So, you have a sitting preference at your church, I hear!

By Charles Muchiri

Left: Emmah Wamuyu

My 65 years old mother, Emmah Wamuyu Muchoki has an official favourite pew where she always sits during Holy Mass at our local church – St John Mihuti Catholic Church of Gikondi Parish in the Archdiocese of Nyeri.

It’s amazing that she can’t sit anywhere else; it has to be on that pew, somewhere in the middle of that church, at the extreme left end. And even if she came in late, everyone around knows that this is her position!

If anything, most guys at our local church have their own favourite positions where they almost can’t miss seating! Take for example, my mother’s best friend – Madam Felishina Wanja, they always sit right next to each other!

So, if they aren’t seating at their favourite pew, then they must be absent from the church that day!

Some 200Kms or so away from Mihuti Catholic Church, I know so many guys here in Nairobi with whom I attend Holy Mass, who have established some favourite sitting places. One of them is my boss – who attends Mass at the Holy Family Basilica.

He sits right at the middle of the big cathedral, always!

Further home, I also do have my favourite position at the Basilica – where I attend weekday Masses. I always sit on the right side, second pew from the front!

There is no mistaking it, anytime! It’s almost so instinctual! And I have also come to establish that I am not the only one at it. I have come to thoroughly know so many faces, people who always sit around me. I can easily tell, for example, when a certain person has been conspicuously absent!

I know another girl who is always keen at sitting 3 pews off the entrance cum exit door of the Basilica! I tried to sit there, for friendship’s sake, and I just couldn't hear Mass that day. The wind blowing from the entrance a few metres off my back easily kept whisking the homily off my ears, literally! My goodness, the altar was just so many miles away!

At least I can’t talk much about the place that I attend my Sunday Masses – at St Maurus of St Benedicts’ Parish, Nairobi. I am a choir member there, and as such, the choir has a designated place where all members sit, right at the front.

So, all these examples notwithstanding, is there any significance with regards to where we assume our sitting positions in the church, consciously or otherwise?

Is it possible and in this case if there is a conscious or an unconscious habit of preference with regards to sitting positions at the church; that our sitting predilections have something to do with our relations with the Higher Being that we seek to commune with?

The more I think about this question, the more I relate it with my experiences, the further I slowly lean towards the affirmative. I have a feeling that if I were invited to a feast, and I really don’t feel so comfortable being at the high table, where the host is probably sitting, laughing the night out, I’ll be much more comfortable sitting silently somewhere at the furthest end of the venue. Somewhere near the exit!

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