www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization How Would YOU Evangelize The US Eastern Churches?

Joe,

That is sad and plain wrong. At least V2 set the framework to restore and encourage adherence to Eastern patrimony and encourage all Catholics to appreciate the Eastern Churches. Let the work continue!

If I am reading you right you are saying that Easterners (like Westerners) think Catholic = Roman.

Paul

Father Michael, bless!

I hav always loved the "banquet" parables, and have mused about the ones that failed to make it into Scripture....

Once there was a king who gave a banquet. When those he invited arrived, the servants did not greet them, they sat alone at table, and the repast was announced in a language they did not understand. Before the end, several servants asked each guest why they had come, and what kingdom his grandparents had been from. The guests never returned.

Gotta make 'em feel welcome when they DO show up. Me, I showed up in the Byzantine Church because the Holy Spirit dragged me there, kicking and screaming. I stayed because someone said "Hello."

Cheers,

Sharon
(another one of those fanatical converts)

Dear Sharon Mech,

I love your post! It is appropriate from the banquet standpoint, plus anyone who has ever felt like an outsider at an ethnic parish can truly find consolation here. I agree with you wholeheartedly; the Holy Spirit draws us to Byzantine life, and He just doesn't let go! Let's pray for a glorious rebirth of the ancient Christian mysteries all over the world! Shouldn't everyone have an opportunity to know about Eastern riches! The Holy Spirit must have a plan in mind. Otherwise, why so many Byzantine minded folk spread all over the place who have no nearby parish to attend regularly. I would love to see one on every corner, just like the Baptists and Methodists have here in Virginia.

Peace to all here on the Forum, Tammy

I forgot to add my evanglization ideas. I try to look at what started me down this road. I believe the original starting point came about from spiritual reading, though I can't remember who or what I was reading. Books and icons were certainly a large part of it.

When I think about the vast number of starving souls who do not even know God, and the spiritual riches we possess in the Eastern traditions, I believe we need to reach out to them personally and in faith, to instruct others in the reality of the living God, and how He has worked in our lives, and how we have learned to depend on Him. Then we can talk about the earliest Church traditions, how the Apostles worshipped, etc. Pass along appropriate books, seeking out those souls who are searching for meaning in life. We cannot be separatists. When we have hearts prepared to serve, we should be zealous, but in great charity! Imagine the gentleness of Our Lord, Glory to You!

Many still do, including bishops and priests.

Dear Sharon,

What you said about greeting visitors is crucial to having visitors return to your church.

In my case my first visit to a BCC was on a weekday to see the icons and pray. The secretary was cordial and offered to answer questions and asked if I wanted to see the priest. I did return to the parish for Divine Liturgy and I do visit the Holy Eucharist when I can during the week.

In some RCC's there are designated greeters who watch for visitors to welcome them. All of us, so inclined, can be a greeter if we make greeting visitors a priority.

"I was a stranger and you welcomed Me."

God bless you,

Paul

Paul,

Absolutely agreed.

Ya know, if you read the Gospels, you'll find that the thing our Lord rebuked folks the most for was a failure in hospitality. In the mid-east, it's still considered a sacred obligation, which may be why I've always felt SOOOO welcomed at Melkite churches.

I've often wished that the Gospel writers had made a bigger deal out of it, but why should they have? They had no reason to expect that even in two thousand years, civilized people would forget hospitality, any more than they would forget to breathe.

We need to get our perspective straightened out. It's not OUR church - it's God's. We're not throwing the banquet - we are there by the grace of the host. The stranger (who is too short, tall, fat, thin, black, white, yellow, red, male, female, loud, quiet, twitchy, ugly, strangely dressed, off-key, and OBVIOUSLY the wrong ethnicity) isn't an interloper. He or she has been invited by God to His own house. And we also forget, or are too blind to see that is Christ (or perhaps an angel) we make welcome - or not.

I should probably consider teaching ECF again some year or other, but I don't, because if we have a visitor, I'm usually a bit busy after LIturgy. Some of us consider it a holy priority to make sure no stranger goes ungreeted, and their questions get answered.

Cheers,

Sharon

While I think this thread is great, a lot of these have been discussed many times on similar threads. Do a search on this forum for "evangelization" in the title of a thread. One comes up dating to 1998!

What is anyone doing about evangelization?

These discussions should be a comparison of approaches applied and how effective they are, not what should be done. Goodness, how long does it take?

