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Dec 29th, 2019
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Joined: Nov 2001
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I think a lot of Ruthenians and a lot of Ukrainians would rather see the Church go under than to try to live amicably under one roof. I once met a nice lady in Ohio who married into a mixed Ruthenian-Ukrainian family described her in-laws as "crazy as a bunch of loons". I empathized.
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Perhaps a more trenchant question might be "Where did all the Ruthenians go, and why?" 1. Secular - Don't believe anymore 2. Protestant - Evangelical (they like the music better) 3. Roman Catholic - There is one near my house instead of driving to the BCC My theory atleast
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Joined: Mar 2005
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What a pessimistic as well as inappropriate thing to say.
We Ukrainian Kyivan Catholics love our church and our brothers and sisters of the Ruthenian Catholic Church love theirs as well.
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Perhaps a more trenchant question might be "Where did all the Ruthenians go, and why?" ... Fr. Loya was right. We will either learn to evangelize or we will die in this country. Bravo and amen! If we were thinking big, viz., converting the nation, then to some degree these other problems would take care of themselves. Off the top of my head, maybe there are brave souls who can invite one friend a week to DL; or seek out wounded people who need God's love.
Last edited by Booth; 12/01/12 08:08 AM.
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The problem can be found here: US Catholics found less committed to their faith [ catholicculture.org] A sociologist at the University of Nebraska has found a “tremendous decline” in the strength of American Catholics’ commitment to their faith.
Philip Schwadel found that only 35% of Catholics describe themselves as “strongly affiliated” with the Church. Among Evangelical Protestants, the number reporting that they were “strongly affiliated” was much higher, at 56%. Even among the members of mainline Protestant groups, which have experienced severe decline in recent years, the level of “strong” affiliation was higher than that for Catholics, at 39%.
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Ray S.: True. A good example to see what the peak of Catholic strength is, is upcoming during the Nativity Feast. By the time the Divine Liturgies of that feast come around, we should have a good idea how many actually decide to show up.
I know you have the Pascha Feast, too, but that's months off.
Last edited by 8IronBob; 12/01/12 09:48 AM.
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St. Nicholas is unfortunately way too small of a church for the population of the area. To give you an idea this evangelical church made up of mostly Ex-Byzantine and Ex-Roman Catholics resides in a city that has a total population of 100K. Ex-Catholic Church [ tfwm.com] There is no way that St. Nicholas can be sustained for the long term with its population. Eventually, it too will close. The Church doesn't have enough vocations to maintain half of the Churches which are currently open. I believe there are 1 or 2 seminaries at SS. Cyril & Methodius seminary. Do the math.
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Barbeton byz, I just checked the population of Akron Oh and Barbeton. The latest US Census shows the population of Akron at 198,402. So, unless St. Nick looks like the Ex-Catholic Church picture I posted above and not St. Nick back to school pic 2009 [ stnickbyz.com] then your Church is dying a slow death.
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I hope that I am not coming across as insensitive. I am BCC who loves his Church and it hurts to see the Church dying. Our leadership needs to understand that the people are so un-catechized that they would rather sing: Our God is an Awesome God [ youtube.com] than The Cherubic Hymn [ youtube.com] That is the true heart of the matter.
Last edited by Ray S.; 12/01/12 11:53 AM.
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Ray S.
Well - you gave up - we did not...
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The problem can be found here:
US Catholics found less committed to their faith I'm pretty sure the poll didn't include any of us. We're BC (Barely Catholic), not RC (Really Catholic). Including us would give the poor sociologist a headache.
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Well, Parma, on the other hand, is the largest suburb of Cleveland, and also is the home to both the Eparchy that St. Nicholas is under (St. John the Baptist/Eparchy of Parma) as well as St. Josaphat for the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Just so long as I'm fortunate to live here in the Eparchial seat, I'm sure those would be the last two churches to have anything happen to them. Although it's like, 25 - 30 miles north of your area. There are also, like, 2 Ukrainian Catholic Parishes in Parma that are here outside of the Cathedral (3 total with St. Josaphat, Pokrova, and St. Andrew), then one Ruthenian Parish here in Parma outside of St. John's in Holy Spirit Parish, Party Center & Cemetery. Akron's much larger than Parma, though, but Akron doesn't have the same amount of Eastern Catholicism as Parma's got, which seems to go against population logic.
Also, St. Nicholas has support from local television stations to carry Sunday Divine Liturgies, which I do contribute to from time to time. Even though I do attend Sunday worship, mostly at Mass at St. Charles RC Church, sometimes at Holy Spirit or St. Josaphat, but I do watch the TV Liturgies every week, because even if the Epistle and Gospel are the same, Fr. Miron may have a different Homily, and more inspirational Homily than what I may hear from Fr. Batcha or from Fr. Claudio or Fr. Bohdan.
Last edited by 8IronBob; 12/01/12 12:56 PM.
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Off the top of my head, maybe there are brave souls who can invite one friend a week to DL; or seek out wounded people who need God's love. "...seek out wounded people who need God's love." In a way, its nearly impossible to accept people who have been divorced and remarried. Are we not bound "to the Law" and forced NOT to accept as members those wounded people? Tis a very difficult situation. Getting back to the "congregation of 55" as not being able to support a parish, I just talked to a fellow who is helping to decorate his church today; they have 10 members....they are an independent Church. Shouldn't this shame us?
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The parishioners from St. Michael Akron joined St. Nicholas Parish Barberton today... St. Nicholas Day [ stnickbyz.com]
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