This article caught my eye today....I know I shouldn't be shocked but....I think this article has some of the most arrogant phrases I ever heard....
A posture of penance, or a sign of respect?
Trend is away from kneeling in church, though many say it shows reverence
BILL BROADWAY
Washington Post
Every Sunday at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Fairfax, Va., 200 people gather at the 9:45 a.m. service to sing modern hymns led by a pop band, and to hear a conversational sermon given from the floor in front of the pulpit by a pastor in street clothes.
It's different at the 8:30 and 11 a.m. services, when the congregants chant responsively from worship books, an organist plays traditional hymns and the same minister, in robe and stole, delivers a formal homily.
Look at the worshipers lined up to take Communion, and you will see a less obvious but perhaps more powerful symbol of the difference between the two styles of worship. Parishioners at the traditional service kneel at the altar rail to receive the bread and wine. Those at the contemporary service stand.
In many Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, few aspects of communal worship have become more important than the issue of whether to kneel. The trend has been a move away from kneeling, but some have challenged efforts to discourage kneeling.
Many people still like to kneel because they believe "there needs to be the recognition that you're dealing with the Almighty," said the Rev. Theodore Schneider, bishop of the Metropolitan Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "It's a sign of respect, a sign of prayer."
The case against kneeling springs from the argument that worship should be a joyful experience -- not a plea for God's forgiveness.
Many congregations have abandoned kneeling because they associate it with an "extreme penitential sense of being sinners," said Carol Ann Doran, professor of music and liturgy at Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) in Alexandria, Va. Instead of praying on their knees, heads down and hands clasped, many prefer to stand, arms out and palms held up, "waiting for God's spirit to become present," she said.
The shift away from kneeling is most evident in Catholic churches. From the Middle Ages through most of the 20th century, Catholics spent more time during Mass on their knees than they did sitting or standing. Now, as a general practice, Catholics kneel only twice -- both times before taking Communion, which they receive while standing.
The change evolved after Vatican II, the council of the early 1960s that sought to modernize the Church. In 1970, when the Vatican left the decision of whether to kneel during Communion to different jurisdictions worldwide, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declared that standing was the "norm," said Monsignor James Moroney, executive director of the U.S. bishops' committee on the liturgy.
The reason that bishops most often give is that standing enhances the sense of ritual participation by the entire assembly of worshipers and most accurately "imitates the resurrection of Christ," Moroney said.
One papal directive after Vatican II required kneeling once at Mass -- during the consecration, when Catholics believe the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Two years ago, after complaints from laypeople about the allotted time for kneeling, the conference asked, and received, approval from the Holy See for U.S. Catholics to kneel several minutes after the consecration and to kneel a second time, when the priest holds the consecrated host and wine above the altar.
In July, after disputes in some dioceses over whether a recent Vatican document required Catholics to stand throughout Communion, even after returning to their pews, the bishops' committee clarified that "posture should not be regulated so rigidly as to forbid individual communicants from kneeling or sitting" after receiving Communion.
Protestant traditionalists also have taken up the cause, demanding that they be allowed to kneel in church if they choose.
Some Methodist and Presbyterian congregations have added "kneelers" in pews, quoting biblical texts that speak of the importance of presenting oneself humbly before God. Pentecostal and evangelical churches, including some that are Baptist, ask that worshipers kneel on the floor and rest their elbows on their seats -- a practice once common in Methodist churches but abandoned at the turn of the 20th century.
But there's little doubt that most Protestants, like Catholics, have replaced the penitential style of worship with happier, more joyful expressions of devotion, said James F. White, professor emeritus of liturgical studies at Notre Dame.
White, a Methodist, said penitential piety originated in the medieval period, with the kneeling posture adapted from the feudal practice of a vassal kneeling before his lord.
"The idea was that you'd go to church to be miserable, and it usually worked," White said.
The practice continued after the Reformation, and sometimes was adhered to more rigidly in Protestant churches than Catholic, he said. But Eastern Orthodox churches never adopted kneeling.
In Protestant denominations, where decision-making is less centralized than in the Catholic Church, policies on kneeling tend to be made at locally. Among Episcopal and Lutheran churches, practices vary widely.
Some Christians have revived kneeling, but sought to break its long association with doing penance. A form of worship called Taize, for example, combines kneeling, chanting rhythms, communal prayer and meditation.
The kneeling is done as "a gesture of love" rather than as an expression of guilt and contrition, said Stephan Waligur, a Taize follower in Washington.
"When I kneel, it's a gesture of ... solidarity with everyone there and with love for God," said Waligur, raised Catholic and ordained a United Methodist minister. "It's a beautiful thing that emphasizes positive spirituality. ..."
