Why do churches have pews

This led to a common practice of selling pews to wealthier parishioners to have personal reserved seating in the church for their families.

As you can expect, this lead to more esteemed seating to be sold at higher prices, and elitism and divisiveness within the church body. Church pews became private property, not owned by the church, and were passed down through generations of families for their own personal use. This practice of the church owning the pews rather than the parishioners was the dominant practice in the United States churches, to align with their desire for personal freedoms and their desire to break from the English church.

In essence, the modern American churches desired pews to be seen as open and available seating to any wanderer who needed a place of peace. Pews today, despite their somewhat shady past, are meant to show equality in anyone who comes before the foot of the cross — all are welcome and all can find rest in this place. Call us today, or check out our pews here if you need new pews in your sanctuary.

Let us help make your church a welcoming place for those who are weary and heavy laden! Skip to content. Why do churches have pews? Or the sick and those who have problems standing? I used to be able to stand for services but I cannot stand for long periods any more. Surely the Christians of old were also humans with back problems and health issues or even old age?

That is one of several reasons for the name Free Methodist Church. When they seperated from the Methodist church the seat was free. In Acts 2 the Holy Ghost came into the house where they were sitting. Maybe the church should have never stood. That was both informative and hilarious-thanks!

There Is also a middle way between pews and no pews found in some of the churches in Greece and Cyprus. Even realitively pew-less churches had a few if these along the back or side wall for the aged and infirmed. This article is incorrect about how standing became the norm.

Early church meetings were in house churches and the communion was an actual meal where they sat and ate after reading Scripture. It was not until Christianity became the official religion of Rome, Constantine c.

The Eastern Church retained this no chairs and gave it a theological reason; whereas, the Western Church started having non-communicating masses where everything happened behind the rood screen including the priest or bishop communicating FOR the people.

At this point the congregants had nothing to do for most of the mass so they sat and recited the Latin prayers from rote and waited for the bells to signal it was time to pay attention.

The reason for non-communicating masses was simple as well, people feared taking communion because if they dropped the host it was a mortal sin. We need many more articles as this on the many cultural and spiritual history of the Church. Let our historical and present differences help bring us together.

Luke tells us that, after Christ had read the Isaiah passage concerning himself, he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. Acts also tells us the apostles went to Antioch on a Sabbath, entered the synagogue and sat down.

I appreciate the reference to James, as the early church itself was in full swing by then and sitting was a thing. That said, I would have to admit that the origin and practices surrounding the use of pews in America is, at times, pretty weird. But people in the past did strange stuff at times even outside of the church.

Oh sure, you could sit down if you were willing to pay enough…kinda reminds you of…. Episcopal Church had such pews; even the parish records will tell you where George Washington and Ben Franklin Sat when they attended. A side note from Scotland, which I discovered when doing some research into the history of our church, which was built as a mission church in a poor mining village by the Church of Scotland, originally supervised by the church in the next town.

The old church building was maintained by the local Protestant landowners, and when it was renovated in the late 19th century the landowners also renovated the pews, and then informed the Kirk Session of which pews they had reserved for themselves, and which pews the congregation could have access to!

When our church was opened the supervising church tried to rent out the pews: there was a standard rate for all pews except the one farthest from the pulpit, which was cheaper! When the mission church became a Parish Church pew rents were quietly forgotten about. It might be worth noting that pews did exist and increasingly featured in churches before the Reformation— from the 14th century, in fact. They were not in any sense a post-Reformation development.

Much scholarship has been done on this subject, some of the best in the early part of the last century. While our Episcopal Church has pews, we stand for most of the service. Just sit for the lessons and long boring sermon. I always heard the pew deeds in early NewEngland time were also in order for men to have deeded property. When only deeded property-owning men had voting rights this deed gave voting.

When kneeling for prayer, I can lean against the pew in front, and that pew also helps me to get up. While I agree with your overall thesis, there are some sweeping historical inaccuracies. As a previous commenter has said, Calvin and Cranmer both argued strongly for weekly communion, whereas the medieval Roman church had regressed to just a few times a year.

Thank God you did not talk about the church not using air conditioning for over years. I would hate to see those units removed to recapture a more primitive church. Although the pre-air conditioning church fans that people propelled with their hands were usually furnished by the local funeral homes… which would remind us of our mortality. You are obviously unfamiliar with the story of Jenny Geddes who threw her stool at the head of the Dean of St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland.

She was protesting the introduction of the Scottish Prayer Book of A riot then ensued, with other members of the congregation shouting and throwing stools.

A woodcut from that time shows the rioters throwing fold stools, a type of portable stool that goes back to Roman times. Interesting article, though I did not see any references.

Of course if you wanted to go all the back to the apostles days, they met in homes daily and on Shabbat went to the synagogue or the temple and used whatever seating or lack thereof was available as described in the early chapters of the book of Acts.

But the Protestant movement did not go back to the original design of the assembly. Rather, as the article states, they threw out those things they felt were too specifically Catholic and kept those things they wanted — apparently adding the pew. Maybe the pew then should be the symbol of the Protestant organizations. Fun to read. The Episcopal church I attend required pew rents into the s. There were some free seats in the balconies. All are welcomed now. Comments are now closed for this article.

Pews are often appreciated for their classic and beautiful appearance. Many people have a sentimental attachment to the idea of pews in a church. Pews are often spacious , yet they can seat a large number of people. Pews also have a longer lifespan compared to church chairs and require little to no maintenance. Pews can have many disadvantages. Pews are often meant to be fixed in place and are sometime s bolted to the floor , so they can be expensive to repair and difficult to move if the church is being remodeled.

Pews also take up a lot of room. Many people also do not like to be seated so close to others, so they prefer chairs. Skip to content.