Which branch of Protestantism?

[VeronicaM]

Which branch of Protestantism is most similar to Catholicism?

My mother says that it’s the Episcopal church. If I’m not mistaken, the Episcopol church is the American offshoot of the Anglican church. The Anglican church was one of the first churches to break away from the Catholicism.

 

[Roman_Catechism]

Well yes, the Anglican church is the most similar in doctrine and practice to the Catholic faith then other Protestant faiths. Other Protestant churches such as the “Baptist” background I had are very different, and don’t even have Holy Communion, as an example. If you recall, many in the Anglican communion have converted to the Catholic faith en masse because their beliefs are so similar and thanks to the ecumenical work of the Pope recently. Some Anglicans, in fact, consider themselves “Anglo-Catholics,” if I’m not mistaken.

 

[TrueLight]

Well yes, the Anglican church is the most similar in doctrine and practice to the Catholic faith then other Protestant faiths. Other Protestant churches such as the “Baptist” background I had are very different, and don’t even have Holy Communion, as an example. If you recall, many in the Anglican communion have converted to the Catholic faith en masse because their beliefs are so similar and thanks to the ecumenical work of the Pope recently. Some Anglicans, in fact, consider themselves “Anglo-Catholics,” if I’m not mistaken.

Baptists do so have communion. Just not faith in the real presence.

 

[Scoobyshme]

Baptists do so have communion. Just not faith in the real presence.

Baptists may have a communion service, but they do not have the Eucharist. They lack Apostolic Succession, and, therefore, Holy Orders. Without Holy Orders, they have no priests. Without priests, they lack 5 of the 7 Sacraments.

 

[Lawrence178]

Anglicans are very close in some respects, but some more “old-school” Lutherans are very close. I believe they call themselves “Confessional Lutherans”, I think because of the Augsburg Confession and all.

Anyway, I spoke to one online and was very surprised to find out about his beliefs. He told me about how many “Confessional” Lutheran pastors take Confessions and are called father by the laity. He said he would put a statue of Mary in his lawn if he could.

He even showed me this, which left my mouth wide open
giftsofaith.com/Files/lutheranrosary.pdf (the prayers in Latin, especially)

Their beliefs are different in some odd ways I didn’t expect, though. His beliefs on the intercession of Saints were very foreign to me, he said he had no way of knowing if the Blessed Mother was praying for him directly or for the overall Church. Something along those lines, anyway.

This was odd to me, I have only ever known ELCA Lutherans. They seemed to harbor a lot of anti-Catholic superstitions. The orthodox Lutheran said he doesn’t even consider them a church body anymore because they have strayed so far.

 

[ProVobis]

Which branch of Protestantism is most similar to Catholicism?

How about the Missouri-synod Lutherans? I believe they have followers in the non-Anglosphere world.

 

[Roman_Catechism]

Baptists do so have communion. Just not faith in the real presence.

Not once in my entire life before becoming Catholic did I ever see a “communion service.” If any of the various “Baptists” with which I was associated ever had such a thing, it clearly wasn’t very important in their lives.

 

[Anathama_Sit]

Not once in my entire life before becoming Catholic did I ever see a “communion service.” If any of the various “Baptists” with which I was associated ever had such a thing, it clearly wasn’t very important in their lives.

Greetings Roman_Catechism,

Some of my family are Baptists in the United States of America and they have their “communion” services usually one a month and at the evening services. I am not sure how many Baptist ecclesial communities follow this procedure.

God bless.
Anathama Sit

 

[Te_Deum]

The Anglican and Lutheran communions vary greatly within themselves. High Church Anglicans and Lutherans are the closest to Catholicism.

 

[Bporte00]

Not once in my entire life before becoming Catholic did I ever see a “communion service.” If any of the various “Baptists” with which I was associated ever had such a thing, it clearly wasn’t very important in their lives.

I don’t know about “communion service”, but at every Baptist church I have attended they have done communion before offering at every service. Now, I know that it is not a real communion in the sense of real presence of the Lord, but they do have their version within their church.

