EC Churches in North Central Texas?

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I_Thirst

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I live in Plano and currently active in my RC parish, but I would like to attend an EC Mass. Distance is a concern – you who live in the area will know what I mean. I’d prefer something in Collin County, but I’d still like to know about the DFW area in general.

I’ve never been to an EC Mass, though I have attended a Mass down at St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral in Dallas. I’m not sure where it falls in relation to being in communion with Rome. I attended this while going through RCIA several years ago.

I don’t have a clue as to what to expect at an EC Mass. 🙂

Thanks for the suggestions!
 
I_Thirst said:
I live in Plano and currently active in my RC parish, but I would like to attend an EC Mass. Distance is a concern – you who live in the area will know what I mean. I’d prefer something in Collin County, but I’d still like to know about the DFW area in general.

I’ve never been to an EC Mass, though I have attended a Mass down at St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral in Dallas. I’m not sure where it falls in relation to being in communion with Rome. I attended this while going through RCIA several years ago.

I don’t have a clue as to what to expect at an EC Mass. 🙂

Thanks for the suggestions!
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First off- I congratulate you on your desire to attend a service of the Eastern Catholic Church. They are truly beautiful, moving, and holy. And educational, to boot. For that, I applaud you 👍👍👍

Now, down to some nitty-gritty details.
  • The EC (as well as Orthodox) do not refer to their regular Eucharistic service as the Mass. It is referred to as the Divine Liturgy.
  • St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral is not in Communion with the Pope.
  • As for what to expect: if you remember anything from your experience at the Liturgy celebrated at St. Seraphim’s, then your experience will likely be similar. It might not be as grand, as you’d be attending a parish vs. a cathedral. However, the Divine Liturgy is grand as is, so I wouldn’t worry to much 😃
  • As for a EC parish in Texas… hmmm… the closest one to you would be St. Basil the Great Byzantine Catholic in Irving. According to Google maps, that is about 30 minutes from Plano.
  • Again, don’t worry about “what to expect”. I would recommend reading the St. Basil’s website to get an idea. Also, there are plenty of threads on the EC board here on what to expect. All I can say is this: Go prepared to meet God. 😃
 
There is a UGCC parish of our Eparchy of St. Nicholas in the Colony, St. Sophia. Fr. Pavlo Popov and his wife at St. Sophia are very welcoming, and they have a beutiful hand-carved wooden iconostasis.
 
ThatOneGuy92 said:
First off- I congratulate you on your desire to attend a service of the Eastern Catholic Church. They are truly beautiful, moving, and holy. And educational, to boot. For that, I applaud you 👍👍👍

Now, down to some nitty-gritty details.
  • The EC (as well as Orthodox) do not refer to their regular Eucharistic service as the Mass. It is referred to as the Divine Liturgy.
  • St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral is not in Communion with the Pope.
  • As for what to expect: if you remember anything from your experience at the Liturgy celebrated at St. Seraphim’s, then your experience will likely be similar. It might not be as grand, as you’d be attending a parish vs. a cathedral. However, the Divine Liturgy is grand as is, so I wouldn’t worry to much 😃
  • As for a EC parish in Texas… hmmm… the closest one to you would be St. Basil the Great Byzantine Catholic in Irving. According to Google maps, that is about 30 minutes from Plano.
  • Again, don’t worry about “what to expect”. I would recommend reading the St. Basil’s website to get an idea. Also, there are plenty of threads on the EC board here on what to expect. All I can say is this: Go prepared to meet God. 😃
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Thanks for the nitty-gritty! 😃
SonCatcher said:
You may be in luck. I can find 2 listings in the DFW area:
byzcath.org/index.php/find-a-parish-mainmenu-111?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=93&sobi2Id=1071
byzcath.org/index.php/find-a-parish-mainmenu-111?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=93&sobi2Id=386

They may not have regular liturgy, however as the site does not list times.

You can use the directory at ByzCath to find parishes in areas you visit, as well.
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From those links, I see that they also meet in Richardson, which isn’t too far from me. Thanks!
Diak said:
There is a UGCC parish of our Eparchy of St. Nicholas in the Colony, St. Sophia. Fr. Pavlo Popov and his wife at St. Sophia are very welcoming, and they have a beutiful hand-carved wooden iconostasis.
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UGCC? Not sure what that means, Diak.

