CHRIST CHURCH PENTECOST/TRINITY 2016
THE SONG VOL. 1 ISSUE 5
ALMIGHTY God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lilies of the Field © 1980 Mary Virginia Hill
Pentecost
Every once in a while, during Sunday worship, I indulge my imagination and picture all of us with bright, intensely beautiful flames of light dancing on our foreheads. It is a physical, visual, tangible brand. I like doing this. I started it quite a while ago when I was new to the church we were going to at the time and I felt like I had nothing in common with the other people sitting around me. It seemed like we were all in our separate bubbles. Awkward. I did what I usually do in these situations, I complained to God, about them. And, as usual, I was reminded that God has an entirely different take on the matter. I often feel that He’s laughing at me for being such a silly goose. I had gotten it completely wrong, again. All of the people around me were amazing. They had the Mark of the Lamb glowing on their brow. They were the intimate beloved of the Author of Life. We are the intimate beloved of the Author of Life.
Imagination is so dismissible. We say that it is just imaginary, meaning not true. And yet, I think it is a defining human quality. Everything we know to be true, was first imagined. It is a portal into the fantastically true. The Spirit of God makes use of it to inspire us. I have been using a hymn or sacred song on the opening page, in the previous issues of this publication, to illustrate whichever season of the Church we were in, as a theme. They each contained the word SONG because, well, you know. This issue is different. Jim Ford wrote a song and recorded it with his daughter Jennifer singing. The lyric is the Collect for Purity and it is perfect for Pentecost because of the letters in flamey red: By the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit.
We are God’s people ablaze with His love, inspired with a fire that fills us to be new people with new hopes, making new things, singing new songs. The Song, this publication, is a perfect place to let your light shine. The Schola Cantorum, led by our wonderful music director Stephen Kennedy, has a new CD called A Sunday in Paris. There are new babies. The EVENTS part of the SONG has new art and poetry and prose. There are vacation pictures from Renate Eckart. There are also people sharing their excitement for new projects, including a letter from Meg and Eric Mackie about their new wedding. It is us alive in the Spirit. And, there’s fire.
Sometimes I go to the archive room to find quiet. I sit cross legged on the empty desk by the tall windows that overlook the front lawn and, from there, I watch the comings and goings of all walks of life. As I watch students, business people, “street people,” musicians, neighborhood residents and all kinds of people, I am watched by the Rector, Wardens, and Vestrymen of Christ Church, 1903. They are seated above me in a black and white photo on the wall. The rector, the Rev’d Andrew Graham, is somewhere in his forties, but it’s hard to say what he thinks of it all since, back in his day, no one smiles for the camera.
It’s hard to read any of these men, but in my self-absorption, I imagine they are watching me disapprovingly (for any number of reasons). So I judge myself for judging them: how possibly could I know where life has found the twelve of them in this particular flash of the camera? Faces never tell the whole story, no matter what we believe we can read in each other’s eyes. In fact, faces can be misleading, especially in old black and white photographs. Sometimes, in my mind, I speak to them. I tell them news of the church they gave us; I ask Father Graham if my rectorship looks anything like his; sometimes I ask them advice, and always I assure them that we are doing our best to carry on where they left off. I think this means something to them.
What does Christ Church provide me that no other church provides? All kinds of things, but having just come down from the archive room, I am thinking most about this: Christ Church provides the archive room, and the journey to and from it. To get there – if you go by day – you cross the chancel where the sanctuary is lit up and, sometimes, shafts of orange light point down at the pews. Then you open the door into the tower sacristy, the name of which is as wondrous as the space itself. It is full of candelabras, and candles of every size. You can’t pass through the vast multitude these candles without thinking of light. Then you climb the tower stairs up nine steps before a sharp left turn, and up eight more steps to the archive room door.
