Pew: Difference between revisions

{{otherOther uses}}

[[File:GustafVasaICS Benchestraditional church pews.jpg|alt=church pew|right|thumb|PewsTraditional insolid rows in a[[oak]] church pews]]

A '''pew''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|juː}}) is a long [[bench (furniture)|bench]] [[seat]] or enclosed box, used for seating [[Member (local church)|members]] of a [[LocalChurch church(congregation)|congregation]] or [[choir]] in a [[Church (building)|church]], or sometimes a [[synagoguecourtroom]]. orOccasionally, sometimesthey are also found in live performance venues (such as the [[Ryman Auditorium]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], which was formerly a church). In Christian churches of the [[courtroomCatholic Church|Roman Catholic]], [[Lutheran]], and [[Anglican]] traditions, kneelers are an essential part of the pew, that are used during various parts of the [[Christian liturgy|liturgy]].<ref name="Olson2009">{{cite book |last1=Olson |first1=Roger E. |title=How to Be Evangelical without Being Conservative |date=26 May 2009 |publisher=Zondervan |isbn=978-0-310-29737-6 |language=en|quote=Worshipers will stand and sit and perhaps kneel in their pews (on a padded kneeling railing that pulls down from the pew in front).}}</ref>

[[File:KingsNortonInterior.jpg|thumb|[[Box PEWS PEWS AND MORE PEWS pews]] in St John the Baptist, [[King's Norton, Leicestershire|King's Norton]], Leicestershire]]

| authorlink1author-link1 = Frank Viola (author)

| authorlink2author-link2 = George Barna

| isbn = 9781414341651 978-1-4143-4165-1

Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the [[Protestant Reformation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stnicholasstratford.org/article_feb2015_chairs.html|title=On the Christian Life: On Chairs in Church|author=|date=|website=www.stnicholasstratford.org|accessdateaccess-date=7 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170902013230/http://www.stnicholasstratford.org/article_feb2015_chairs.html|archive-date=2 September 2017|df=}}</ref> The rise of the [[sermon]] as a central act of Christian worship, especially in Protestantism, made the pew a standard item of church furniture.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/454697/pew|title=Pew - furniture|author=|date=|website=britannica.com|accessdateaccess-date=7 May 2018}}</ref> Hence the use or avoidance of pews could be used as a test of the [[high church|high or low]] character of a Protestant church: describing a mid-19th century conflict between [[Henry Edward Manning]] and Archdeacon Hare, [[Lytton Strachey]] remarks with characteristic irony, "Manning had been removing the high pews from the church in Brighton, and putting in open benches in their place. Everyone knew what that meant; everyone knew that the high pew was one of the bulwarks of Protestantism, and that an open bench had upon it the taint of Rome".<ref>Lytton Strachey, 1918, ''Eminent Victorians''; 1979 Folio Society edition p. 42.</ref>

Pews are generally made of wood and arranged in rows facing the altar in the [[nave]] of a church. Usually a pathway is left between pews in the center to allow for a procession; some have benchlike cushioned seating, and [[Kneeler|hassockhassocks]]s or footrests, although more traditional, conservative churches usually have neither cushions nor footrests. Many pews have slots behind each pew to hold [[Bible]]s, [[prayer book]]s, [[hymnal]]s or other church literature. Sometimes the church may also provide stations on certain rows that allow the hearing-impaired to use headsets in order to hear the sermon. In many churches pews are permanently attached to the floor, or to a wooden platform.

In churches with a tradition of public kneeling prayer (such as the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican denominations), pews are often equipped with [[kneeler]]s in front of the seating bench so members of the congregation can kneel on them instead of the floor.<ref name="Olson2009"/> These kneelers essentially have long, usually padded boards which run lengthwise parallel to the seating bench of the pew. These kneeler boards may be 15&nbsp;cm or so wide and elevated perhaps 10–15&nbsp;cm above the floor, but dimensions can vary widely. Permanently attached kneelers are often made so they can be rotated or otherwise moved up out of the way when the congregation members are not kneeling.

Until the early/mid twentieth century, it was common practice in Anglican, Catholic, and Presbyterian churches to rent pews in churches to families or individuals as a principal means of raising income. This was especially common in the United States where churches lacked government support through mandatory [[Tithe|tithing]]. This, by nature, enforced aand sort ofdemonstrated social status in church seatingstanding within a parish. Architecturally, pew rents led to a divergence between American and European church furnishing persisting to this day.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} Pews became far more common in American churches because they were a source of income.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}}

[[File:Milford Malvoisin pews.jpg|thumb|left|"Churches as they were, and as they will be", illustration of church pews from ''Milford Malvoisin, or Pews and Pewholders'' (1842), by [[Francis Edward Paget]]]]

Pew rental emerged as a source of controversy in the 1840s and 1850s, especially in the Church of England. The legal status of pew rents was, in many cases, very questionable.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nigel Scotland|title=Squires in the Slums: Settlements and Missions in Late Victorian Britain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5zCBt5EuiEC&pg=PA4|accessdateaccess-date=27 February 2013|date=15 August 2007|publisher=[[I.B.Tauris]]|isbn=978-1-84511-336-0|page=4}}</ref> Further, it exacerbated a problem with a lack of accommodation in churches, that had been noted already in the 1810s, especially in London, and in particular by [[Richard Yates (antiquary)|Richard Yates]] in his pamphlet ''The Church in Danger'' (1815) with his estimate of over 950,000 people who could not afford to worship in a parish church. St Philip's Clerkenwell, a [[Commissioners' church]], was the first London church to break with pew rents.<ref>{{cite book |author=Nigel Scotland |title=Squires in the Slums: Settlements and Missions in Late-Victorian London |year=2007 |publisher=I. B. Tauris |isbn=978 -1 -84511 -336 -0|pages=3–4}}</ref>

[[William James Conybeare]] commented on the pew system in his "Church Parties" article in the ''[[Edinburgh Review]]'' of 1853, stating that it was the Anglicans who had adopted the slogan "Equality within the House of God".<ref>{{cite book|author=Sydney Smith|title=Edinburgh Review, Or Critical Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VIVHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA309|accessdateaccess-date=27 February 2013|year=1853|publisher=A. and C. Black|page=309}}</ref> The early 19th century Commissioners' churches were only required to offer 20% free seating. Attitudes changed from the 1840s, with the [[High Church]] party turning against paid pews. By the 1860s and 1870s that view had become quite orthodox, and was supported vocally by [[Frederic William Farrar]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Chris Brooks|title=The Victorian Church: Architecture and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GO7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA41|accessdateaccess-date=27 February 2013|year=1995|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-4020-7|page=41}}</ref>

Many Anglo-Catholic parishes were founded at this time as "free and open churches" characterized by their lack of pew rentals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://anglicanhistory.org/misc/freechurch/fowler_pews1844.html|title=Church Pews, Their Origin and Legal Incidents, by John Coke Fowler (1844)|author=|date=|website=anglicanhistory.org|accessdateaccess-date=7 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20120828033217/http://anglicanhistory.org/misc/freechurch/fowler_pews1844.html|archive-date=28 August 2012|df=}}</ref> In mid-century reforms, pews were on occasion removed from English churches in order to discourage rental practices. The Free and Open Church Association was founded in 1866 by [[Samuel Ralph Townshend Mayer]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Mayer, Samuel Ralph Townshend}}</ref>