Do You Ever Attend Non-Catholic Worship Services?

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My understanding is that Catholics are not allowed to participate in protestant services on a regular bases and anytime they do attend it must be for some particular reason. And any time a Catholic does attend a non-Catholic worship or praise service they are not allowed to fully participate as if they are in communion with the said members of such believers.
 
PerfectTiming said:
I disagree. I think all the music and happy-clappy stuff of non-Catholic churches is a way to entice people by making them “feel good” while distracting them from the fact that they are not the true Church of Christ.
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Do you really think that? I think it’s because it’s what they believe. BTW the Anglicans have a rich hymnology dating back some 500-600 years, not to mention the Orthodox and their musical traditions. Have you ever attended Orthodox Vespers? The music will blow you away and there’s nothing “happy clappy” about it.
PerfectTiming said:
IAnother thing I’ve noticed here is that people constantly complain about their priests preaching. But does anyone ever stop to consider that preaching is simply not that priests strong point and that his strengths lie in other areas? Our main parish priest in my old parish was an excellent preacher and teacher. One of the other priests was not such a good preacher but he was an excellent confessor and very good with people on a more one to one basis. People seem to forget that priests are only human.
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That’s true, priests are human and have different charisms.
 
OraLabora said:
Do you really think that? I think it’s because it’s what they believe. BTW the Anglicans have a rich hymnology dating back some 500-600 years, not to mention the Orthodox and their musical traditions. Have you ever attended Orthodox Vespers? The music will blow you away and there’s nothing “happy clappy” about it.
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So true. Often it’s not the music that is chosen but how well instruments are played (IF there are any instruments) and how well people sing – or at least try to sing. In other words the effort made. Tomorrow morning at Mass my parish would be very lucky is 1/2 of those in attendance even attempted to sing a long. Not only that, the same people will be one word ahead of everyone else when it comes to the audible prayers – just to be noticed. I have never heard that in a Protestant church.

Yes, let’s hear the litany of excuses but the fact still remains. MANY non-Catholic parishes do a FAR better job than MOST Catholic parishes it would seem when it comes to music/singing.
 
ElToro said:
That’s sort of fascinating. Do you attend Mass in addition to your Church’s own sacrificial liturgy? I know the Orthodox (and Eastern Catholics) don’t have the “Sunday Obligation” in the same way that Latin Rite Catholics do but what does your Orthodox pastor say about it?
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Well on some Sundays I go to the Orthodox church, and on some Sundays I go to the Catholic one instead. To be honest I go to a couple of Greek Orthodox churches where one sort of just blends in, and there is usually little to no interaction with the priests. My guess is that if I asked them if I could to Mass instead of Liturgy, they would say no. However, it seems to me that most Orthodox clergy wouldn’t bless one to go to a Catholic service, except for a wedding, baptism, or funeral, period. Oddly enough, I have a number of Orthodox friends who also find themselves going to Catholic churches instead of Orthodox ones for a number of reasons.
 
Protokletos said:
Well on some Sundays I go to the Orthodox church, and on some Sundays I go to the Catholic one instead. To be honest I go to a couple of Greek Orthodox churches where one sort of just blends in, and there is usually little to no interaction with the priests. My guess is that if I asked them if I could to Mass instead of Liturgy, they would say no. However, it seems to me that most Orthodox clergy wouldn’t bless one to go to a Catholic service, except for a wedding, baptism, or funeral, period. Oddly enough, I have a number of Orthodox friends who also find themselves going to Catholic churches instead of Orthodox ones for a number of reasons.
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Again, fascinating. Right next door to my Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic parish is the local Greek Orthodox parish. For a long time they did not have a full time priest. Slowly their traveling priest and our old pastor became good friends and the Orthodox were directed by their priest to attend our parish and receive communion when he was not in town.

We have a different pastor now and they have a full time pastor and it’s sad to see that a metaphorical wall has been erected between the two parishes. The Catholic pastor is seemingly paranoid about losing more faithful to the Greeks, while the Greek pastor (who is from Romania) holds some of the mode old school Orthodox beliefs about the Catholic Church.
 
OraLabora said:
Do you really think that? I think it’s because it’s what they believe. BTW the Anglicans have a rich hymnology dating back some 500-600 years, not to mention the Orthodox and their musical traditions. Have you ever attended Orthodox Vespers? The music will blow you away and there’s nothing “happy clappy” about it.
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I’m not saying good music has to be “happy clappy”. And I used to be Anglican so I know that. But there are all these new, independent churches that seem to focus on all this feel-good stuff rather than any real Christian practice.
 
PerfectTiming said:
I’m not saying good music has to be “happy clappy”. And I used to be Anglican so I know that. But there are all these new, independent churches that seem to focus on all this feel-good stuff rather than any real Christian practice.
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What kind of Christian practice do you mean?

In my experience the churches with the “happy clappy feel good stuff” are also the ones on the streets preaching the Gospel to the world."

So the feel good stuff often goes hand in hand with Christian practice.
 
TrueLight said:
What kind of Christian practice do you mean?

In my experience the churches with the “happy clappy feel good stuff” are also the ones on the streets preaching the Gospel to the world."

So the feel good stuff often goes hand in hand with Christian practice.
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There are churches that just take the attitude that they’re “born again” and are “saved” so they can just do whatever they want and it doesn’t matter because they’re all going to heaven whatever. There is no attempt to follow God’s laws or commandments.
 
