T
TriuneUnity
Guest
Well, what are you waiting for. We are evangelical and catholic! The best of both worlds; hence, the orthodox oneI believe you are correct!! There’s one I haven’t been to!!
Tracie
- Status
1
1ke
Guest
When I decided to become Catholic (I was a highly catechized Episcopalian) I was ready NOW, and I mean NOW.
I didn’t have any marriage issues, but my parish still required me to go through RCIA. Ten months seemed like FOREVER.
WHY couldn’t I have just been received right then??? Well, obedience to the Church’s authority needs to start sometime. And, well, you’ve now encountered a small taste and the answer is “wait”. Like small children, we want to be fully Catholic with a serious impatience when we finally ‘get it’.
I know it’s hard, but try to be patient.
No. Eastern Rite Catholics are fully in union with Rome. They retain their own language, liturgy, and even have their own canon law.
The Orthodox are in schism with the Pope (or the other way around if you ask someone who’s Orthodox). They are not Catholic.
E
Eden
Guest
“Church shopping” is not a good suggestion. There is only one true Church. We need to conform ourselves to the Church, not find the one that fits what we want.You haven’t tried the orthodox visible church yet…We go by the humbly assigned name Lutheran
Pope: Other denominations not true churches**
Benedict issues statement asserting that Jesus established ‘only one church’**
“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church… The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles.
msnbc.msn.com/id/19692094/
I wish I could find the statements in which the Pope discussed church-shopping as a modern phenomenon and the fact that God asks us to conform ourselves to His way, not to shop around for a church that conforms to our way. If anyone finds them, please post them!
E
Eden
Guest
I did find this, from Fr. Neuhaus, a convert from Lutheranism on the subject of church shopping:
Americans are notorious church-hoppers. Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian—it doesn’t seem to make much difference to millions of American Christians. Some would say there is nothing ‘notorious’ about that at all. Don’t we pride ourselves on being a free-market society in which consumer choice is king? Why shouldn’t there be a free market also in religion—or, as it is said today, in ‘spiritual preferences’? Church-hopping is simply church-shopping in search of a ‘spirituality that meets my needs.’ There was a time not long ago when denominational identity was much more than a matter of individual preference: ‘I come from a long line of Presbyterians,’ one heard it said. (Or Lutherans, or Episcopalians, or Baptists, or whatever.) Back then, it was not unusual for people to tell you why their church was right and others were wrong about issues such as infant baptism, or the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, or about God’s predestination of the saved and the damned.
That time is passing, if it has not already passed. Talk about right and wrong or true and false is out. Talk about what ‘meets my needs’ is in. With the admittedly partial, although still notable, exception of people who are becoming Catholic. Switch from Presbyterian to Methodist, or start attending the evangelical ‘megachurch’ in the neighboring exurb, and you will raise few eyebrows. People who move from one denomination to another, or from the denominational to the ‘nondenominational’ (which is one of the biggest denominations), are exercising preferences that are, so to speak, all in the religious family. Announce that you’re taking instruction to become a Catholic, however, and it is likely to prompt sharp questions. Not necessary hostile questions, mind you, but questions of intense curiosity. Why would you want to join ‘them’? Catholics in America have always been the religious and, to a significant extent, cultural ‘other.’
The rest is here:
jakebelder.com/2008/01/americans-are-notorious-church-hoppers.html
Americans are notorious church-hoppers. Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian—it doesn’t seem to make much difference to millions of American Christians. Some would say there is nothing ‘notorious’ about that at all. Don’t we pride ourselves on being a free-market society in which consumer choice is king? Why shouldn’t there be a free market also in religion—or, as it is said today, in ‘spiritual preferences’? Church-hopping is simply church-shopping in search of a ‘spirituality that meets my needs.’ There was a time not long ago when denominational identity was much more than a matter of individual preference: ‘I come from a long line of Presbyterians,’ one heard it said. (Or Lutherans, or Episcopalians, or Baptists, or whatever.) Back then, it was not unusual for people to tell you why their church was right and others were wrong about issues such as infant baptism, or the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, or about God’s predestination of the saved and the damned.
That time is passing, if it has not already passed. Talk about right and wrong or true and false is out. Talk about what ‘meets my needs’ is in. With the admittedly partial, although still notable, exception of people who are becoming Catholic. Switch from Presbyterian to Methodist, or start attending the evangelical ‘megachurch’ in the neighboring exurb, and you will raise few eyebrows. People who move from one denomination to another, or from the denominational to the ‘nondenominational’ (which is one of the biggest denominations), are exercising preferences that are, so to speak, all in the religious family. Announce that you’re taking instruction to become a Catholic, however, and it is likely to prompt sharp questions. Not necessary hostile questions, mind you, but questions of intense curiosity. Why would you want to join ‘them’? Catholics in America have always been the religious and, to a significant extent, cultural ‘other.’
The rest is here:
jakebelder.com/2008/01/americans-are-notorious-church-hoppers.html
T
tracie001
Guest
Eden,
I hope I didn’t come across as “church shopping.” Although, I did feel that way sometimes!
I think of it as I was in search for the Truth, not trying to find one that “fit” what I wanted it to be!!
Tracie
I hope I didn’t come across as “church shopping.” Although, I did feel that way sometimes!
I think of it as I was in search for the Truth, not trying to find one that “fit” what I wanted it to be!!Tracie
S
Sepharad
Guest
The way some priests acted toward the OP reminds me of how Orthodox rabbis act toward people who come to them wanting to convert. The only difference is, the rabbis do that because Jewish Law tells them to…they have to discourage a convert three times to test their sincerity (this is because we’re not about numbers, but genuineness).
I do think priests are probably overloaded these days…there was a recent column in our local paper by a Catholic politician, lamenting the fact that so many churches here are closing and so are their affiliated schools…she said that there are not enough priests and nuns anymore either, and Catholics are moving out of the cities into the burbs…hence no need for schools here.
I do think priests are probably overloaded these days…there was a recent column in our local paper by a Catholic politician, lamenting the fact that so many churches here are closing and so are their affiliated schools…she said that there are not enough priests and nuns anymore either, and Catholics are moving out of the cities into the burbs…hence no need for schools here.
T
TriuneUnity
Guest
Benedict is free to hold to that opinion of the Church
E
Eden
Guest
No, *you *don’t. It was just the suggestion of TriuneUnity, which came across as advocating a consumer’s attitude to church membership when the reality is, the Church is not a consumer product.Eden,
I hope I didn’t come across as “church shopping.” Although, I did feel that way sometimes!
Tracie
E
Eden
Guest
The fact that the Catholic Church has existed since its foundation at Pentecost over 2,000 years ago certainly supports his “opinion”. That, and the fact that the Church existed for 1500+ years before an ex-Catholic named Luther created a new eponymous religion is enough to know that Lutheranism is not an option for anyone seeking the true Church.Benedict is free to hold to that opinion of the Church
T
TriuneUnity
Guest
I never said it was
E
Eden
Guest
You said she hadn’t “tried” Lutheranism, like it’s a new brand of toothpaste. Sounds like a consumer good to me.
- Status