Upon entering, you might decide to look through the box of birettas and ties the choir boys wore in the 1920’s, or you might study the faces of Sunday school children and their teachers in the 1950’s; you might look through papers, yellowed by age, of plans for the installation of the bells, or the architecture of the bell tower. When you look out across the lawn and see Eastman students hurrying to or from the Christ Church organs and the work world headed to or from their lunch, you’ll wonder at the passage of time. Maybe the lines from our beloved hymn will come to you: time like an ever flowing stream / bears all our years away / they fly forgotten as a dream / dies at the opening day. Then something in you will grow melancholy, maybe even a little lonely. But with the people in the photographs and the people outside the window surrounding you, you’ll ponder your togetherness with the saints in heaven and the saints on earth. And on your journey back from the archive room (especially if the sun is streaming down on the pews when you walk through the sanctuary), you’ll consider that quantum physics has it right: time doesn’t exist. That is why I like to go to the archive room to find quiet. This is what Christ Church provides me: views of where heaven and earth are joined.
Herself © 2003 Tim Jutsum
The Spirit hovers over the Earth like a mother over her child
From the sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. Leona Irsch at the 8 AM service on July 3, 2016 at Christ Church
The Old Testament reading for today has these words, found in your bulletin, Isaiah 66:10-13:
“Thus says the Lord: “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her—that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom. For thus says the LORD: I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm, and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.”
“So I will comfort you.” This is a picture of God as feminine, and it is not the only one in the Old Testament. Here is another:
The LORD says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him and called him out of Egypt as my son. But the more I called to him, the more he turned away from me. My people sacrificed to Baal; they burned incense to idols. Yet I was the one who taught Israel to walk. I took my people up in my arms, but they did not acknowledge that I took care of them. I drew them to me with affection and love. I picked them up and held them to my cheek; I bent down to them and fed them” (Hosea 11:1-4 Good News Bible). (Please note that there are as many different translations of this passage as there are Bibles because the Hebrew is not clear.)
After the prophet warns the people that “Assyria will rule over them” (5), he quotes God as saying, “How can I give you up, Israel? How can I abandon you? Could I ever destroy you as I did Admah, or treat you as I did Zeboiim? My heart will not let me do it! My love for you is too strong. I will not punish you in my anger; I will not destroy Israel again. For I am God and not man. I, the Holy One, am with you. I will not come to youin anger” (8-9). Assyria was at the door; whether or not Israel would have repented, they were going to be destroyed. But if the king had listened to the prophet and not thought he was invulnerable, but had been willing to compromise, perhaps Israel (the lost 10 tribes) would not have been wiped off the map.
Here we see God as mother, nursing and holding her child and teaching him how to walk.
Another passage is in the middle of a psalm we say every Lent, especially on Good Friday:
“Yet you are he who took me out of the womb, and kept me safe upon my mother’s breast. I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born; you were my God when I was still in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 22:8,9 Book of Common Prayerp. 620). The Hebrew verb under the translation “took” means “to cut, sever”. The picture is of God as midwife. When a woman is about to deliver, in Biblical times she sat on a birthing stool. This was a chair with a u-shaped seat with nothing in the middle. It had arms for the mother. The midwife sat on the floor with her knees under the woman so that when the baby came out of the womb it fell into her lap. She would cut the umbilical cord, clean up the baby, and put it at the mother’s breast to nurse.
There is also a feminine image of God in the New Testament. It is in John 3:
“Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above (or anew)’. Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit’” (John 3:3-5 NRSV).
Wombs belong to mothers, not fathers. In the church in Syria, which was a major Christian center until Islam wiped it out, the Spirit was always feminine because the word for spirit in Syriac, a semitic language akin to Hebrew, is feminine. In Hebrew the word for spirit, or wind, is ruah, andthere is a play on words in this sectionbetween wind and spirit. I t seems as if this passage was written down by someone who had a sense of the Hebrew or Syriac.
We are so used to hearing Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the Spirit a bird, even though we are warned not to make any image of God: “Since you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure—the likeness of male or female” (Deuteronomy 4:15,16). We get around that because Jesus was/is a human being, so we can make pictures of him.
These passages and one other show us the love and compassion of God:
“But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me, my lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands’” (Isaiah 49:15, 16 NRSV). It is very difficult for a woman to forget her nursing child. When the child cries, the milk comes down. And if the child doesn’t nurse, her breasts become painfully engorged.
Here is some food for thought.
