www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West I'm not confident that I am in the right church.

I recently joined the nearest church that I have a heritage in, where the priest speaks English well, and which is Orthodox (because I got some great answers from an in-communion group a few years back when I was in between churches and prior to attending a technically Protestant but atypical church that then split and closed). I have read a few things here or there about different church views and what/who is the church. I'm a little confused by it. How do I know what to believe?

Please let me know if I misunderstood your background. I'm not clear what "technically Protestant" means.

The answer to your question "How do I know what to believe" is different than what I would tell a cradle Catholic/Orthodox person. With your background a theological review of the Councils and Patriarchs probably aren't real important.

I would suggest that you receive your answer by reading the Acts of the Apostles, which, as you probably know, follows the Gospel of John in the New Testament. After you have prayerfully read it then you may be ready for more questions.

May the Holy Spirit enlighten you and bring you comfort.

Fr Deacon Paul

Grew up Lutheran, then family went non-denominational, then I visited a Catholic club and studied that a little since I always had an affection for it but I was Protestant like my family, then I had a period of things happening and a lot of stress and felt detached from a specific denomination (this was actually the period where I took a Catholic catechism class through a club on campus since I did not have a chance to do the apologetics one), then Messianic (easy to be non-sola scriptura there too, since as with my affection for my interaction with the Coptic club, Christianity came into existence in context and not some isolated magic appearance of Modern Protestant faith), then I joined an Armenian church. I am part Armenian and this would be easier to tell my family and I thought it would be fun to meet more Armenians who were actively religious too.

I know how you feel. In my experience, the best way to find the answers is in prayer. Don't let people influence you too much or pay too much attention to historical arguments, etc. Looking at some of the long, drawn out debates on this forum and elsewhere, is anything ever really accomplished? There are many brilliant and scholarly minds both here and in other places, but in my opinion (no offence to anyone) the same debates just seem to get recycled over and over and nothing is ever really accomplished.

In the end I think we belong wherever we feel the most peace in our hearts and the closest to God. If we approach faith with simplicity and childlike trust, the answers come more easily. In other words, think with the heart, not the head.

I'm not totally sure that you're saying the Armenian church is the one you're not sure about or not, so apologies if this answer is off track.

Sometimes baby animals are orphaned for whatever reason, and other animals take care of them. In particular, here is a story about a spotted lamb abandoned by its mother and shunned by the other sheep, but "adopted" by a Dalmatian.

Video [youtube.com]

The spotted animals know and love their own, regardless of species. Of course there are examples of this where there is no visual similarity, but that these two are "marked" lends some interesting subtext to this discussion.

Just some food for contemplation. Prayers for your search for a spiritual home.


Booth,
(A Norwegian "lamb" adopted by Ukrainian "Dalmatians.")


PS - Catholicism is a great choice! ;-)

This I can agree with. Especially if it's Eastern Catholicism. After all, Latin Catholicism is nice, but, the Eastern Rite needs a lot more help in today's society, and I'm glad I was called to it, just wish others wouldn't be so skeptical to jump on board. Sad.

Yeah, the Eastern Catholic Churches are the best thing ever! Praise God for His mercy in letting me partake of them.

All we need is more prayer for converts, fasting, and superhuman feats of love, and our churches will be full one way or another. Then we can convert the whole country!

Praise God that His great mercy leads people here to ask for guidance, such as Anastasia. Someone holy somewhere must be praying for her. I'm convinced that someone who never met me was praying for me - for a soul who needed help - when I was lost and confused.

Dear Jesus, please bring Your lost ones to our churches, and grant us the graces to help them!

Very true. We've tried educating the West that the Byzantine Rite is governed by the same Pope and is as much Catholic as the Roman Church, and to give the Eastern tradition a try, and see if they feel that the Divine Liturgy is the right thing for them.

Do you mean that you have joined the Armenian Apostolic Church?

Ayo (yes)

Interesting. What originally led you to join them? (By join, I'm assuming that they've baptized you?)

I have some Armenian roots as well, but I joined the Old Orthodox; mostly because there isn't an AAC close to where I live. But originally, I was Antiochian.

May I ask for more specifics about your statement "How do I know what to believe?" All the apostolic Churches have the same basic beliefs about God (though there are some strong distinctions - I wouldn't call them differences - about the Person of Christ), the Trinity, the priesthood and the Sacraments.

Blessings,
Marduk

A really awesome Antiochian boss and a Byzantine Catholic friend that were really devout. Encouraging answers about going to church (like even though you are late it is still worth going because it's always worth going) and that experience of being around Copts who were schooling me on church councils (finally being among my people-people who really cared to dig deep into where Christianity came from and not just the modern manifestation of the ancient faith in chronological isolation!). The gentleness I got from Orthodoxy compared to Evangelical Christianity or Roman Catholicism. Affection for the Apostolic kind of faith that I grew up loving but unable to have as a good Protestant. The hope of meeting more nice church going Armenians (even though the parish I saw with an English speaking priest and joined has more people not quite my age but still an awesome priest and interesting chats with people as I would expect in any such parish). I was nervous to tell my family I was officially going to a non-Protestant church and they know of my interest in our Armenian heritage. Antiochian wanted a certain amount of money pledged by a family and I was low-income and never bothered to go there when I saw their website years ago, and the Greek priest was hard to understand, and the Coptic church required me to be baptized first (which I know my family would not have approved of).

It's different enough for me to be a "non-Catholic" on a Catholic website so I don't confuse people. If that is such a big deal, then how do I know where exactly is the Church?

Sounds to me like you know exactly where you are supposed to be right now, imho.