Of Furniture and Formation

As one should do when visiting Oxford, I’ve been spending some time in ancient English churches and college chapels. As British historian Nicholas Orme points out in his Going To Church in Medieval England (Yale, 2021) churchgoing as a religious and social activity here goes back at least to 313 AD when Emperor Constantine recognized Christianity as a lawful religion and allowed Christians to have public places of worship.

Much of everyday life for centuries has revolved around the parish church. Even today in some towns the bells in the church tower still summon people to worship each week. On Wednesday evenings one can hear the peals as ringers practice for the following Sunday.

Almost without exception one of the remarkable features is the furniture inside the nave, that long section of the building that divides the transepts on either side, forming the shape of a cross. Nearly every place of worship is furnished with pews. And, notably, on the back of the pew in front of where one is sitting there is a shallow shelf about 10 inches below the top of the pew. A Bible, a hymnal, and the Book of Common Prayer rest on this shelf. Worshippers thumb through each of the three to locate their proper place in the liturgy. They know the books well, which is sometimes painfully evident to visitors who don’t. Beneath the pew rests a place to kneel in the form of a kneeling bench or a raised cushion. The pews themselves may or may not have a seat cushion. Because worshippers stand often, kneel for part of the service, and sit for only relatively brief periods of time, a cushy seat is not entirely necessary.

#FrontPorchRepublic #Church #Chapel #Worship #Religion

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