Wot, no kneelers?

[buzzcut]

Excuse my ignorance, but yesterday I saw for the first time one of those modern churches with no kneelers. My question is … what do people do? (I didn’t stay for Mass). Do they kneel on the floor? Also, what is the reason for building churches like this? Is it a cost-saving thing, or an ascetic thing, or …?

 

[Panthervision]

My hometown church has kneelers, but I travel alot on the weekends with my son’s AAU basketball team. I get to attend many different churches. This was the first year that I attended a parish with no kneelers.

They sit in the pews during the times that we would normally kneel at mass.

 

[carol_marie]

I was told that they were supposed to stand in reverence - that this option was acceptable. I have friends who have visited this type of church and they all kneel on the floor anyhow - even if they are the only ones.

At my parish we have kneelers and even those without seats standing along the walls in the back kneel - on the floor. I tell my kids… better hurry up or we’ll be kneeling on the hard floor! Gets 'em out the door.

 

[Milliardo]

carol marie:

I was told that they were supposed to stand in reverence - that this option was acceptable.

What about the option to kneel–is that gone now? Really, some parishes seem to have gone far with such abuses. No wonder there’s talk of an American schism that might happen.

 

[Dr.Bombay]

Nothing prevents someone from kneeling on the floor in churches without kneelers. Except fear of being sneered at as a holier-than-thou Pharisee by fellow Catholics.

And the American Church is already in schism and has been for some 30 years. We’re only waiting for the other shoe to drop, the official break with Rome. Brave New Church. Hoo-rah!

 

[adstrinity]

The church at which I was a catechumen HAD kneelers, but, I think the only time people actually kneeled was AFTER they had recieved the Body of Christ. The reason was that before the church was built, they met in the gym of a high school. The priest told them they could just sit so as to not get dirty…or because their was no kneelers. Now, not being a Catholic, I didn’t know that this was an abuse until my confirmation and a professor I had pointed out HOW many abuses there were there…so, short answer, MINE, anyway, is because the priest said so.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

buzzcut:

Excuse my ignorance, but yesterday I saw for the first time one of those modern churches with no kneelers. My question is … what do people do? (I didn’t stay for Mass). Do they kneel on the floor? Also, what is the reason for building churches like this? Is it a cost-saving thing, or an ascetic thing, or …?

No, it’s an ignorance or willful disobedience thing.

 

[msproule]

I agree with Br. Rich SFO but I also think it is considered a cost-saving measure, as buzzcut suggests. I see no other reason why a Bishop worthy of his office would approve building plans that exclude kneelers.

However, then the offertory and pledge money starts rolling in and the “parish activity center” starts expanding and the new audio/visual equipment gets installed to “enhance the worship experience”. It is saddening how no money ever gets collected to correct past mistakes, to install kneelers or to replace the glass chalices with precious metal.