Leona Irsch - sermon July 3 at 8am
From Death to Life
This is the direction that each of us hope to follow in some way. Our liturgies from Lent to Easter, and the cycle of the seasons from winter to spring follow this trajectory as well. Each of us experience this kind of transformation when we forge the path to create something through the process of working through, thinking, considering, practicing, and rehearsing. When we do this work in a group, we transform our lives through sharing, exchanging ideas, and becoming more sensitive and aware of others. Creating not only transforms our lives but our minds and bodies as well. Muscles respond positively to use, and studies show that brain chemistry changes when we undergo the process of learning a skill. The act of creating gives benefit to the creator as well as to the person who experiences the creation. A cycle is then produced. Creation inspires others to create.
"From Death to Life" is also the title of our concert fundraiser for Christ Church's Friends of Music fund on Sunday, April 3rd . This Concert will transform Christ Church in Rochester to St. Mary’s Church in seventeenth-century Lübeck, Germany. Two notable organists served that church then, Franz Tunder from 1641 to 1667 and Dieterich Buxtehude from 1668 to 1705. Our concert will feature Eastman organ faculty Nathan Laube, William Porter, Edoardo Bellotti, and David Higgs, along with Stephen Kennedy and the Christ Church Schola Cantorum. In keeping with the Easter season, the works in our concert move from death to resurrection. Buxtehude’s solemn Praeludium in d sets the opening tone, and the text for Lasso’s motet is drawn from Jesus’s words to his disciples on the night before his death: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” (Matthew 26:38) Tunder’s chorale fantasy gives extensive treatment to each phrase of Martin Luther’s famous Easter hymn: “Christ lay in the bonds of death, handed over for our sins, but he has arisen and brought us life. Therefore let us be joyful . . .” And, indeed, all the music that follows celebrates Christ’s resurrection. “Alleluia! Heaven and earth rejoice in your resurrection, Oh Christ” proclaims Handl’s motet. Buxtehude’s aria “Oh joyful hours, Oh joyful time” sets a poem by Johann Rist that describes Christ’s victory over Satan, death, and Hell. Buxtehude would have performed this work from the large organ with some of the municipal musicians, perhaps during the administration of communion on Easter Sunday. Jesus’s death is recalled in Vaet’s motet – “Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed” – but it is tempered with Alleluias, and Gabrieli returns us to pure rejoicing. Buxtehude’s final two praeludia continue the celebratory mood, and the ciaccona that closes his Praeludium in C ends the concert on a note of triumph.
Abstract Hills © 2005 T. Jutsum
The Narthex color choice required some archeology. You can see the excavation through the decades of paint which went back in time to the first layer. This was exciting when we found the color at the bottom.
The dusting party ( pictured above ) made quick work of the summer plaster dust. (photo credit- John McCallum) The photos below are the finished Narthex.
News and Events
Canon to The Ordinary- Introducing Rev. Canon Johnnie Ross
Parishioner Art and Poetry
Jazz Fest
RAIHN
Public Art -dedicated to Sarah Collins and Alice Wolf
Letter from Patti Blaine
Property Committee Report
Online Payment option
New CD from Schola Cantorum- A Sunday in Paris
Men's Group
Meg and Eric Mackie share their joy
Christ Church history "From the Archives"
Introducing Rev. Canon Johnnie Ross
Diocese Calls Canon to the Ordinary
The Episcopal Diocese of Rochester has called a Canon to the Ordinary. The Rev. Canon Johnnie E. Ross, who for the past eight years has served as rector of St. Raphael Episcopal Church in Lexington, Kentucky, will officially join the Diocese of Rochester on August 15.
Canon Ross worked on the staff of the Diocese of Lexington from 2001 to 2008, serving as that diocese’s transitions officer, Canon Missioner, and Canon to the Ordinary. A retired environmental scientist from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Ross also served as rector of St. James' Episcopal Church, Prestonsburg, from 1995 to 2007. He has experience in metropolitan and rural parishes.
