How This Convert Fell in Love with Jesus Through the Byzantine Catholic Church

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Making “outsiders” feel welcomed is a struggle in many Eastern Catholic parishes, as I’ve both experienced first-hand and heard from many Eastern Catholic bishops and priests. It’s too bad, really, because our traditions, our liturgy, and our spirituality often draw people in. But when they aren’t made to feel welcomed, to feel like they belong to the community, then their initial enthusiasm often dies out and they move on.
 
I’ve never encountered an eastern parish that wasn’t;t extremely welcoming . . . at first I thought they were just being polite, but came to see how extremely sincere and welcoming each was.
 
I see this all the time at any Eastern Church including our parish. When we attend Divine Liturgy at the local Greek Orthodox Church they are very welcoming. I know they sometimes get a bad wrap because of the word “Greek” on the Church sign but these elderly “Greek” women will constantly fill up your coffee and plate lol!

ZP
 
we are definitely not a low calorie parish . . . we’ve never been caught force feeding anyone, but . . .
 
dochawk said:
I’ve never encountered an eastern parish that wasn’t;t extremely welcoming . . . at first I thought they were just being polite, but came to see how extremely sincere and welcoming each was.
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Same!!

ten characters
 
Lol! When I hear evangelical Protestant Christians say that Catholics don’t know how to fellowship, I tell them they’ve never been to an Eastern Church!

ZP
 
I apologize if I’ve given the impression that Eastern Catholic (or Orthodox) parishes in general are not welcoming. I know nothing is further from the truth. I’ve been to plenty of Eastern Catholic and Orthodox parishes where I was welcomed with open arms, and all but force-fed some of their delicious foods (then told to take some home as well) after Liturgy of Vespers. A Greek Orthodox parish in Northern Virginia comes immediately to mind…

But I also know the other end of the spectrum both from first-hand experience, and from talking with (and listening to) a good number of Eastern Catholic and Orthodox bishops, priests, and lay people. I’ve had Ukrainian Catholic friends who were all but kicked out of Ukrainian Catholic parishes because they weren’t ethnically Ukrainian. I’ve known Ruthenian Catholics who experienced a similar “welcome” at a Ukrainian parish. I’ve known parishes to split because the pastor was trying to focus more on evangelizing the culture around them than preserving the parish’s ethnic identity. So I’m not speaking for myself here.

That being said, I love being Eastern Catholic. I honestly believe that in our day and age the future of Catholicism is in the East. We have a great theological, spiritual, and liturgical treasure store that the Western world is starving for.
 
This is the experience I have had with Melkites. I consider their little church my second home, and I almost always go there for Pascha (Easter) and Christmas. I was very hurt when their pastor died and was there for both his installation and his funeral. I have definitely felt unwelcome at churches before, but this was not one of them.
 
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So I read the article, and I have to say, going from Calvary chapel to Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic is quite a leap. I love conversion stories anyway, so that actually seems kind of interesting to me.
 
Phillip_Rolfes said:
. I honestly believe that in our day and age the future of Catholicism is in the East.
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Amazing you said that because I believe this too. I was meditating on the third decade of the joyful mystery—the Nativity,( birth of Christ, Incarnation) and thought about the three wise men who followed a star, came from the East, had an encounter with wicked Herod and worshiped Jesus who was with his mother. They came with their gifts of frankincense, myrrh and gold. When they left Bethlehem they knew how to avoid the evil Herod–thanks to an angel. We need the Epiphany of the East in more ways than one.
 
LOL 😀

When my mom’s Byzantine Catholic family had a family reunion, we had enough food to feed a small army.
 
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Phillip_Rolfes said:
I’ve known parishes to split because the pastor was trying to focus more on evangelizing the culture around them than preserving the parish’s ethnic identity.
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Well, I’m not condoning the spirit of exclusivity you mention… but as someone who has attended Latin Rite parishes that have practically no ‘culture’ at all… it sounds like we have something to learn from ya’ll in the East. There is something to be said for preserving cultural style. I feel the West often goes too far the other direction.
 
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