 

[TrueLight]

I don’t know about “communion service”, but at every Baptist church I have attended they have done communion before offering at every service. Now, I know that it is not a real communion in the sense of real presence of the Lord, but they do have their version within their church.

That’s exactly what I was saying. We all know it’s not the Eucharist, but I don’t think it is correct to say Baptists don’t have communion.

Whether they do it once a month or so, they still have communion.

 

[corsair]

None of the above mentioned protestants have Aposolic Succession; therefore they cannot consecrate the Eucharist. They can pretend but thats about it.

God Bless

 

[7_Sorrows]

while growing up in the episcopal faith, i always saw myself as catholic with an english flavor. the anglican communion is most similar to Catholicism i feel. the Pope has approved the Anglican Use Mass so i am hoping more anglicans will join the Roman Catholic church as i did a little over 3 years ago.

 

[GKC]

Well yes, the Anglican church is the most similar in doctrine and practice to the Catholic faith then other Protestant faiths. Other Protestant churches such as the “Baptist” background I had are very different, and don’t even have Holy Communion, as an example. If you recall, many in the Anglican communion have converted to the Catholic faith en masse because their beliefs are so similar and thanks to the ecumenical work of the Pope recently. Some Anglicans, in fact, consider themselves “Anglo-Catholics,” if I’m not mistaken.

True.

GKC

Anglicanus-Catholicus

 

[ProVobis]

while growing up in the episcopal faith, i always saw myself as catholic with an english flavor. the anglican communion is most similar to Catholicism i feel. the Pope has approved the Anglican Use Mass so i am hoping more anglicans will join the Roman Catholic church as i did a little over 3 years ago.

So any hope for the Dutch Use or Swedish Use? Those are mostly Protestant countries too.

 

[ProVobis]

None of the above mentioned protestants have Aposolic Succession; therefore they cannot consecrate the Eucharist. They can pretend but thats about it.

Interesting point. We can’t really say who’s closest to Catholicism unless we take all non-liturgical matters (and doctrine) into consideration as well.

 

[7_Sorrows]

So any hope for the Dutch Use or Swedish Use? Those are mostly Protestant countries too.

well, it doesn’t have to do with the country. i am not sure i understand your question.
the anglican communion was not inclusive to just England. the Anglican Use Mass is for those who want to join the Catholic church, but retain certain forms of the anglican liturgy.
it has all been approved by the Pope and has been in the workings for quite some time.
i am simply happy to be Roman Catholic, but there are some entire anglican congregations that are joining with Rome and want to use the Anglican Use Mass. i believe it is not a separate rite, but is just called Anglican Use. if i lived near a church that offered the Anglican Use i would like to attend once or twice just to see what it is like.

 

[Cat]

I’m a convert from evangelical Protestantism.

I’m going to surprise some of you and suggest that any of the Campbellite denominations are most similiar to Catholicism.

These denominations include the Christian church (lower case “c” in “church”), the Church of Christ (NOT!!! the United Church of Christ, which has become a theological and political swamp of liberalism), and the Disciples of Christ.

All of these churches insist that they are NOT denominations, but rather, are the Church that Jesus Christ founded. However for clarity, I will refer to them in this post as denominations.

The Campbellite denominations adhere to the “Restoration Movement,” which is an attempt to “restore” the Church to the 1st Century Christian church.

For this reason, Campbellite denominations adhere to many beliefs common to Catholicism; e.g., communion is offered at every meeting, and baptism is required for salvation.

The Baptism doctrine alone is contrary to what most other evangelical Protestant denominations teach. Most evangelical Protestant denoms teach that baptism is an outer manifestation of an inner change. But the Campbellite churches teach that a person cannot be saved without being baptized, which the other denominations see as a “work of man,” or as a “Catholic false teaching.”