"I want to give thanks to God for this goodly diocese, which God has blessed with fine leaders,” said the Rt. Rev. Prince G. Singh, VIII Episcopal Bishop in Rochester. “We now invite the Rev. Canon Johnnie Ross to this responsibility of Canon. The Search Committee, under the able leadership of the Very Rev. David Hefling and Stan Refermat, did its work with prayerful diligence and presented me with a finalist. Canon Ross gives me great anticipation in his love and deep experience of working with urban, rural, and small congregations. He is smart, detail-oriented, fun to be with, and creative, too! Most of all, he loves Jesus and strives to follow him faithfully!"
Born in Detroit, Ross moved to eastern Kentucky in 1968 to live with his maternal grandmother, who raised him and his two siblings following the death of their father. In the wake of that loss and nearly 10 year old, Ross discovered a love for the natural sciences, came to a deeper understanding of God, and began to understand what it meant to be among the marginalized.
“In my read of the Gospel, Jesus went about the work of restoring people to community, bringing them from the margins, back to the middle,” Ross said. “In fact, in Luke’s Gospel Jesus defines the ministry of restoration as ‘bringing sight to the blind, release to the captives, freedom to the oppressed, good news to the poor, and proclaiming the Lord’s favor.’ Jesus’ most important work was in restoring individuals to the community in the blessed hope that a person becomes a person through their interactions with other people. I am excited to see just how much more of a person I will become through my interactions with God’s beloved in Diocese of Rochester — and how this encounter will not only change my life, but yours.”
Highlights from Ross’ ordained ministry among the marginalized include: Prestonburg’s Fishes and Loaves Food Pantry, which fed an average of 200 families a month during his 12-year tenure as rector at St. James’; Food for Final’s, offering a free lunch to students at Big Sandy Community and Technical College during finals week; St. Raphael’s school backpack program, which feeds 100 families a week; his work with South Africa’s Reading Camp; and Camp Haven, a summer camp experience for children whose parents are incarcerated. These ministries have changed or restored many.
While serving as Lexington’s canon to the ordinary, he worked with Bishop Stacy F. Sauls to bring the Episcopal Youth Event to his alma mater, Berea College, and he established the Small Church Ministry Consortium, a group of four geographically isolated churches inthe mountains of eastern Kentucky that committed themselves to working together. The parishes shared clergy and other resources in the hope of becoming a more viable presence in their communities. In addition, Ross worked to establish a self-sustaining village in Haiti with Food for the Poor.
Of his most recent parish, Ross said, “St. Raphael’s is a wonderful community of extremely welcoming people — people who know what it’s like to welcome and be welcomed.” For nearly eight years Ross has served as their rector in a place where “they have loved me and I them,” he added. “Their next rector will receive a most precious gift, much like the one I am receiving from the people and Bishop of the Diocese of Rochester, a gift wrapped in the love of God. I am delighted, nervous, and excited about the change and challenge in becoming your canon to the ordinary. As my wife Julie and I begin to work on this new chapter of our life, we do so with a deep sense of call, a great deal of excitement, and true feeling of belonging to each other, the Church, the people of the Diocese of Rochester, and to the work and ministry with and among you.”
Ross is married to Julie Hale and together they have five children and five grandchildren. While the transition of his entire family will take time, Ross will be joined in Western New York by his wife and their two sons; Thomas Ross, 18, and Cameron Johnston, 17.
Search Committee Co-Chair Hefling said Ross comes to the diocese after an extensive search process involving 20 diverse candidates. “After many steps and many meetings, we decided to bring one candidate to the Diocese for a very full day of meetings and interviews that began with a breakfast and went clear through dinner that evening,” Hefling said in a letter from the Search Committee. “Each member of the Committee agreed that this candidate is indeed the best one for us in the Diocese of Rochester of those whom we vetted. However, the ultimate decision was Bishop Singh’s and he, too, decided . . . ‘Yes!’”
Clergy and elected diocesan leadership will have the opportunity to meet and greet Canon Ross at an open house on Friday, September 9, at Diocesan House. Invitations will go out soon.
Parishioner Art and Poetry
PENTECOST
Meditation on Roseshell Azalea
This year, the flared flounce of azalea
bursts into bloom a few days after
Pentecost as if to testify about mis-
understandings in multiple tongues:
fine-spun stamen lick the air around
the main pistil,
stigmata of flame
a chorus of meanings pealing
silent fluency
of honeysuckled scent.
