Pews

One of the many things about Orthodox Christianity that initially struck me as odd was that, in many Orthodox houses of worship, there are no pews.

I know. It sounds strange, doesn't it?

Although the lack of pews is certainly not as common in the U.S. as in other parts of the world, in very conservative churches, such as the one that Kathryn and I have been attending, there is simply an open area in the nave where worshippers stand for the entire service, except during the sermon, when they may make use of benches along the walls. Of course, anyone who is elderly, sick, or in pain is permitted to take a load off should they feel the need. But, even in churches where pews are present, the worshippers typically stand for nearly the entire duration of the Liturgy.

To be honest, before I became interested in Orthodoxy, I never even thought about pews. It didn't even occur to me that they were optional. I have since noticed, however, that the Orthodox worship on their feet, their knees, or their faces, but never on their back sides.

"We stand during worship services out of reverence and humility before God," writes an Orthodox lay person. "The absence of rigid pews gives us freedom to move about the Church and feel at home. We are free to venerate icons and light candles, as well as to bow and do the prostrations necessary at times during worship."

In an article called The Liturgical Effectiveness of Pews: A Call for Liturgical Renewal, the writer, who strongly opposes the use of pews in Orthodox worship, argues that pews...
...make us spectators rather than participants.
...teach us that discomfort has no place in the Christian life.
...restrict our freedom of movement.
...make worship "formal and frosty."
...make it easier for kids not to pay attention to what's going on up front.
...encourage the dangerous notion that it's important for church to be "relevant."
...make it very difficult to prostrate.

I have recently learned that no church, neither in the east nor in the west, had pews until the late Reformation. And, interestingly, there has historically been some serious objection by Protestants to the the use of pews.

In an article from 1841 entitled The History of Pues, Anglican scholar John Mason Neale condemned pews as "the intrusion of human pride, and selfishness, and indolence, into the worship of GOD," and as "eye-sores and heart-sores."

A Presbyterian minister named Isaac Todd wrote in an 1851 article, The Posture in Prayer, that sitting in church is "grievously improper whenever the infirmities of the worshipper do not render it necessary." Reverend Todd argued that only certain postures during prayer have any scriptural support: prostration, kneeling, kneeling while sitting on the heels, bowing the head while standing, and standing erect.
"Many and weighty are the objections to a congregation’s sitting in prayer," writes Todd. "It is a practice directly at variance with the principal ends had in view by the great Head of the Church in instituting public worship."
He goes on to list his specific objections to sitting during worship:
1) "Sitting in prayer is never expressive of either solicitude or reverence."
2) "Sitting in prayer is an indolent posture; consequently, its tendency is to produce a spirit of lounging indifference."
3) "When we keep our seats in prayer, we do violence to the instinctive sense of propriety which God has made a part of our very being."
4) "As often as we sit in prayer we disregard in many ways the laws of association, which God in his goodness has made a part of our very nature."
5) "Sitting in prayer is not only contrary to the usage of our Presbyterian ancestors, but also to that of the church in general for more than 1800 years after the coming of Christ."
6) "By sitting in prayer, we give others to understand that we make very little, or make nothing of our bodies. (the point being that by standing in prayer we are worshipping God with our whole bodies)
7) "By sitting in prayer we give the rising generation to understand also that we may with propriety, when moved by mere caprice, set aside any long established usage."

The question of pews is certainly not one over which I would fall on my sword, and I'm confident that most Orthodox clergy and laity would say the same. But, if the absence of pews enhances my ability to worship, then I am happy to do without them.