My husband and I believe that it was in the Christian church that we attended for four years in college that our desire for the True Eucharist was awakened. Communion at every meeting seemed “right” to us, and we loved it, but we weren’t sure why. We sensed that there was much more to the communion than we were getting. We knew that there was some “mystery” that we didn’t understand.

Of course, we never dreamed that the “mystery” we were sensing was Catholicism! It was over 30 years later, when we started studying Catholicism, that all the pieces fell into place. We realized that what we were doing in that Christian church was closest to Christ’s intent of any of the Protestant denominations we had ever been part of.

Interestingly, one of the “decorations” in our college Christian church was a series of portraits of the 12 apostles (including Judas, with a scathing denouncement of his betrayal of the Christ). The portraits were beautifully done, and included biographies of each of these saints.

This was the first time that I or my husband had ever seen portraits of ANYONE other than Jesus in a church! The churches we grew up in would consider these portraits “glorification of mere man” and condemn such “graven images.” This is another example of how the Campbellite churches are more similiar to Catholicism

One thing to keep in mind before rushing down to your local Christian church, Church of Christ, or Disciples of Christ fellowship!–these churches are autonomous, which means that there is no central governing authority. This is one respect in which they deviate from Catholic tradition and teaching, and it’s really too bad.

Certainly there are advantages to autonomy (mainly, you can spend your church offerings however you please and you don’t have to “chip in” to the denominational headquarters). But the disadvantages are numerous.

The main problem is that it’s easy for heresies or for various dubious practices to arise and become established in the autonomous churches. There is no “watchdog” denomination to evaluate pastors and teachers in these churches. Sometimes the “heresy” is just a little variation in the traditional Christian teaching, but it becomes established and the people are led along a false path.

There is no one for a faithful and knowledgeable church member to appeal to above the pastor and the elders (these churches do not consider the pastor to be “above” the elders, but rather, equal with them). So often the member is forced to leave his/her fellowship over continued false teaching, and this is hard for a person who has been part of that church for years or decades.

Case in point–it was out of the Christian church that Jim Jones was able to create the Peoples Temple, which eventually led to the mass suicide/murder of thousands in Guyana. Since there was no denominational authority to put a stop to Jones’ heretical teachings, he was able to proceed with impunity and turn his Christian church into a cult in which he was the head. In denominational churches, usually the pastors and teachers who deviate from the traditional denominational teaching are disciplined and if they refuse to submit, they are de-frocked and fired.

So this is one serious difference between Campbellites and Catholics. But if you are in a Campbellite church in which the Christian teachings adhere to the Fundamentals (which Catholics also teach), then IMO, you will find a church very simliar to the Catholic Church. A pale shadow, yes, but definitely a shadow, unlike other Protestant denominations which will often refuse to even stand out in the sun with the Catholics.

 

[Road2Damascus]

Anglicans are very close in some respects, but some more “old-school” Lutherans are very close. I believe they call themselves “Confessional Lutherans”, I think because of the Augsburg Confession and all.

Anyway, I spoke to one online and was very surprised to find out about his beliefs. He told me about how many “Confessional” Lutheran pastors take Confessions and are called father by the laity. He said he would put a statue of Mary in his lawn if he could.

He even showed me this, which left my mouth wide open
giftsofaith.com/Files/lutheranrosary.pdf (the prayers in Latin, especially)

Their beliefs are different in some odd ways I didn’t expect, though. His beliefs on the intercession of Saints were very foreign to me, he said he had no way of knowing if the Blessed Mother was praying for him directly or for the overall Church. Something along those lines, anyway.

This was odd to me, I have only ever known ELCA Lutherans. They seemed to harbor a lot of anti-Catholic superstitions. The orthodox Lutheran said he doesn’t even consider them a church body anymore because they have strayed so far.

A lot of Lutheran Churches have Traditional Services vs. Modern Services, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, without being a part of the faith itself but having some Lutherans close to me, they do seem to share a lot.

Order of St. Luke is an organization, Ecumenical I once looked into but did not join. Just the name struck my curiosity. Meetings were at a Lutheran Church.