The Colony isn’t too far either.
I usually wear casual pants (like Docker’s) and a polo shirt to Mass. Would that be acceptable at an EC Divine Liturgy? My RC parish dress codes are all over the map: sandals with shorts all the way up to wingtips and suits. 😉
 
I_Thirst said:
From those links, I see that they also meet in Richardson, which isn’t too far from me. Thanks!
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If that is St Francis Ethiopian (Ge’ez) Catholic Community then that is probably not going to be in English, but rather in Ge’ez.
The Colony isn’t too far either.
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Diak can possible tell you how much of the Divine Liturgy at St. Sophia will be in English.

I hope you’ll go to one or both of those Catholic Churches for DL.

(St Francis Ethiopian photo shows that they have pews and I wouldn’t be surprised if St. Sophia UGCC has pews also which I don’t think you saw at St. Seraphim Cathedral.)
I usually wear casual pants (like Docker’s) and a polo shirt to Mass. Would that be acceptable at an EC Divine Liturgy? My RC parish dress codes are all over the map: sandals with shorts all the way up to wingtips and suits. 😉
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I have seen “all over the map” in both Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Divine Liturgy. What you describe you plan to wear would be fine in EC churches in the US.

FYI the UGCC is the largest of the Eastern and Oriental Catholic Churches sui iuris.
I_Thirst said:
I’ve never been to an EC Mass, though I have attended a Mass down at St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral in Dallas. I’m not sure where it falls in relation to being in communion with Rome. I attended this while going through RCIA several years ago.
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If you’ve been to Divine Liturgy at St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral you’d be right at home in my Russian Greek Catholic parish. 😃

Since you’ve been to St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral you might also consider going to their festal Vigil w/ Litya Sept. 7 for the Nativity of the Most-Holy Theotokos, and festal Vigil w/ Litya Sept. 13 for Elevation of the Lifegiving Cross. Vigil and Litya is not a Eucharistic service, tho there is a sacramental (not Sacrament) anointing which you may receive. (As was already indicated Orthodox and Catholics are not in communion at this time in our history but as you saw you are welcome in their parish as a faithful Catholic. An OCA parish such as this Cathedral would very likely be comfortable with you coming up for the sacramental anointing. I’ve received it many times including from the OCA bishop here.)

These are both great Feastdays in the East. The UGCC and Ethiopian ECC hopefully will celebrate the DL on those Feastdays.

I see St. Seraphim offering a 6:30pm Panikhida tomorrow evening. This is a very beautiful memorial service. (I just looked at their parish bulletin. It seems this Panikhida may be for their +ArchBishop Dimitri who appears to have reposed yesterday. Memory eternal.)
 
Hi, been to both St. Basil and St. Sophia. Both very welcoming. I have nothing negative to say about either one.
They’re both really cool for cradle Roman Catholics to take communion at a divine liturgy.

It helped me to appreciate the Roman church.

I can give you some more info you want to pm me.
 
5Loaves said:
I see St. Seraphim offering a 6:30pm Panikhida tomorrow evening. This is a very beautiful memorial service. (I just looked at their parish bulletin. It seems this Panikhida may be for their** +ArchBishop Dimitri who appears to have reposed yesterday. Memory eternal.** )
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Please see the post Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas reposed in the Lord in the Non-Catholic Religions section. So many things get posted in that section I myself can rarely spot any Orthodox news because it has become buried so quickly. I’m sure some here would like to read about +ArchBishop Dimitri from some links I included in the post there.
 
Im not sure if anyone has touched on this yet but there is an EC (I believe Ukranian) Church called St. Sophia’s in The Colony, so not that far from Plano. I have actually been wanting to try this parish, as well as Mater Dei and Our Lady of Lebanon in Lewisville. Good luck in your visits!

Edit: Sorry someone already commented on St. Sophia’s.
 
ThatOneGuy92 said:
…- As for a EC parish in Texas… hmmm… the closest one to you would be St. Basil the Great Byzantine Catholic in Irving. According to Google maps, that is about 30 minutes from Plano.…
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Fr. Daniel drives twice a month from St. Basil to Austin to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. He is quite a young pastor (at least compared to my age) but he is really good with his homilies, very orthodox and very pastoral homilies. His eastern theology is a great experience for a Latin Catholic like me. 👍👍
 
5Loaves said:
If that is St Francis Ethiopian (Ge’ez) Catholic Community then that is probably not going to be in English, but rather in Ge’ez …
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Thanks for this and the rest of the info in your post, 5Loaves. At Latin Masses, there is sometimes a booklet with the Latin & the English translations so that folks can follow along. Does the same thing occur in DL with Ge’ez or other languages – that they have accompanying English?
Dave_in_Dallas said:
Hi, been to both St. Basil and St. Sophia. Both very welcoming. I have nothing negative to say about either one.
They’re both really cool for cradle Roman Catholics to take communion at a divine liturgy.

