Best State to move to for EC

  • Thread starter Thread starter Addai
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Addai

Guest
I’m getting ideas for the distant future… 🙂
  1. What is the Best (U.S.) State to move to that has abundant Eastern Catholic churchs. And hopefully of varied nationalities and rites. I know some states like Ohio that are rich with Bzantine Catholics, but hoping to find one that has other Churches too, like Maronites, Melkites, Chaldeans etc. (especially interested in Maronites and Chaldeans).
  2. Cost of living is reasonable (compared to California)
  3. other miscellaneous benefits like natural beauty, good job market etc.
 
Addai said:
I’m getting ideas for the distant future… 🙂
  1. What is the Best (U.S.) State to move to that has abundant Eastern Catholic churchs. And hopefully of varied nationalities and rites. I know some states like Ohio that are rich with Bzantine Catholics, but hoping to find one that has other Churches too, like Maronites, Melkites, Chaldeans etc. (especially interested in Maronites and Chaldeans).
  2. Cost of living is reasonable (compared to California)
  3. other miscellaneous benefits like natural beauty, good job market etc.
Click to expand...
Seems to me like Massachusetts has quite a few Eastern Catholic churches to choose from. Here in the Worcester area there is a Byzantine and Maronite church, a Coptic retreat (may not be Coptic Catholics tho… not sure). There are probably others if you scratch the surface.

Central/Western Mass offers a significantly better quality of life than closer to Boston - lots of natural beauty and an OK job market (depending on your career). Plus, the housing market has plummeted such that you can get a nice home cheap.
 
Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia/DC, Cleveland and New York come to mind. I recall reading some time ago (I think from Catholic Near East Association) that Chicago at that time actually had more Eastern Catholic liturgies offered within its metropolitan area than any other.

As far as cost of living, the Midwest is likely more attractive.
 
I would add northern/central New Jersey to the list. Maronite in New Brunswick (plus a mission in Pleasantville), Syriac CC in Union City, Armenian CC in Little Falls, plus Melkite in Paterson and a selection of other Byzantine usages in various places. Syriac, Armenian, & Coptic Orthodox also, as well as the Assyrian Church of the East.

As for New York, yes it has just about all of them too, (with the exception of Syriac and Chaldean) but only in NYC and the immediate environs. Not exactly a hot spot for natural beauty nor, these days, a good job market.
 
Florida… Maronites, Byzantienes (Melkites, Ruthenians, and Ukrainians), and more.
 
mythofsisyphus said:
Pennsylvania. Hands down.
Click to expand...
my wife is from northern Pennsylvannia. And yes from what I’ve seen of that state its loaded. Her mom lives about 15 minutes from Olean NY a town of only about 10,000. But there are 2 eastern Catholic churches in easy driving distance. A Maronite and a Byzantine one.

And that is just out in the country! I know the urban areas have to be loaded.

I think job wise its a strike out. I did at one time make the offer for us to go there, since she’s very close to her mom and grandma. But she thinks that I wouldn’t be use to all the cold and snow.
 
Aramis said:
Florida… Maronites, Byzantienes (Melkites, Ruthenians, and Ukrainians), and more.
Click to expand...
Florida and the south really is on my list because of cost of living. Austin TX was actually my first pick, because of the local industries and education opportunities and cultural stuff. And its pretty well stocked church wise (I love the look of the Maronite church and its monsignor, my wife would have lots of EO options).
 
Pennsylvania, hands down.

BTW, Melkite are of the Byzantine rite.

PA has a rich variety of ethnicities, and not only Eastern Catholic ones.

Of course, asking for a place with both a low cost of living and a good job market is a bit of dilemma. Those places with the cheapest housing are those which are not growing so there are few new jobs. Housing prices are a matter of supply and demand.
 
Kielbasi said:
Pennsylvania, hands down.

BTW, Melkite are of the Byzantine rite.

PA has a rich variety of ethnicities, and not only Eastern Catholic ones.

Of course, asking for a place with both a low cost of living and a good job market is a bit of dilemma. Those places with the cheapest housing are those which are not growing so there are few new jobs. Housing prices are a matter of supply and demand.
Click to expand...
The Melkites are analogous to the Antiochians of the EO right?

And yes I get the dilemma. I think relativistically speaking I was just looking for a place that was significantly less then California but was ok job wise. Being from Silicon Valley area of California, Austin Texas seemed like the best overall combo. that would have opportunities and analogous to where I live now.

My wife has been interested in places like Virginia, North Carolina, and Tenessee. But as for as jobs and decent access to EC churches I would have to live near major urban areas to have access to an Maronite or other EC parish.

I think this does raise the idea of reconsidering PA in the future…
 
Detroit has a very large Chaldean community. I can think of 3 Chaldean parishes within a 10 mile drive of my house.

Metro Detroit is home to the Catheral for the Chaldean Diocese for the Eastern US ( the Cathedra for the Western US is in San Diego)

Also, the Seminary here ( Sacred Heart), in addition to being a Latin Church Seminary, also trains Chaldean men for the priesthood in the Chaldean Church. To my knowledge, it is the only Chaldean seminary outside of Iraq.

There are also at least two Maronite parishes in the Metro Area.

Not quite as many Byzantine parishes as Penn or Cleveland though.

As a side note, we actually have a Chaldean Sub Deacon in our Latin parish. With the permission of both bishops, he vests as such for Mass.
 
Addai said:
The Melkites are analogous to the Antiochians of the EO right?

