{{Short description|Bench located in front of the chancel of a church}} [[File:Mourners' Bench at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church.jpeg|thumb|300px|Christian worshipers at Mount Zion United Methodist Church praying at the mourners' bench and chancel rails, located in front of the altar (Pasadena, Maryland, U.S.)]]
The '''mourner's bench''' or '''mourners' bench''', also known as the '''mercy seat''' or '''anxious bench''', is a bench located in front of the chancel in the Methodist Church (inclusive of the Holiness movement) and other Evangelical Christian denominations.{{refn|<ref name="Winton1913">{{cite book |author-last=Winton |author-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 |page=195}}</ref><ref name="Campbell2011">{{cite book |author-last=Campbell |author-first=Ted |title=Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials |year=2011 |location=Nashville, Tennessee |publisher=Abingdon Press |isbn=9781426727016 |page=43}}</ref><ref name="Bradshaw2013">{{cite book |author-last=Bradshaw |author-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}}</ref>}}
The practice was instituted by the 18th-century English preacher and theologian John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.<ref name="Streett1984">{{cite book |author-last=Streett |author-first=R. Alan |title=The Effective Invitation: A Practical Guide for the Pastor |year=1984 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |publisher=Kregel Academic |isbn=9780825494765 |page=92}}</ref> Today many, but not all,<ref>{{cite book |title=Upper Cumberland Country |location=Jackson, Mississippi |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |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}}</ref> Methodist churches supplant the mourners' bench with chancel rails,<ref>{{cite book |title=Methodist History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UkmAQAAIAAJ |year=2002 |department=Commission on Archives and History |publisher=United Methodist Church |page=149 |quote=Methodist preachers invited them to come forward and kneel at the altar rail...}}</ref> where Methodists and other Evangelical Christians receive Holy Communion, in addition to experiencing the New Birth, repenting of their sins, and praying.<ref name="Airhart1992">{{cite book |author-last=Airhart |author-first=Phyllis D. |year=1992 |chapter=New Horizons and A New Evangelism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GoE8LZQPWG0C&pg=PA69 |title=Serving the Present Age: Revivalism, Progressivism, and the Methodist Tradition in Canada |location=Montreal, Quebec |publisher=McGill–Queen's University Press |series=McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Religion |page=69 |isbn=9780773563193}}</ref>
Individuals kneel at the mourners' bench to experience the two works of grace in Methodism: (1) the New Birth and (2) entire sanctification. Others, especially backsliders,<ref name="Childress2016">{{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 |location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |publisher=Dorrance Publishing |isbn=9781480927926 |page=751}}</ref> use the mourners' bench to confess, repent of their sins, and receive forgiveness from God, in order to continue the process of sanctification.{{refn|<ref name="Heath2009">{{cite book |last=Heath |first=Elaine A. |title=Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer |date=1 January 2009 |location=Eugene, Oregon |publisher=Wipf and Stock |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.}}</ref><ref name="Atkin2003">{{cite book |last=Atkin |first=Pippa |title=Flexi-RE Evaluation |year=2003 |location=Cheltenham, Gloucestershire |publisher=Nelson Thornes |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.}}</ref>}} At the mourners' bench, individuals receive spiritual counsel from a Christian minister.<ref name="Streett1984"/> In keeping with the doctrine of the mortification of the flesh, penitents do not kneel on kneeler cushions but instead kneel on the floor.<ref>{{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 |page=226}}</ref>
== See also == {{Portal|Evangelical Christianity|Reformed Christianity}} * Altar call * Christian revival * Decision theology * Great Awakenings * Lordship salvation * Methodist worship * Sinner's prayer * Tabernacle (Methodist) * Tent revival * Wesleyan theology ** Assurance ** Conditional preservation of the saints ** Growth in grace ** Outward holiness ** Second work of grace
== References == {{reflist|2}}
== External links == *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbDAbXp5JYk Methodist History: The Mourners' Bench]
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Category:Church architecture Category:Evangelical ecclesiology Category:Holiness movement Category:Methodism