It helped me to appreciate the Roman church.

I can give you some more info you want to pm me.
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Thank you, Dave. I may PM you soon.
NorthTexan88 said:
Im not sure if anyone has touched on this yet but there is an EC (I believe Ukranian) Church called St. Sophia’s in The Colony, so not that far from Plano. I have actually been wanting to try this parish, as well as Mater Dei and Our Lady of Lebanon in Lewisville. Good luck in your visits!

Edit: Sorry someone already commented on St. Sophia’s.
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No problem, NorthTexan. Congrats on entering RCIA this Fall! Prayers for your continued conversion.

Do you mind me asking which parish? I’ll understand if you wish to remain anonymous about this. No problem at all.
A general question about attending a DL, how does one receive the Eucharist? I receive on the tongue in my parish, though I have received in the hand in the past. When I attended St Seraphim several years ago, it appeared that they did intinction. I didn’t go up to receive and just observed at a distance. From what I’ve learned here, that is a Greek Orthodox cathedral – but is the practice similar to EC?
 
It’s important to review the entire entry in the Directory to which someone linked. The Eritrean Community in Dallas, in the 'Notes" says:
Available information indicates that, although this is an active/organized Eritrean (Ge’ez) Catholic Community, it is not presently pastorally served on a regularly scheduled basis. No additional information is currently available.
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In other words, they have no fixed place of worship nor a priest who serves them regularly.

and, as regards the Ethiopian Community in Richardson, the ‘Notes’ say:
This Community is pastorally served according to the limited schedule indicated above and does not ordinarily meet more regularly
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That ‘limited schedule’ is 3x annually according to the detail in the table; New Years, Easter Sunday, and once annually in the Autumn on a date that varies. The church pictured is a Latin parish in which they worship according to their own praxis on those rare occasions when they are visited by a presbyter of their Church. At all other times, they apparently worship with the Latin community.

That situation is generally true of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Ge’ez Catholic churches in the US. Despite there being almost 2 dozen communities, there are only a bare handful of clergy to serve them.

So, neither of those is a viable option. As well, the Ethiopian Divine Liturgy (Ùér’ata Qéddase) would be in Ge’ez and/or Amharic and the Eritrean in Tigrinya and/or Amharic. (As the Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholics have few parishes in the diaspora and their faithful are virtually all relatively recent immigrants, they’ve not yet had occasion or a need to translate their liturgical texts to English and it is unlikely that either community would have bi-lingual texts available even, if they were established and fully served missions or parishes.)

The Ruthenian parish and its mission will likely serve the Divine Liturgy in English. As to the Ukrainian parish (the Ukrainian parishes look to still be in the process of being added to the directory), Diak would better answer that, as the language usage varies a lot from parish to parish.
 
I_Thirst said:
Thanks for this and the rest of the info in your post, 5Loaves. At Latin Masses, there is sometimes a booklet with the Latin & the English translations so that folks can follow along. Does the same thing occur in DL with Ge’ez or other languages – that they have accompanying English?
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This depends on the parish. But my own strong prejudice is to not use a service book – like what you’d call a missal. Having your nose in the book conflicts with watching all the action and perhaps contemplating the wonderful iconography, which hopefully is present in these parishes. We recently got a* few* service books for our parish, partly because we had a deaf lip-reader visitor at Liturgy and she would have benefited from the service book. (Our Liturgy is 90% or more in English so one doesn’t need any translation to follow along.) I was standing beside two visitors two weeks ago who got the service books some how. They literally had their noses in the books 99% of the Liturgy, again in spite of it being in English, Thereby they missed all the activity at the altar by the two priests and deacon etc. It was not at all the same experience for them as it would have been if they had simply listened and watched.

Reading up on the structure of the DL is certainly useful for knowing some more about what is going on.

Wikipedia has an excellent description of the Divine Liturgy including many links to more details.

