www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall The Ruthenian Church and Ukrainians

With the way politics have evolved in Central Europe the various group there are now the Greek Catholics of the Czech Republic and the same goes for each of the countries that now exist there. So the 'Ruthenians' in those countries are going with the flow yet again. This of course means the end of any Metropolia in the region as well, as the bishops are now part of the episcopal conferences of their respective countries.

I am asking that this thread be cleaned up. There is no place here for bishop bashing.

What now requests for separate threads for bishops bashing, this is a very progressive forum indeed.

On a more serious note bishops are part of the Church and are the leaders of the within it and they make the decisions that impact on all the faithful. Critism of the bishops is valid on the liturgy topic, or the state of Byzantine Churches and a whole range of other topics. You call it bishops bashing, others don't.

Right now a lot of people are very upset that on the face of things at least 4 of them have made a bit of a mess of things and were going on to make an even bigger mess of the Divine Liturgy. Demands of accountability in the Catholic Church are not bishops bashing. Bishops are not wilting violets. Some have given their lives after the most awful torture and while others go under as easy as you like.

I am glad to say that I have not experienced the (alleged) ethnic bigotry which is being discussed in this thread. I am not Slavic at all in my ancestry, and yet I was warmly welcomed by the people of my parish -- both when I was still investigating Byzantine Christianity and after I joined.

So, is this (alleged) ethnic bigotry in the Byzantine Catholic Church something that is systemic, and my parish just happens to be an exception ? Or, is ethnic bigotry a problem that varies from parish to parish (and person to person) ?

And, is it seriously being argued that the change of translation in the Divine Liturgy in the BCC is to make the BCC liturgy different from the UGCC liturgy ? That claim really seems to stretch the boundaries of credibility.

-- John

My experiences with the BCC and any Orthodox Church I have attended as well...this greatly varies from parish to parish...

My experiences also show me that although some individual parishioners may show bias to those who are not "our people"...the communities as a whole are excepting of others and welcome others...

The average parishioner knows that the Church is in decline and most tend to welcome outsiders warmly...they are few and far between who take an ethnic purity view...unfortunately, however, those people tend to be very vocal...

Now in my most recent experience with the BCC...the people were warm...we had african american families who would come periodically and a young guy from Brazil...they fit in well with the parishioners at coffee socials etc...however, I heard numerous times that they could not attend regularly due to the lack of warmth coming from the priest...they couldn't be at home with such coldness coming forth...a home needs to be warm and inviting and a strong draft can cause issues...