Caminante, no hay camino

The Great Pew Removal:

It's one of those slate blue/grey days outside, which heightens the fall foliage. The sun comes and goes, but it's too wet outside to do any hiking.


So, instead, this morning I kibbitzed and supervised the removal of the front pew on the left side of the church. Last year, the pew on the right side of the church was taken out, which made it possible to have some space to pull the side altar out further from the wall. Now, with the left side taken out, it means that we can set up a "soft space" for the children to sit up front.

The pews are about 150 years old, probably made out of pine, once upon a time painted white and then later on, shellacked with wood varnish that is water-based so that when it is hot and humid, the pews stick to people's clothing. They are quasi-box pews, without the doors, but with a center divider that runs the entire length of the eight rows. Removal was less difficult than anticipated; with just two small pry bars and some pushing, the pew came unstuck from the front railing. It didn't take too much to get it unhitched from the center divider. And, it was easily carried in two pieces across the front lawn to the shed, where it will await pickup from the lucky person who bid for it.

Oddly, there hasn't been any flap about removing the pews. Perhaps it is because attendance is about a fifth of what the church can hold; we just don't need all that seating. Perhaps it is because people don't really notice such a thing. Whatever. I did find it interesting when a vestry member suggested that we remove ALL the pews. Ahh... my dream is to set up a cooperative with one of the furniture makers in Nahuizalco, El Salvador. There they make beautiful hand-cut wooden furniture with cane backs and seats. Can you imagine having nice cane chairs, made by a cooperative that would help out folks in El Salvador, while providing folks up here some true beauty rather than boring chairs that come from one of the multitudinous school/library/hotel furniture makers, whose catalogues seem to proliferate in my mailbox?

It is far easier to deal with the supposed trauma of removing a pew from the church than to contemplate the absolute craziness that seems to be fomenting itself in the world-wide Anglican Communion with statements such as the one that came out of Kigali. Even the meeting of the 21 TEC bishops in Texas is too much for my heart to bear. So I fuss with silly things, like pews.