Sentence:  Through this two-year, transcontinental colloquy, through this vast outpouring of personal sentiments and reactions from poor homes and rich, from backwoods cabins and metropolitan penthouses, from the young and old, from dubious <WSD>backbench</WSD> sitters and busy pillars of the congregations, from the bitter and the satisfied, each person telling it as he or she saw it. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The back pew of a church.