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My favorite is still the ordinary use of extraordinary lay ministers of the Eucharist. So ordinary, that there seems to be a convention about it: six lay ministers, three male, three female, and as racially and ethnically mixed as possible. These will distribute the Holy Sacrament, while the priest and deacon take a breather behind the altar. The same number is used, regardless of whether there are 25 communicants or 250. It's the T-ball mentality: everybody has to play, everybody has to get an at-bat.

Another favorite is the "Leader of Song", which is a misnomer, since it's usually two people, a man and a woman, often husband and wife, standing together in front of the congregation, horribly over-miked, trying to sing some awful ditty from Gather, waving their arms around like I used to when I was five and watching Lenny Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on TV. Did I mention the band, and the sound system whose cost alone exceeds the annual budget for a typical Byzantine parish?

I mean, we could go on forever, here.

I have run into "anti-ecumenical" Latin Catholics, who think that the Latin way of doing things is the only truly Catholic approach to living the Christian life. These individuals are often anti-Orthodox, and some are even anti-Eastern Catholic. Such is life I suppose.

It's like that on both sides, though. Just go over to one of the other Orthodox boards (don't know if i should mention it here), and you will see exactly what you describe, only from the Greek perspective.
There's no shortage of this in all groups, and becomes especially present when filioque discussions come up.

Dear Apotheoun,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

I actually came across one such Roman Catholic today. He kept ignorantly saying I shouldn't leave the original (aka the Roman Catholic Church)and said that if I become a Melkite Greek Catholic that I would be a "traitor" to the Catholic faith. He also said that why don't I stay with the biggest Church. I was praying for patience and charity as I explained to him in several ways that Rome is not the original, that we do not all need to be the same to be in union. I have not come across such stubborn closed mindedness. It was frustrating. There is a reason I have not brought it up too much amongst my Roman acquaintances. I'm just glad we did not get on the subjects of the Pope, the 14 latter "councils" and the Roman beliefs that are pushed as universal doctrines. I would not of wanted to deal with his closed mindedness calling me a heretic. Aye ye yae,

Kyrie eleison,

Manuel

Kyrie eleison,

Manuel

Manuel:

My question is why you would bring this up with someone you know is this way. Sometimes when we bring up this type of thing it appears to our hearers that we are trying to convert them.

There are those who are open and those who are not. There are those who are secure enough in their faith gift that they are not threatened by a different approach to practice; there are those who are not.

Be who you are. Explain only if challenged why your practical living out of the Faith is different. And then be brief--that's the way I do it and that's the way my Church does it.

There's a thread some time back about dealing with Roman bullies. I'll see if I can find a link for you.

https://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/127287/Re:%20Help%20with%20a%20Roman%20bully

Don't know why it doesn't link, but paste it into your browser and you'll get there.

Bob

Dear Theophan,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

I did not know this individual was like this. I do not even know him. It was on FB first of all. Second, I was posting on a friend who had a friend of hers recently change from Latin to Byzantine. She was cool. But being FB, this . . . gentleman came in. He started asking question which in charity you do not assume the worst at first. But as the posts on our friend's FB page continued, I tried to finish it by wishing peace with him and between us. Didn't work the first time. It finished with us talking a little bit about beer lol. Don't ask me how lol.

Kyrie eleison,

Manuel

That was my point. I have left two different Roman Catholic forums (one within the past month) because those in charge were bigoted against Eastern Catholics.

I have been told that before too . . . once even by a professor of theology who should know better.

I had come across this as well from an author friend who is one of the moderators of a catholic yahoo group. When I talked about the Eastern Catholic Churches, he "corrected" me and said that all Catholic Churches are Roman Catholic just of different Rites. This really surprised me since for his book he did extensive scholarly studies into the fathers of the Church and he spent about 10 years among the UGCC.

Kyrie eleison,

Manuel

PS He also helps seminarian students with their latin, so that's why your comment made me think of him.

Manuel,

That wouldn't be Professor Carroll would it?

Fr. Deacon Lance

Dear Fr. Lance,

Glory to Jesus Christ!,

No . . . I think that is the auther of a series on the history of Christendom and the gentleman who started Christendom College (or is it University?) right? But no, it is not him, but someone who admires him. My author is the author of a book on Church approved prophesies and the fathers on prophecy, on proper Catholic eschatology, Desmond A. Birch. Ever heard of him?

Kyrie eleison,

Manuel

Dear Danman,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Can you quote which of my response you are responding too? I would really appreciate it. That is why I do my best to quote the person I am responding to and editing to get the specific section that I maybe replying to.

Thank you.

Kyrie eleison,

Manuel

manuel,

it wasn't your post. actually, it was to someone else, but after thinking about it, it was off-topic with really no purpose and so i decided to delete it as you were responding.

sorry, my bad.

LOL, ok, no problem. Now that I'm a regular member and my posts are posted immediately, I tend to be quick to reply.

Kyrie eleison,

Manuel

No, but if he is a Carroll disciple I am not surprised. Some years ago Professor Carrol and I go into it at the EWTN Q&A site. Prof. Carroll refused to refer to Eastern Catholic Churches as Churches insisting there was only one Church with different Rites even after being shown the CCEO and other documents which refers to us as Churches. Long story short, Colin Donovan was notified and Prof. Carroll was removed as a Q&A expert there.