The church pew that escaped

The longest seats ever built, designed only for worship in churches - pews -are the most amazing creation. What happens to them after the world has moved on and decided that ergonomics might actually help people to pray more whole-heartedly and listen, rather than fall asleep?

My good friend and Uniting Church minister put the word out that some of the pews in her church were on the market; beautiful creations made from blond eucalypt hardwood with very long well-worn cushions strapped on to the back rail and along the seat. For dozens of years, these pews sat in a kind of silent prayer - sometimes with people on them and sometimes not. Faithful in a way we humans can never know. A 100% commitment to the task of knowing and being what you were made for.

3.3 metres long and requiring deep focus to move them without destroying either the pew or your back, I got mine onto the roof of my trusty Subaru with a bit of help from my minister friend and her partner. Would it make its way through early-morning Melbourne traffic without turning into a major car-accident? The karmic consequences were unthinkable.

It arrived safely, and when a surprised real estate agent knocked on my door later that morning to tell me about some housing opportunity around the corner, I suggested there was another opportunity on the roof of my car he might be able to help ME with. He had a very good heart and seemed to welcome the break from the relentless door-knocking that comes with the real-estate territory.

We muscled it down off the car, through the gate and onto the verandah which looked as though it had been waiting for this moment its whole life: “At last… the pew to complete my purpose!”

Now in position, it didnt seem at all out of place, and I wondered if somehow everything that the church — the institution — could be and maybe had been in the past, was still possible through the communion that might happen yet on this verandah. What is “the church” anyway? As people look for deeper meaning beyond the dusty ritual which is so often what we find inside the formal church, new ways of acknowledging the sacred are emerging all over the place. Yoga, dance, meditation and more are finding their way into people’s lives everywhere in one way or another, as a deep calling for something truly meaningful…

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