Visiting my friend's Protestant Church?

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followingtheway

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Are there rules for this?

I mean


  1. *]One of their services is at 11:00 am and my Church has mass at 5:00 pm. So I won’t miss my Sunday obligation
    *]I’m not going to eat their communion wafers or grape juice
    *]I’m not going to convert

    So am I good to go? Or are their more rules for an occasion like this? Can I sing or pray with them? Would that violate any rules?
 
followingtheway said:
Are there rules for this?

I mean


  1. *]One of their services is at 11:00 am and my Church has mass at 5:00 pm. So I won’t miss my Sunday obligation
    *]I’m not going to eat their communion wafers or grape juice
    *]I’m not going to convert

    So am I good to go? Or are their more rules for an occasion like this? Can I sing or pray with them? Would that violate any rules?
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  1. When I was 8yo I visited a Protestant chapel thinking that all churches were Catholic. I knelt at the altar and crossed myself. An old man sitting in the front row looked at me funny, and I wondered what his problem was :). Only later did I realise it was an Anglican church.
 
I wouldn’t worry about whether or not you are committing a sin by going to a Protestant Church. I go to Campus Crusade on Thursday nights and the majority of those people are Protestants but there are several hundred Catholics that attend as well. I say that to say that you’re not going to breach any Catholic dogma by going to a Protestant Church. After all, you wouldn’t breach dogma if you were to go to an Orthodox Church.

Just be wary of the people there, most Protestants are staunch anti-Catholics. Even though, I’ve heard some say that Orthodox are Christian and Catholics are not. Its kind of funny because Orthodoxy is very close to Catholicism.
 
I am involved in a multi-faith group once a week. There are protestants and people of other faiths as well. We learn about a different faith tradition every week and visit mosques, synagogues, temples, etc.

It’s interesting. The protestant people (for the most part) have an ignorance (I mean that in a kindly way) about the Catholic Church. I do a lot of interior sighing, because this is not a forum to prosthelytize, but share in a “tolerant” way. There are some statements that are anti-Catholic, although they aren’t aware of it.

eg: One woman says she left the Catholic church because there was way too much emphasizing on sin and hell. Later in the evening, when I was asked a question about the Catholic church, (praying to saints/Mary) I couldn’t help but say "the more I look to Jesus, the less I’m looking down … into hell. So hell, isn’t a all-encompassing worry for me, if I unite and ABIDE with Jesus, through the sacraments of penance, and eucharist, especially) That probably confused them a bit.

Use discernment, be at full peace with yourself. Arm yourself with prayer. It can definitely be a pretty strange place sometimes. I’ve been with some of these people for 4 months now, and haven’t heard one person proclaiming Christ Jesus. Not one Praise God.

They seem to be more interested in who attended the Solstice Festival at one of the local non-congreg. churches last week. Cool drumming man, and dancing too.

Makes me want to run to the Blessed Sacrament.

PAX!
 
Tenofovir said:
Only later did I realise it was an Anglican church.
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Same thing happened to my mom! She was with a friend hers (also Catholic) and they went to seemed to be a Catholic Church. They thought it was Catholic until they saw a women priest go up there! They were like “HUH?”
marlap2 said:
eg: One woman says she left the Catholic church because there was way too much emphasizing on sin and hell.
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Really? That’s weird. In my experience it’s usually the opposite. In mass we rarely ever mentioned hell. We’ve sometimes mentioned the devil. But I went to my best friend’s Baptist Church. And the devil was mentioned several times. Also, they mention hell a lot on Protestant sites.
 
followingtheway said:
Really? That’s weird. In my experience it’s usually the opposite. In mass we rarely ever mentioned hell. We’ve sometimes mentioned the devil. But I went to my best friend’s Baptist Church. And the devil was mentioned several times. Also, they mention hell a lot on Protestant sites.
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I agree with you. I’ve only had one “fire and brimstone” priest in my life as a Catholic, and I didn’t think that it was bad at all, in fact, any priest who says words that get me to a confession is good in my book. Her statement surprised me, and I needed to say something. I still find it interesting that the devil was mentioned even before Jesus. Maybe I’m just a little over-sensitive. :confused:

PAX
 
marlap2 said:
Why do you want to go to a Protestant Church? Just curious?
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It’s a weird trait I have. I take interest in learning about different cultures. How things work, what things look like from their point of view, while still have mine. Religion in general just fascinates me.
 
followingtheway said:
Are there rules for this?

I mean


  1. *]One of their services is at 11:00 am and my Church has mass at 5:00 pm. So I won’t miss my Sunday obligation
    *]I’m not going to eat their communion wafers or grape juice
    *]I’m not going to convert

    So am I good to go? Or are their more rules for an occasion like this? Can I sing or pray with them? Would that violate any rules?
Click to expand...

  1. If it is a Lutheran Church, feel free to: genuflect, cross yourself at anytime you wish (you might be surprised how many are also crossing themselves), join us in praise, prayer, saying the creed, and listening to His word. Please do not join us at the altar to receive His body and blood, as it is a violation of your communion’s rules, and since we are not yet in full communion, probably our rules, too.

