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Dr. Alex,

At this point Churches are closing, priest are aging, and people are leaving (every year the statistics are less and less). If you do the math I believe in less than 10 years most of the ECC in the USA will be closed. I believe the seminary of SS Cyril & Methodius for the Ruthenians has 1 seminarian (please correct me if I am wrong). That's 1 person who may or may not become a priest.

Please show me 1 Church that is attracting new members. Just 1 so I too may find hope.

Dear Ray,

Very interesting and disturbing!

However, that wasn't what I was referring to - it was you reference to Christ in the way you did.

Alex

If you are referring to the statement above then I stand by what I said. If Christ was interested in saving the BCC in the America's you would think He would do something.

Perhaps Christ is waiting for His flock to do something. The hierarchy of the Church doesn't seem to be communicating a plan for the future. You never hear anything about evangelization. I get the Eastern Catholic Life publication. Nice articles about Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich and the fact it costs $100,000 to train a seminary. There are stuff about stewardship appeal and photos from the pilgrimage (which is depressing seeing all the nuns over the age of 60). Again, not one word about the importance of evangelization. How about something like, invite a friend to Church with you. Say something, ANYTHING...

I just don't see the future for the Church. The sad thing is that I don't see other people concerned. I love my Church, but I just want to shake some of them and say WAKE UP we need to do something.

Frustrated!

Dear Ray,

Your frustration is understandable!

It would make for an interesting sociology of religion study to see what is going on - do BC's become RC or Orthodox and why? What is making them stop attending their BC parishes - services too long or what?

If the BC's are going to another Church, whether Catholic or Orthodox, for whatever reason, then they are not falling away from Christ and that is a very good thing.

But to maintain the BC Church is also a good thing and that is something more related to us humans on earth, notwithstanding the need for prayer and fasting.

Do you think a special movement for the preservation of the BC Church is in order? Is it something that you could develop in tandem with other like-minded individuals?

Alex

It seems (emphasis on "seems") to me that the decline in the BCC being discussed here is a particularly North American problem rather than one impacting the Eastern Catholic churches in the "homelands." Is that the case, or just my fervent imagination?

If so, one has to ask why the apparent stability (at least) in the old world and the seemingly rapid decline here?

I am so sorry to hear of this closing. I saw the for sale sign a few months ago. The dwindling numbers is not unique to the east. Detroit's Latin diocese has been closing and or merging parishes at an ever increasing rate the past few years.

I belong to the St Michael the Archangel UGCC in Dearborn, we to have difficulties in attracting new members, and keeping the members we have. I think as eastern Christians we need to bust the mind set of homeland churches WE ARE "c"atholic a universal church that weather we claim linage to the orthodox or catholic we preach a universal message that should not be weighed down by geographical restraints.

We also need help from the west in so much as Western pastors need to emphasize that if you are eastern you need to search out and attend the church of your tradition. The west also needs to educate it's priests on the nature of the eastern catholic churches. I find with dwindling numbers every where they are too eager not to tell people that no matter how long you attend a western church to fulfill you Sunday obligation it does not constitute membership in that church. Some times I think they only worry about head count.

It is long past time to erect a unified Catholic metropolia or catholicosate made up of all the fissiparous groups that share the Constantinopolitan tradition. There is no longer a need to have in the same area Melkite, Romanian, Ruthenian and Ukrainian churches, all on life support! We should follow the example of the Russian parish in Lyons (St. Irenée). It is now pan-Byzantine and thriving, with many cradle-Latin French attending. Of course, the principal language of worship is French.

Because the Novus Ordo is specifically non-ethnic, it is depressing to think that this truly is the future of Catholicism. Whatever future our Faith has, I have no clue.

If we're lucky, perhaps the Ordinariates can become the model for English-speaking lands. God, I hope!

Unfortunately, I don't think anyone really cares about official membership. People go where they can socialize - or if non-committal, somewhere they can get out of quickly. Our churches in America want to assimilate and not "show off" their uniqueness. Why would I travel 15 miles for 'Stations of the Cross' when there's a Latin Church next door that does it better, and my Syriac Church skips its own unique Exaltation of the Cross, and definitely will not do it in English?

In addition, many of our Churches have a fear of evangelizing those of the neighborhood. 'Oh your black, non-Slav, Hispanic, there's the Latin church down on Main St.'.. evangelize, right out the door.

As to Latin pastors, the bad ones think we are backward; some of the good ones think our Liturgies are too long or we are simply ethnic; others don't know about us at all; even more don't care about us or the Code and assimilate anyone Eastern or not into their (usually) 'loose-rules' parish.

I was involved in a Bible study with some good Latin men, I stopped attending when I asked them if they had any interest in attending a Holy Qurbono and all said 'nah, too long'.. these are the good ones, remember.

Even giants like Scott Hahn or V.Rev.Fr. Robert Barron, who speak about the Liturgy we practice have not experienced many of the non-Latin Churches, and I suspect they have no active interest in doing so. I once met Scott prior to his talk - and I am not begrudging him, he's a busy guy with many family and speaking commitments - and afterward asked if he'd be interested in seeing his talk paralleled in our Holy Qurbono. He simply said 'oh the Eastern Churches are great, they preserve the Liturgy of the Apostles' but that he wouldn't be able to attend then or anytime soon. I asked Fr. Barron post one of his talks about ways our Eastern Church in the US could help in the new evangelization - our uniquenesses, etc.. -- he had not much to say. I mentioned about a "Catholicism Series" for the East, and he said the money wasn't readily available.

The worst practice of all is that our own bishops and clergy tend to favor the modern Latin (charismatic-esque) models and keep the giants of our authentic Tradition (if they even exist) on the fringes and in the shadows.