ElToro said:
Again, fascinating. Right next door to my Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic parish is the local Greek Orthodox parish. For a long time they did not have a full time priest. Slowly their traveling priest and our old pastor became good friends and the Orthodox were directed by their priest to attend our parish and receive communion when he was not in town.

We have a different pastor now and they have a full time pastor and it’s sad to see that a metaphorical wall has been erected between the two parishes. The Catholic pastor is seemingly paranoid about losing more faithful to the Greeks, while the Greek pastor (who is from Romania) holds some of the mode old school Orthodox beliefs about the Catholic Church.
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Wow, I find the Greek Orthodox priest telling his parishioners to receive the Eucharist at your Catholic church to be truly inspiring. If only more Orthodox clergy had such an understanding point of view!
 
PerfectTiming said:
There are churches that just take the attitude that they’re “born again” and are “saved” so they can just do whatever they want and it doesn’t matter because they’re all going to heaven whatever. There is no attempt to follow God’s laws or commandments.
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There are liberal churches like that. I’m just saying the happy-clappy ones tend to be evangelical and most evangelicals don’t think that way.
 
TrueLight said:
There are liberal churches like that. I’m just saying the happy-clappy ones tend to be evangelical and most evangelicals don’t think that way.
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Prove it. :rolleyes:

The ridiculous stereotypes get pretty old after a while.
 
Protokletos said:
Wow, I find the Greek Orthodox priest telling his parishioners to receive the Eucharist at your Catholic church to be truly inspiring. If only more Orthodox clergy had such an understanding point of view!
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There was a mutual trust that was built-up over time. Their priest attended our Divine Liturgy on a number of occasions and still does when he visits.

The current wall between the parishes is every bit as much a product of the Catholic pastor as the Orthodox pastor, probably more.
 
ElToro said:
Prove it. :rolleyes:

The ridiculous stereotypes get pretty old after a while.
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I get tired of Catholics referring to evangelicals or fundamentalists as once-saved-always saved or faith only, or say a prayer in your heart and your saved. It appears that many Catholic seem to have a perception that most Protestants are Baptists. It’s insulting to my entire family. Church of Christ folks believe baptism is necessary for salvation. They believe that faith without works is dead, they believe that weekly communion is prescribed by Christ, they believe that it is sinful to miss worship unless sick or traveling (depends). There are many overlapping beliefs we held with Catholics. We were not part of the feel good church. We knew that our faith would bring us hardships. Though, like any faith, there are always those people that break the mold. Blessings theology exists in all faiths and I stay away from such twisted minds.
 
Confusion? You mean the truth? That the Catholic Church hs valid sacraments?
 
In answer to the original question, I have attended non catholic services just a few times, and only in arrangements where these non catholic relatives of mine have also attended my beautiful Catholic Mass with me. The event of my whole family attending my Church’s Midnight Mass at Christmastime, since neither of their churches was going to hold any services = to give folks more time to spend with their families!!! I am NOT making this up!

The relatives had lots of questions afterward and we stayed up for a couple hours discussing their confusion about things like “why kneeling?” Why the statue of Mary?", why the priest wears those robes, and so on>.

The next time I was in their town, I returned the favor, attended my Catholic Mass at a nearby AirForce base, then went to my m=in-laws church held in an old storefront, with a stage upfront and a pulpit and lots of folding chairs. The entire congregation was approx 50 people, there was a small combo that played a few songs, the preacher preached for about 45 minutes, then a couple more songs, while the collection plate was passed, then there was ‘the Lords supper’ which I assume happens once a quarter. Everyone lined up at one side, the preacher and his wife gave out the crackers and small little plastic miniature glasses of grape juice. folks talked and joked in line and got their cracker and sip of juice and that was the end of the service, just like that. Mom-in-law asked why I didn’t go up in line, so I just told her I already went to communion and received the Lord that morning earlier at Mass.
I felt very sorry for all these people on one hand, but its what they have and they are happy with it. At least they are doing their best to show reverence to God.
I would never go out of my way to attend any other services for any reason, other than reciprocity with non Catholic family members.
I also attended with my sis-in-law at her Southern Baptist church. It was basically a songfest, with a big screen showing the words to the songs as they were played. A deacon read a scripture verse, then more songs, then the preacher/pastor got up on stage, starting behind the pulpit, then roaming around, kind of like Joel Osteen, more power of positive thinking than fire and brimstone, then more songs while the collection was taken up, then a final word from preacher and it was over. Again, I felt that the people were very fervent in their love of Jesus and very friendly. However, the service was empty, too. Singing well can’t make up for the loss of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Friendly people are at my church, too.
In the end, we are called to evangelize our brothers and sisters and that is what I try to do. My fervent desire is to call everyone to come hometo the Catholic Church. Perhaps some day, m y relatives will desire to learn more, at least i hope so. My parish has wonderful fellowship, great music and singing and an active ministry and outreach program. We are involved in the community in a big way, here in Arkansas, and most of the other non-Catholic churches love and respect the Catholic church.
 
From my experiences, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian services are liturgical while Charismatic & Pentacostal (Assemblies of God) are more “free flow” ie. not structured. Charismatic & Pentacostal churches tend to have more upbeat songs and popular with the youngsters and their preachings are DYNAMIC !

Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian tend to have older congregation though some of their churches adopt contemporary Charismatic/Pentacostal elements in their worship eg. speaking in tongues, praying over, pastors in shirt and tie instead of cassocks etc…😃
 
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