    Jon
 
Jacob_Loyd said:
most Protestants are staunch anti-Catholics.
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I completely disagree with this. I believe that this was true at one time, and I believe that you still can find Protestants who are staunch in their opposition to Catholics, but in my experience, it’s simply no longer true of most Protestants (especially main-line Protestants). I say this as someone who has lived nearly 41 years in the south, was Protestant until the age of 34, been a member of Southern Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, and Episcopal congregations, and was a student at a Protestant school of theology for 5 years.
 
followingtheway said:
Are there rules for this?

I mean


  1. *]One of their services is at 11:00 am and my Church has mass at 5:00 pm. So I won’t miss my Sunday obligation
    *]I’m not going to eat their communion wafers or grape juice
    *]I’m not going to convert

    So am I good to go? Or are their more rules for an occasion like this? Can I sing or pray with them? Would that violate any rules?
Click to expand...

  1. You won’t violate any rules. I presume you’re not going to a traditional Protestant Church, e.g., Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc. and instead are going to a non-denominational community. Don’t expect any communion service, but don’t participate if they have one, they’ll have one every month or so, usually the 3rd Sunday of the month.

    Mostly, expect some guy in rolled up sleeves or casual clothes to welcome you from a stage, announce some “amazing things we’re doing this week” (feeding the homeless, having baptisms, giving out tracts, etc.) then reading a “call to worship” i.e., a Bible verse.

    This will intro the band, which has been quietly assembling behind him. Said band will play, the words of the song will be up on a screen. Depending on the computer sophistication of the church, the screen may have things on it (helicopter view of the Rockies, volcanos, the sea, etc) while “Our God is an Awesome God” is rocked out. Expect raised hands and rocking motions from the community assembled.

    After 3 or 4 songs the “teaching” Pastor will appear, he will read a sentence from the Bible (generally New Testament) then exposit it, another sentence, another exposition, etc. When it’s over you will have heard a great motivational talk.

    At the end of his talk, Pastor will pray (the prayer will be a restatement of the sermon in the form of a prayer). As he prays the band will silently reenter the stage. There will be one more song then Pastor will come out again and do a mini-prayer of the sermon and post sermon prayer and dismiss the assembly. And then everybody will tell you how awesome it was.

    Then at 5:00 p.m. you can recieve the Lord of the Universe, your creator, into your mouth, body, blood, soul and divinity and the sermon won’t sound so good.
 
JRRTFAN said:
Then at 5:00 p.m. you can recieve the Lord of the Universe, your creator, into your mouth, body, blood, soul and divinity and the sermon won’t sound so good.
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I absolutely love the way you sum this up!
 
JRRTFAN said:
You won’t violate any rules. I presume you’re not going to a traditional Protestant Church, e.g., Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc. and instead are going to a non-denominational community. Don’t expect any communion service, but don’t participate if they have one, they’ll have one every month or so, usually the 3rd Sunday of the month.

Mostly, expect some guy in rolled up sleeves or casual clothes to welcome you from a stage, announce some “amazing things we’re doing this week” (feeding the homeless, having baptisms, giving out tracts, etc.) then reading a “call to worship” i.e., a Bible verse.

This will intro the band, which has been quietly assembling behind him. Said band will play, the words of the song will be up on a screen. Depending on the computer sophistication of the church, the screen may have things on it (helicopter view of the Rockies, volcanos, the sea, etc) while “Our God is an Awesome God” is rocked out. Expect raised hands and rocking motions from the community assembled.

After 3 or 4 songs the “teaching” Pastor will appear, he will read a sentence from the Bible (generally New Testament) then exposit it, another sentence, another exposition, etc. When it’s over you will have heard a great motivational talk.

At the end of his talk, Pastor will pray (the prayer will be a restatement of the sermon in the form of a prayer). As he prays the band will silently reenter the stage. There will be one more song then Pastor will come out again and do a mini-prayer of the sermon and post sermon prayer and dismiss the assembly. And then everybody will tell you how awesome it was.

Then at 5:00 p.m. you can recieve the Lord of the Universe, your creator, into your mouth, body, blood, soul and divinity and the sermon won’t sound so good.
Click to expand...
Accurate in my experience and too funny! 😃 The 5:00pm ‘service’ will be the highlight of your day!
 
JRRTFAN said:
Then at 5:00 p.m. you can recieve the Lord of the Universe, your creator, into your mouth, body, blood, soul and divinity and the sermon won’t sound so good.
Click to expand...
Of course! Nothing can compare to receiving Jesus. 👍 But yeah it’s Pentecostal 🤷
 
Would you believe that this is a Lutheran Mass?

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followingtheway said:
Are there rules for this?

I mean


  1. *]One of their services is at 11:00 am and my Church has mass at 5:00 pm. So I won’t miss my Sunday obligation
    *]I’m not going to eat their communion wafers or grape juice
    *]I’m not going to convert

    So am I good to go? Or are their more rules for an occasion like this? Can I sing or pray with them? Would that violate any rules?
Click to expand...

  1. If a Protestant were to say what you said here about going to the Catholic church, he/she would be considered uncharitable and prudish.
 
Tenofovir said:
When I was 8yo I visited a Protestant chapel thinking that all churches were Catholic. I knelt at the altar and crossed myself. An old man sitting in the front row looked at me funny, and I wondered what his problem was :). Only later did I realise it was an Anglican church.
Click to expand...
I don’t understand why he would have looked at you that way. Anglicans kneel in front of the altar and cross themselves too.
 
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