And yes I get the dilemma. I think relativistically speaking I was just looking for a place that was significantly less then California but was ok job wise. Being from Silicon Valley area of California, Austin Texas seemed like the best overall combo. that would have opportunities and analogous to where I live now.

My wife has been interested in places like Virginia, North Carolina, and Tenessee. But as for as jobs and decent access to EC churches I would have to live near major urban areas to have access to an Maronite or other EC parish.

I think this does raise the idea of reconsidering PA in the future…
Click to expand...
Roanoke, VA has a maronite parish, but the closest Eastern Catholics aside from that are in Northern virginia near DC, or in Raliegh NC or in Charlotte, NC. There is a coptic Orthodox mission, a new syrian Orthodox mission, and several Eastern Orthodox parishes in Roanoke, VA for the interest of you wife at least.

As far as NC goes, there is Maronites in Fayettville, UGCC missions near Raleigh and near Charlotte, and a Ruthenian parish in Raleigh.

I do not know if Tenn. has any EC parishes.
 
“Northeast” PA is chock full of a diversity of Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Missing of course are the Chaldeans and probably Syriac. There are Ukranians, Ruthenians, Melkites and Maronites a plenty. The Lebanese were among those peoples who immigrated and worked in the coal mines in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area; but they quickly became business owners instead - or so my Mom has told me ;). St. Tikon’s is in rural Wayne Co. - of interest to your wife perhaps, although I would recommend living closer to the valley for easy access to the parishes, which are clustered in the urban areas. There are many Orthodox Jurisdictions represented to, but I doubt there are many Coptic Churches. You will find that certain jurisdictions, Catholic or Orthodox, are not present in areas that previously were settled in by Eastern Catholics and Orthodox because economic opportunities or climatic preferences we re elsewhere. Plus, once you have a critical mass of “colonizers” shall we say, future waves of immigrants like to go where there are others who share their culture, etc. Beats founding new parishes, that’s for sure!

Pittsburgh would also be prime area for Eastern Catholic life for similar reasons. I am slightly less familiar with all that you might find there, but that is the seat of the Metropolitan of the Ruthenian Church in America…

I don’t know what you background is work wise, but you might have luck here (NEPA) with finding a job, and it is certainly cheaper that California. Pittsburgh may provide some more opportunities though, and is not in the corner of PA where the jet stream dips down most often on weather maps I’ve seen. :eek:
 
PA, esp. Northeast Philadelphia, the Northern Liberty section and Chester. Many churches and Philadelphia has the Ukrainian Cathedral. There is a few Russian Orthodox churches and Ukrainian Catholic churches. The Russian parishes are very traditional. There is a Romanian parish as well as an Albanian, a couple of India Orthodox parishes and a Syro-Malabar Catholic parish. I think there is an Eritrean Catholic Mission as well. In the suburbs, there are both Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches. There is an OCA parish, three Greek churches, a Coptic church, a Maronite church, a Ukrainian Catholic church…Many more.

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius:cool:
 
Here in Phoenix, AZ there are two Ruthenian Churches, one Ukrainian, one Melkite, one Chaldean, and one Maronite.

There are also many Orthodox churches, including Ethiopian, Coptic, Armenian, Assyrian, and two (I think) Syro-Malankara of different jurisdictions.
 
Chaldean_Rite said:
come to san diego!

kaldu.org/index.htm
Click to expand...
🙂 My oldest brother lives in Carlsbad!

But I don’t have to go that far to find Chaldean Catholics I live less than a mile from this parish

kaldu.org/2_st_peter_diocese/churches/st_marys.htm

If the Copts didn’t treat me like a blood relative I probably would jump ship and be a Chaldean there but I’ve been to enough churches (especially Protestant ones) that are pretty impersonal. So you got to appreciate a good thing when you have it.
 
Formosus said:
Roanoke, VA has a maronite parish, but the closest Eastern Catholics aside from that are in Northern virginia near DC, or in Raliegh NC or in Charlotte, NC. There is a coptic Orthodox mission, a new syrian Orthodox mission, and several Eastern Orthodox parishes in Roanoke, VA for the interest of you wife at least.

As far as NC goes, there is Maronites in Fayettville, UGCC missions near Raleigh and near Charlotte, and a Ruthenian parish in Raleigh.

I do not know if Tenn. has any EC parishes.
Click to expand...
Tenn has zip. I looked at virginia it has some good churches in the major cities. But considering other factors like industries I didn’t like it.

Now NC was much better. There is a region called “Research Triangle Park” that is like a small Silicon Valley

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Triangle_Park

And from I can tell it has a good mix of churches, cost of living should be good (compared to California). etc.
 
Allyson said:
I don’t know what you background is work wise, but you might have luck here (NEPA) with finding a job, and it is certainly cheaper that California. Pittsburgh may provide some more opportunities though, and is not in the corner of PA where the jet stream dips down most often on weather maps I’ve seen. :eek:
Click to expand...
Thanks for the NEPA reference. It reminds me of one career I was looking into recently Safety engineering (meeting OSHA standards etc.)

Right now I’m doing high tech security. I would like to get back in to some areas I’ve worked in the past like software quality assurance testing and Beta testing. (or maybe technology customer service. Haven’t done that but its something I think I could handle based on other jobs)

My original background was psychology / counseling but I’ve been out of that field for a long time (I had problems in a few classes and could not complete my masters degree and got burned out in the process.). This is another area I also would consider but it would almost take a miracle since I haven’t really done anything in that field since 94.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top