Please see Styx thread on the Registered Shipmates consultation for the main discussion forums - your views are important, continues until April 4th.

Ship of Fools: Bath Abbey, Bath, Somerset, England


imageShip of Fools: Bath Abbey, Bath, Somerset, England

Well sung evensong – but oh, those chairs!

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here


Comments

  • Box PewBox Pew Shipmate
    edited September 2019
    Thanks for your report. Whatever their replacement looks like, the removal of those magnificent pews, which worked just fine, is a terrible sadness that will long be regretted.

    The fact that the Abbey got a grant from the national lottery (the UK government's tax on the stupid) to change the seating somehow makes it even worse.

    This, and your report, rather confirms my feeling that Bath Abbey is all for the tourists and concerts - not religion at all. You may be right that the CofE is in terminal decline (I am not so sure). But in 2019 it is still a church and it might stave off oblivion if its places of worship looked more like places of worship.
  • How I agree! Beautiful music, unspoilt architecture, obscure language, mysterious ritual... All these things, quite apart from challenging ideas, could still appeal to anyone. Being wooed with the latest fashion appeals to no one. The fashion has changed before they've noticed.
  • Urganda wrote: »
    How I agree! Beautiful music, unspoilt architecture, obscure language, mysterious ritual... All these things, quite apart from challenging ideas, could still appeal to anyone. Being wooed with the latest fashion appeals to no one. The fashion has changed before they've noticed.

    All the things you cite were fashionable in their day.
  • True. It's up to us to judge which fashions are also beautiful or meaningful. Of course we won't all think the same. That's part of the fun. Religions are (among other things) repositories of out-dated fashions where we can see, or maybe not see, which ones have lasting value.
  • Some fashions stand the test of time and become classic. Others don't. We like to flatter ourselves by claiming that we know the difference when we see or hear it. But bottom line, only time can be the judge. How many of today's popular songs will we be humming 20 years from now? How many of the Big Band hits of the 1940s do we still hum even 80 years later?
  • I could be wrong, but I predict the new chairs in Bath Abbey will not be admired in 80 (or even 20) years.
  • I'm not sure many people go to abbeys and cathedrals to admire the seats. Pews are a relatively recent addition to most naves, and there are many reasons to remove them. In most such buildings there's always a place for dark oak seating and misericords etc in the quire area.
  • And for an artfully designed and anatomically, erm, uplifting chair.
  • yohan300 wrote: »
    I'm not sure many people go to abbeys and cathedrals to admire the seats. Pews are a relatively recent addition to most naves, and there are many reasons to remove them. In most such buildings there's always a place for dark oak seating and misericords etc in the quire area.

    In some places pews are a 'recent' addition in that they have been there since the Reformation. Before that there were often pews or rather 'seatings' but they reflected class status. The poor had primitive benches without backs whilst the middle and upper classes had more comfortable arrangements or even their own private enclosures. The Victorians—bless 'em—were very hot on sweeping away such class distinctions and the pews that once adorned Bath Abbey should been seen as a triumph for an inclusive attitude to church worship. Firm, immovable pews are also hugely more welcoming to those who are unsteady on their feet.
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    edited November 2022
    But pews also make things less accessible to others since they can't be moved individually like chairs - people in wheelchairs for eg were not a priority for the Victorians because far fewer people used them, but now they should be. Chairs also allow for more flexibility in the worship space.

    I think it's a mistake to suggest that any particular type of seating is integral to a place of worship looking like a place of worship - Orthodox churches for instance have no seats at all (except for a few benches around the outside) and everyone but those unable to do so stands for the whole service, but it would be silly to say that Orthodox churches don't look like places of worship.
Sign In or Register to comment.