"12 things I wish I’d known (first visit to orthodox divine liturgy) is another popular resource as is the St. Elias UGCC website
A general question about attending a DL, how does one receive the Eucharist? I receive on the tongue in my parish, though I have received in the hand in the past. When I attended St Seraphim several years ago, it appeared that they did intinction. I didn’t go up to receive and just observed at a distance. From what I’ve learned here, that is a Greek Orthodox cathedral – but is the practice similar to EC?
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Yes, it should be. This varies somewhat by Church sui iuris as it does in Orthodoxy, but there is no reception other than directly in the mouth distributed by the priest, or in some instances the deacon also. Generally you approach with your hands crossed on your chest (like those in a Latin Church approach if they are not receiving Eucharist), open you mouth wide and keep your tongue in. In the Russian tradition you are communed by your first name and the priest says words similar to these "The servant/handmaid of God (Christian Name), partakes of the Precious and Holy Body and Blood of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and unto life everlasting. Amen." You say nothing. You kiss the chalice. There is no kneeling on a Sunday.

If you read about the Liturgy of Preparation you will see how the bread is prepared which becomes the Holy Eucharist and you will see these are small cubes of leavened bread, which many pieces are combined in the chalice with the Precious Blood and distributed by a small golden spoon. I don’t see a Melkite parish in your area but they use somewhat larger pieces which the priest individually intincts and places in your mouth. I think maybe when I was at the Chaldean/Assyrian parish they used “wafers” similar to the Latin Church hosts and the priest individually intincted those.
 
5Loaves said:
This depends on the parish. But my own strong prejudice is to not use a service book – like what you’d call a missal. Having your nose in the book conflicts with watching all the action and perhaps contemplating the wonderful iconography, which hopefully is present in these parishes.
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I see and actually I agree. This reminds me of something from Brian Moore’s novel, Catholics, which goes something like this (the context is the change from Latin to the vernacular in the RC rite) … the Mass is talking to God, not talking to one’s neighbor.

Whatever language is used, God understands.

Thanks for the info and links. I didn’t realise that Frederica Mathewes-Green had a website! I’m currently reading her book on the Jesus Prayer. 👍
 
This thread was pointed out to my priest who asked me to come post a welcome to all visitors of St. Sophia’s as he isn’t online very much. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the church or to write me here.

As Diak mentioned, Fr. Pavlo and Pani Luba are very welcoming. Father joined the parish after Easter and made hospitality for visitors and newcomers a point of focus and the parish has risen to the challenge. We are also updating our website, adding religious education for children through adults this Fall, and making vereniki/pierogies regularly as you already noticed. We’ll teach anyone who wants to learn how to make them and the sales help support parish endeavors like the beautiful iconostas Diak mentioned. The Sisterhood worked and saved for 10 years to have it built all while supporting charitable causes and the parish necessities; it is a testament to the faith and community of the parish. And more is in the works!

The amount of English in the liturgy depends on how many English speakers are present. It’s around 50% in each language on a typical Sunday. The homily and announcements are in English; the bulletin, liturgical books, and website are in both English and Ukrainian. We have a coffee hour every week where almost everyone speaks English, many speak Ukrainian, and some also speak Spanish, Russian, French, Polish, and I don’t know what else.

We have a good number of children in the parish. We recently celebrated the Baptism, Chrismation, and First Communion of one of our parish’s youngest members and we welcome adult converts to Catholicism through our individualized preparation program that is directed by the bishop. We have a wonderful bishop and enjoy fruitful relationships with the Dallas and Fort Worth Roman Catholic bishops and parishes, with whom we’re in full communion. We have boys and men who serve at the altar along with our deacon and priest. Some of the girls join the cantor in the back on Sundays, too. The children often like to play outside on the playground during the coffee hour.

As 5Loaves said, style of dress is “all over the map.” We prefer that they are on your body. As long as that’s covered, come as you are.

Our patronal feast day will be celebrated on Sept 18, which is also Back to Church Sunday. We hope to have many visitors especially on that day, and will welcome you on any day you are able to come and see!
 
Bitaemo said:
This thread was pointed out to my priest who asked me to come post a welcome to all visitors of St. Sophia’s as he isn’t online very much. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the church or to write me here.
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Thanks for the info and for extending a welcome to St. Sophia’s! I look forward to attending my first Divine Liturgy with you.
 
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