And God Created Pews

(As we continue Building Blocks, we sit down today on the pew. All building, including churches need furniture, and the pew has an interesting origin and history.  Have a seat….)

And on some random Sunday, God created pews, and called them good.

Actually, God could see that there were both good and bad things about pews.  We’ll  start with the good things, but keep reading – if you take pews out of church, you can put in a trapeze….

Of course pews are never mentioned in the Bible; it’s not until the Protestant Reformation that pews appear.   But since God is always creating (not just at the beginning of time) we can say, “When God, in 1550 or so, created pews, God called them good.”

Because people could finally sit down in church.  Up until then it was everyone standing, all the time, as it still is in Orthodox Churches and was for many more centuries in Catholic churches.

What was different about these new Protestant churches that inspired pews?  Sermons.  They became the focus of worship, instead of the mass, the bread and cup.  And those sermons were long.  Good to be able to sit.  (Even today, if you go shopping for pews, the church furniture companies recommend, when your worship service is more than 90 minutes, go for padded cushions, upholstery.  Less than 90 minutes, plain wooden would be OK, cheaper.  Consider the butts.)

St. Boniface Catholic Church in San FranciscoSo God saw that this was good, to be able to sit for sermons that could be one, even two hours long. 

God also saw that it was good for everyone to be able to sit, not just the bishops and priests and deacons.  Actually, by the Middle Ages, these guys (all guys) had benches along the wall to rest their butts.  Sometimes they even made fancy chairs for the bishop ("cathedra" means chair; where a bishop sits is a cathedral).  But everyone else had to stand.

Come unto me all ye who are weary, and I will give you a pew.

But God didn’t like it when those Protestant church leaders decided to sell or rent pews as a way to make money for the church; only the rich people with their own pew could sit down. Family owned pews got fancier, were included in wills, ownership fought over by descendents. God tried to remind them, “I said ‘ALL who are weary….’”

But pretty soon these private pews started taking up too much room. And since church attendance was mandatory in those days, some churches were running out of room for everyone, with folks standing in the back. So some churches did a radical thing, 18th century now, and refused to allow private pews.  They called themselves "open and free" churches; all were welcome to have a seat wherever they wanted.  Big change and big deal.  God said, “OK, better. Churches should not have steerage.”

Fast forward to the second half of the 20^th century, and pews started to fall into disfavor in some places.  Some ministers wanted to try new more informal styles of worship, sit in a circle, try some movement.  Couldn’t do that with rigid pews, stuck, all facing in one direction.  And since church was no longer mandatory (God approved of that also, I’m sure, free will), church leaders were looking for new ways to bring folks in and to make money.  A big open space might seem more welcoming to visitors. And we could rent it out during the week for Zumba classes!  Let’s take the pews out.

More controversy.  Old timers said, “I thought we said we should have pews so everyone could have a seat?  And this is how my church has always looked - now you want to take out those beautiful carved solid familiar pews and make us stack and un-stack chairs every week?”

Yes, actually, God agreed with this idea also.  God said, “Flexible is better than rigid.  My house is a place for all to be welcome.  Read your Bible and your history.  Hebrew people, early Christians did not sit in rows all facing in one direction.  Be creative, in my image, creative God that I am.”

But God knows not all people and places are the same.  Some times, in some places, those old pews can still be put to good creative use.  When God inspired the US Civil Rights movement and called all those black folks to leave home and march for freedom, where would they sleep?  No hotels would open their doors to them.  Church pews.  And God saw that this was good, a good use of pews.

And God saw St. Boniface Catholic Church in San Francisco, where for the past five years homeless people can sleep in the pews every day from 6 AM to 1PM, even during mass.  The church also gives them food and medical care and social services.  But a safe place to sleep off the street is the greatest gift to these folks, a “Sanctuary of Sleep” they call it.  And God says this use of pews is very good.

Fairfax Community UCC Church in California But churches without pews have so much possibility, and God is all about possibility.  So even though God favors rest for the weary and equal seating for all, God also love trapezes.

So if, like the Fairfax Community UCC church in California you remove your pews, as they did from their old church, in the 1990's, and you start all kinds of other programs, you might just find the winds of change blowing through your newly open sanctuary.   So open are you now that you call a pastor who is also a trapeze artist.  And she might just encourage you to hang a single-point, low trapeze in your sanctuary and offer very popular trapeze classes through your “Center for Embodied Spirituality” that brings in lots of kids.  And she might also include trapeze in the Easter service, preaching that with God we fly into freedom, trust we will be caught, soar with the spirit.

Hard to preach that good news with folks in fixed pews.  God saw the trapeze in the pew-less church, and saw that it was very good.

Copyright © 2015 Deborah Streeter