferent” matters is standing … or sitting.
Non-Catholics, and even cradle Catholics, make jokes about a typical church wedding in their tradition. Up, then down, then up, then – whoa, what are those things swinging down at me? – you kneel, then it’s back up and …
OK, I’m exaggerating, but not by much. It isn’t just a Catholic Christian thing, however, because some Protestant Christian services have a fairly good cardio-workout component to them, even without kneelers. And much non-denominational contemporary worship has the hovering question of when to stand hanging over their unstructured services, as well.
Before we ask when to stand, what about “why?” Why do we stand at certain points in corporate worship?
Actually, in the ancient traditions of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, you find in most of their worship spaces a distinct lack of seats. That’s right, no seats. None.
In this country, a Greek Orthodox church might have pews, but it’s a practice picked up from surrounding church life (or from buying a decommissioned Protestant church). Back in Russia or Romania or otherwise, the congregation gathers in an open space, with seats along some walls for the elderly and pregnant women, and children sit, if young, at the feet of their parents. Many American Orthodox sanctuaries still are this way, seatless, and standing. For two hours.
That accurately echoes the Roman law court, or basilica, which Christianity inherited after Constantine around 325 AD. The people gathered to watch and listen and participate, and Orthodox Christianity would also affirm participation in the act of worship through their active, attentive witness: but they stood, they stand out of respect and in veneration of God’s active power in worship. You wouldn’t sit in the King or Emperor’s presence, would you?
Full Article]
.