Mourner's bench

{{Short description|Bench located in front of the chancel of a church}}

File:Mourners' Bench at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church.jpeg at the mourners' bench and chancel rails, located in front of the altar (Pasadena)]]

The mourner's bench or mourners' bench, also known as the mercy seat or anxious bench, in Methodist and other evangelical Christian churches is a bench located in front of the chancel.{{cite book|last=Winton|first=George Beverly|title=The Junaluska Conference: A Report of the Second General Missionary Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South |year=1913|publisher=Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South|language=English|page=195}}{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=Ted|title=Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials|year=2011|publisher=Abingdon Press|language=English |isbn=9781426727016|page=43}}{{cite book|last=Bradshaw|first=Paul F.|title=New SCM Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship|date=24 April 2013|publisher=Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd|isbn=9780334049326|page=421}} The practice was instituted by John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church.{{cite book|last=Streett|first=R. Alan|title=The Effective Invitation: A Practical Guide for the Pastor|year=1984|publisher=Kregel Academic|language=English|isbn=9780825494765|page=92}}

Individuals kneel at the mourners' bench to experience the New Birth. Some of those who have already had the New Birth go there to receive entire sanctification. Others, especially backsliders,{{cite book|last=Childress|first=Richard T.|title=A Historical Lottery: Europe to Appalachia and Beyond - A Ramsey Family Through 1500 Years of Social and Cultural Change|date=22 December 2016|publisher=Dorrance Publishing|isbn=9781480927926|page=751}} use the mourners' bench to confess their sins and receive forgiveness, in order to continue the process of sanctification.{{cite book|last=Heath|first=Elaine A.|title=Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer|date=1 January 2009|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|language=English |isbn=9781630877170|page=17|quote=Penitents came forward to the "mourners' bench," a long bench near the pulpit where sins were confessed and forgiveness received.}}{{cite book|last=Atkin|first=Pippa|title=Flexi-RE Evaluation|year=2003|publisher=Nelson Thornes|language=English|isbn=9780748763542|page=8|quote=Their sermons done, revivalists like Caughey and Marsden, following time-honoured Methodist procedure, would urge people to the communion rail - called also the mourners' bench, a kind of Protestant confessional - in public acceptance of Christ.}}

At the mourners' bench, individuals receive spiritual counsel from a minister. In keeping with the doctrine of the mortification of the flesh, penitents do not kneel on kneeler cushions but instead kneel on the floor.{{cite book|last=Clark |first=Davis W. |title=The Methodist Episcopal pulpit: a collection of original sermons from living ministers of the M.E. Church|year=1856|publisher=Carlton & Phillips|language=English|page=226}}

Today many, but not all,{{cite book|title=Upper Cumberland Country|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|language=English |isbn=9781617035319|page=91|quote=When salvation comes, the seeker sits erect on the mourner's bench, either crying from joy or smiling, thus announcing to others present what has happened.|year=1993}} Methodist churches supplant the mourners' bench with chancel rails,{{cite book|title=Methodist History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UkmAQAAIAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Commission on Archives and History, The United Methodist Church|language=English|page=149|quote=Methodist preachers invited them to come forward and kneel at the altar rail...}} where Methodists, as well as other evangelical Christians receive Holy Communion, in addition to experiencing the New Birth, repenting of their sins, and praying.{{cite book|last=Airhart|first=Phyllis D.|title=Serving the Present Age: Revivalism, Progressivism, and the Methodist Tradition in Canada|date=26 February 1992|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|language=English |isbn=9780773563193|page=69}}