www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization We need an Eastern Catholic website!

+1.

LOL. First Sentence made me laugh in a good way of course.

Well I'm definitely not one who has bad feelings towards the Roman rite and is looking for an alternative. All Ritual rites in the Church should be enjoyed and are Holy and are seen that way by me and my family. I just find the Eastern rite and expression to be a good fit for me and its where I would ( and do ) feel most comfortable.

This discussion has been a good one by the way. I've enjoyed all the posts.

I really see both sides, and think that both are necessary. We have parishioners who have found us in the traditional way (a recommendation from a friend or someone brings them as a visitor) and those who have stumble across us on the internet. I've had visitors tell me that they wanted to visit an Eastern Catholic church and were researching by checking out websites. They chose ours because we seemed friendly and welcoming (and non-ethnic. Having a website is critical. On the other hand, a personal connection is what is going to bring in the unchurched. They are not likely to be perusing the internet for a church and stumble across us. They need us, as fellow human beings, to reach out and give them a personal connection. We need to show them the love of Christ and make them want what we have, and that sort of connection is best accomplished through a personal and very human outreach.

+1

I'm a disaffected Latin.

I understand that we've messed up a lot of your parishes by, like, loudly filioqueing and stuff, so I get if you're not enthusiastic about having us around.

But if the Latin Church in many places were even trying to provide something of substance to her faithful, we wouldn't be disaffected.

So there's just no robbing going on.

And while I may be hearing the filioque in my head and crossing myself left to right until the day I die, my children don't even remember the Latin Church.

My concern is that somebody in my little piece of the world is worshiping God properly.

It is the purpose and end of human creatures to worship the Trinity. With that in mind, our little parish is the only soup in a city full of spoons. Either they're coming to our church, or they're missing their chance to do what they were made for.

Well, perhaps putting up a web site where we can educate Latin Rite Catholics that they are in union with the BC, and that list the difference in customs, traditions, and how they receive the sacraments, and the fact that we can receive each others' sacraments/mysteries, perhaps we can have a website that will promote unity, and to encourage us to attend at least one or two Divine Liturgies and/or Masses (depending on which Rite one belongs to originally), and take on the overall experience between the two. This is what I'm starting to do, splitting my time between RC and BC worship, and getting the fullness of both Rites of the Church. I'd encourage others to do the same, and make sure that everyone knows from each others' traditions, and how to work that into everyone's spiritual lifestyles.

There are many sites like this already. Has anyone looked for them?

http://www.east2west.org/

One of the many I've used as a reference

Two things that appear unmentioned in the foregoing discussion:

Prayer and sacrifice.

Prayer for converts and the reunion of the apostolic churches is awesome. Even if it isn't answered, Our Lord would likely bless you for attempting to add to His Body.

It's my layman's understanding that prayer is often more efficacious when done in groups, and when led by clergy - especially at official liturgies, and when the goal of the prayer shows faith by being bold in scope.

Lord God, please, so far as it be Your Holy Will, convert the whole world, and particularly the United States, to Greek Catholicism, most especially to my parish; and grant the complete reunion of all of the faithful of the apostolic churches in the manner most pleasing to You. Glory Be To God!

***

I concur with the problem of identity crisis in the ECCs, however, the issue is completely outside of the control of the average layman; and so while that is a laudable goal to work towards concurrently with evangelizing, the one should not preclude the other.

To use the common folk wisdom in a different manner, perhaps most of us should "tend our own gardens" - try to stuff our own parishes full with converts and reverts - and give the bigger picture to God.

Excepting those persons who have personal calling to work on a larger scale; although it is my unlearned opinion that they are a minority.

The problem can only be resolved by the laity. See Bishop Joseph (Tawil) of blessed memory, The Courage to Be Ourselves [melkite.org]. As is always the case in the Eastern Churches, the bishops have the charism and duty to teach the authentic Tradition, but the people, the Laos tou Theou, have the duty and obligation to defend the Tradition when it is distorted or changed, even by bishops.

Again, I agree. I very much appreciated the article by Bishop Joseph Tawil. It is a theme that Father Loya has been emphasizing for as long as I've known him. It works well when the priest is serious about lay leadership. I understand your church is growing. Is it the mission? Perhaps you could tell us a bit more about your liturgy and laity involvement it helping to keep a sense of integrity about it. Do you have a website?

I assume Carson is addressing me. Yes, Holy Transfiguration has a web site, though it is nothing spectacular. The parish is growing and half that growth is organic (i.e., we like making babies). Of the remainder, half of that, I estimate, comes through marrying in, about a quarter through changes of particular ritual Church, and the rest are really, truly conversions involving adults receiving some or all of the Mysteries of Initiation (some people having been baptized in a Protestant denomination, other not). In the eleven years I was at Epiphany, I think there were just two other adult baptisms aside from mine and my wife's. There are typically three or four a year at Transfiguration.

I attribute a lot of this to the world of one of our deacons, Sabbatino Carnazzo, who runs something called The Institute for Catholic Culture and also teaches at Catholic University. This allows him to bring a lot of people, individually or in groups, to the Liturgy; a surprising number keep coming back. The rest just goes to the parish environment, which is extremely active, dynamic, and welcoming. That, in turn, is a reflection of the pastor, Father Archimandrite Joseph Francavilla.

I wouldn't scoff at the Middle East Food Festival held every Labor Day. It brings in thousands of people, and though they come for the food, there are also church tours and lectures about the Melkites and the Liturgy. Food festivals are really a secret weapon. We're Greek Catholics because we went to the Slavic Festival at Epiphany, went on the church tour, saw that (contrary to what our Orthodox friends had told us) this was a very Orthodox liturgy (sic transit gloria!), which encouraged us to come the next Sunday, and the Sunday after that, and after that, and finally to tell Father John we would like to be initiated into his Church.

Again, the key is the liturgy: if you do it well, and you can get people to come just once, very likely they will come again. Hence, the centrality of liturgy in the life of the Church: font and touchstone of theology, principal method of evangelism, primary instrument of catechesis through mystagogy.

I don't know if it can *only* be resolved by the laity, but your point is well taken.

As Father Taft has noted, the problem is tautological: the bishops beg off implementing reforms because "the people are not ready", and the people are not ready because the bishops refuse to teach the authentic Tradition. Meanwhile, priests who want to do so find themselves whipsawed between the directives of the Holy See to restore the fullness of our patrimony, and their eparchial bishops who refuse to do so and (sadly) sometimes discipline priests seen as too "Orthodox".

In such a situation, only the laity can break the logjam by demanding that which is rightfully theirs: the full Tradition of the Byzantine-Constantinopolitan rite, in liturgy, theology, spirituality, doctrine and discipline. Nothing less will do. If we do not want this, then we should just become Latins and have done with it.

Father Deacon Sabbatino truly has received the Gift of Preaching from the Holy Spirit. His talk at Encounter 2012 was truly outstanding! Your parish is extremely fortunate to have him.

For those interested in seeing what he does in his private work go to www.InstituteofCatholicCulture.org [instituteofcatholicculture.org]