Forgive me for wanting a song that—
but stop: leave the wanting aside
and listen to this blossomed boon
knowing misunderstandings
are like the shadows
the clouds make on the hills.
Stop, for a moment, to listen, to observe each face,
a freckled petal, how azalea sings its abundance!
Can you feel how it is beyond understanding
without us, without measure, as if
thoroughly transported?
Study in Electricity ©Elizabeth Dugdale
Drawings in colored pencil ©2016 Hannah Sommers
photos contributed by Renate Eckart © 2016
JAZZ FEST 2016 at Christ Church
below:
This is so fun to watch and you don't even have to be a parent of a drummer :), make sure to watch at the 1.47 minute section :). Vicki McCutchon
Property
Property Committee Report
The Property Committee has been very busy recently. As was mentioned at the annual meeting, the Parish is intending to engage in some significant construction work for this summer. Initially it was planned to address a complete repair and painting of the Nave. However, the source of the damage for much of the interior has been related to roof needs that have allowed storm water and ice melt to leak into the church interior. As such, this summer and fall, we will be engaging in several projects to the church.
Prior to the Jazz Festival in June, a temporary repair to the area on the north aisle will be made where the plaster ceiling fell this winter. This will allow us to move the pews blocking the aisle to be restored for normal use. After the Festival, we intend to have the Narthex and Chancel completely repainted and damaged plaster will be repaired to its historic form. Finally, sometime in late summer to fall, the roof over the north aisle will be repaired in order to prevent further water infiltration into the Church.
Additionally, the Property Committee is preparing a comprehensive list projects to address other maintenance and building needs. The Committee members are working with historic building plans and photos, restoration contractors and architects and local and state officials on needs, costs, and possible state and local grants that can assist in these repairs. This list will be reported to the Vestry at the May 17th meeting.
Please thanks the members of the Property Committee and provide any input that you may have –
Josie Dewey
John Fields
Alan Jones
Hugh Kierig
Tony Kingsley
Sarah Collins
ART PARTY (on the lawn)
The front lawn became the venue for the display of a contemporary sculpture highlighting the issue of the stewardship of natural resources. The event was sponsored by our neighbor ROCO and hosted by us at Christ Church. Sarah Collins and Alice Wolf were both remembered at the event.
The NEW CD from Christ Church Schola Cantorum! Copies are available for purchase at the back of the church under the balcony.
Men's Group
n historic even took place in April, at least I am led to believe it’s historical: The Men of Christ Church met, planned and implemented the first of what can be hoped will be many gatherings and projects of and by our brothers. I see such a simple thing in as large a context as I can. I look back to, if not fondly always, but at least with greater appreciation for, the unequaled importance of women's groups to the church in this country. If there is a lack of fondness in emotion, it only because even when I began ordained ministry we, Christ Church (Cincinnati branch) clergy would draw straws to see which of us had to go to eat lunch with this Girl’s Friendly Society chapter A and which would enjoy his/her lunch time with Girl’s Friendly Society chapter B which was feuding a bit with Chapter A. The “Girls” were about 5 people, none of whom was anticipating 80. But they and women’s auxiliaries were as critical to church life in mid century America as to hospitals or schools. Bringing in new members was not their mission; it was to minister to each other.
In my time of at least 30 years, I have not been as aware of men’s organizations. No doubt they exist and have existed, but it has not been my experience that men gathering was in the same league as women; but of course they didn’t need to configure as the woman. The men led the finance, the buildings, the vestry, and occasionally a Rector who believed slightly more certainly in the canons than in the scripture.
But we all need to find new ways of experiencing the community of God in Christ and men’s lives are as different now from the 1930s-1970s as are women’s. Men finding ways to connect and relate and look for opportunities to serve is nothing new. What’s new is we are new people together, people have come and people have gone, and we’re all older, facing different things than we once did, Christ is always giving us new wineskins to put the good stuff into which seems to just keep coming. The men seem to agree that a couple of steps into the waters of chaos, which glancing at Community can sometimes be, might be an ok thing for all of us.
Steven Metcalfe
R.A.I.H.N.
