www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Information on Eastern Catholic churches

I'm inviting a group of people to a Ukrainian liturgy. Many of them haven't heard of Eastern Catholics. I need a resource that gives good, clear and CONCISE information about the Eastern Catholic Churches (all/most of them).

It can have links for more detailed reading, but as I wrote above, short (relatively) is good (as would be things like a nifty diagram that I saw which gave the breakup of liturgical families, etc.)

Does anyone have any suggestions or favourite resources?

Inquirer,

Father Ron Robeson's text - which is on-line at the CNEWA site - is likely the most easily accessible, best written, and least polemical piece on the various Eastern and Oriental Churches - Catholic and Orthodox. It can be found here [cnewa.org]. It may or may not be as short as you'd like, but asking that a document provide information about "all/most of" the 22 Eastern Catholic Churches and be short may be a contradiction in terms.

As to the diagram to which you refer, I'd suggest you review it carefully or have someone intimately familiar with the Rites, Churches, and the relationships among them do so, unless you are absolutely positive of its accuracy. There are a few variations out there, including ones on both parish and eparchial sites, that are basically correct but contain inaccurate or obsolete terminology that will little serve and potentially confuse folks when they try to later relate it to other information.

Many years,

Neil

You may also want to take a look at this thread, the first 7 posts of which are principally directed at describing the nature, characteristics, relationships, etc of the sui iuris Churches and the distinctions between Rite and Church. (Subsequent posts delineate the Rites, Traditions, Rescensions, Usages, etc. in a schematic form but are in a shambles that resulted when site changes wreaked havoc with coding and haven't yet been repaired.)

Many years,

Neil