RAIHN UPDATE:
News:
· Car City 2016 was a success!! Thank you Christ Church for your donations ! Because of the generosity ofcongregations across Rochester, including Christ Church, RAIHN was able to exceed its fund raising goal of $20,000 by 6 pm on the day of the event. The current tally of funds raised is at$22,992!!
Letter from Patti Blaine
Dear fellow parishioners of Christ Church,
As many of you know, our bishop sent me to St. Luke's in Brockport in the late summer of 2015. I served there as a postulant for the diaconate for six months, through the end of February 2016. Bruce and I (and Kate) were delighted to return to Christ Church in time to sing with the choir for the Great Easter Vigil.
Shortly after Easter Sunday, Bishop Singh sent me on my second field placement, this time for 12 months. I began serving immediately at Trinity in Greece where I will be through Easter Sunday 2017.
Bruce and I continue to hold the people of Christ Church, our home parish, in our hearts and in our prayers. We miss you!
in peace,
Patti Blaine
Letter from Meg and Eric Mackey
A marriage made in heaven (well, at Christ Church anyway!)
On May 1st we were very happy to share the blessing of our wedding vows during the 11:00 Eucharist. When we became engaged last fall, we put a lot of thought into how our Christ Church family could participate in our wedding, and a Sunday vow blessing seemed perfect. Ours is a Christ Church love story (we met in Adult Formation), and we couldn’t have imagined this fairy tale ending. We worked side-by-side on Chancel Crew, chit-chatted during coffee hours, and formed a nice friendship. Our little matchmaker Hope, though, had bigger plans, and suggested we all go out for dinner one night. The rest is history.
With much love & gratitude,
Meg & Eric Mackey
online payment options
Several parishioners have inquired about setting up direct payments to Christ Church for their recurring donations. Those who wish to set up periodic donations to the church and are familiar with on-line banking procedures can identify Christ Church as a payee in their bank’s on-line bill payment account and establish continuing payments sent directly to Christ Church, 141 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14604 (585-454-3878). These payments will be recorded in the parishioner’s record of donations. Several parishioners currently use this procedure to send in their weekly/monthly donations. If you have any questions, please leave a message at the church office and our Treasurer will get be touch with you.
From the Archives
Part II: The Great Pew Controversy
Christ Church was not started by wealthy people. They mostly lived in newer homes "over the river," not in East Avenue mansions. They were shopkeepers, professional clerks and bookkeepers, artisans and craftsmen. Hendryx says "none was so financially secure that his share in a new church venture did not mean real sacrifice." Nevertheless, Christ Church was a "free church" at its inception in 1855--in other words, a church that did not charge for its pews. That was unusual in that time period, as building funds were often raised from advance sales of pews, sometimes to patrons not even communicants. Rental of pews provided more funds. Christ Church did neither, as the first rector Mr. Neely was against the "pew system" and even preached a sermon called "The Evils of the Pew System" on the church's first anniversary.
However, by 1862, the rector had to compromise on this principle as "voluntary subscriptions"--i.e. pledges--did not meet the debts of the church. The "Committee on Current Expenses" reported that "only about one quarter of the regular attendants . . . were in the habit of contributing anything" and Parker notes ironically that "the Free Church system from the outlook of the vestry was not as rosy as it had been."
For the next 60 years, Hendryx writes, "the Pew Committee was one of the most important . . . and not the least perplexing subdivisions of the Vestry." The compromise the first rector made was that no value was placed on pew location and no fixed price (in other churches front pews cost more to buy or rent)--people paid what they wanted to. At first, paper cards were attached to pews with the names of regular occupants of those pews, but other congregants who were pro-"free-pew" tore them off with regularity! In 1863, metal plates replaced the paper cards.
But even that attempt at egalitarianism could not last, and after 1870 values were placed on the pews according to location. In that year, the vestry asked the Pew Committee to be sure that assessments from pews raised at least $4000 for the church. In today's dollars, that is $69,700!
Not until 1921, on June 19, did the church unanimously vote that seats would "henceforth be free and unassigned." By then, the annual "Every Member Canvass" and the offering envelope system was in place.
How much would YOU pay for your pew? And wouldn't the values be reversed now? Back pews may now be considered more valuable real estate than front pews!