The other problem not addressed here is retention. How do you keep the ones you have and the ones you get? One problem with retention that I see is that you get some based on the "great books" and Eastern Spirituality, as mentioned by Tammy. After the person converts, they may find parishioners and priests adamantly denying what they learned in these books.

Please don't start talking about "convert mentality." I have to deal with zealots and legalistic Orthodox people, converts and cradlers, all the time. Those aren't the only types of converts leaving EC churches for Orthodoxy. There are really nice converts leaving as well.

So, how do you keep (and hopefully educate, which may be difficult to impossible, if your priest is RC or of the same thought) your existing parishioners of the ilk mentioned by the great Joe Thur (hey Joe) while attracting AND RETAINING converts?

I am, of course, speaking anecdotally. Every convert from Protestantism to EC that I can think of (a grand total of seven) eventually "doxed". From my conversations, they've had the same issues I discussed above.

Sharon,

You're right. People have to be welcoming and nice. Some parishes have a more difficult time than others being nice. I don't know why, they just do. I've also noticed that one nice person greeting the visitors doesn't equally offset one rude person. Nice parishes aren't just born. Someone has to work to build them. If the priest doesn't care and the parish isn't very inviting, it won't grow no matter the efforts of one or two good apples.

When the priest doesn't care and the bishop and metropolitan aren't concerned about the uncaring priests, well, you have a recipe for disaster. I'm speaking hypothetically here, so hold the tomatoes.

Okay, what is anybody doing BESIDES SHARON (good on ya, Sharon)?

Not running over people in the parking lot is a good start.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Mathhew, 5:5)

Paul

I would like to relate something I am involved with at our Roman Catholic parish, but I think much of it can translate to Eastern Catholic parishes.

Our evangelization committee decided to have flyers on every pew at Christmas and Easter. The flyers attempted to reach those Catholics that only come on those two holy days. Our research showed that a large number of "C&E" Catholics are not full members of their parish due to marriage issues - i.e. they are divorced and possibly remarried and are unsure of their status in the Church. So the flyer mentioned these situations (along with other alienation issues) and basically said "if you are interested in returning to the Church, please come to one of our informal sessions". We also read a "Top 10 Reasons to return to Church" during announcements after Mass on Christmas and Easter that combined both funny ("If it was good enough for Mother Teresa, it should be good enough for you.", "The Passion: You've seen the movie; now see the real thing") and serious ("Lost your way? Come to Him who is the Way"). The "Top 10 reasons" let people know we were human, and also encouraged the regularly attending Catholics.

At the sessions, we just sat in a small room, and had one person invited to speak for 10 minutes who we knew had left the Church and then returned. Then we opened it up for each person to relate their personal story and ask any questions. When we did this during Easter, there were two couples and a single person who decided to return to full participation in the Church (including one husband who wants to convert from Episcopal church). Thanks be to God! Each person said that they had been thinking about this a lot lately, and our flyer seemed to them to be a way that "God had reached out to them" (as one person said).

One thing that was amazing to me - these people felt alienated from the Church for some reason, and it was just a simple act of us saying "we want you back with us" that made all of the difference. That is all they wanted to hear - they did not know if they were welcomed until we actually said it.

As an aside, two of our "returnees" had connections to Orthodoxy. One was a divorced cradle Catholic woman who converted to Orthodoxy a week before her wedding to a Greek Orthodox man. She loved her Orthodox parish, but after her divorce, she was shunned by it (her father-in-law was a big contributor to it). She now wants to return to the Catholic Church and also seek an annulment (although she is not remarried or even dating anyone).

Another couple was a Catholic woman who was married to a non-practicing Orthodox. He did not know much about the Orthodox faith, and was not really interested in returning. Our priest invited him to consider going through RCIA and becoming Catholic, which he is considering. I told him about the Eastern Catholic mission across the street from our parish, and I also told him that if he converts to Catholicism, he automatically will become an Eastern Catholic by virtue of his Orthodox baptism. He found this fascinating, and plans on visiting the Eastern Catholic mission sometime in the future (he didn't even know about it until I told him about it).

I'm not sure how much of this is helpful to others trying to evangelize, but hopefully it will spur other ideas!

Francis,

I believe you've hit upon one of the greatest roadblocks to evangelization going... many people see the Church as a "museum for saints" rather than a "hospital for sinners." They think, "I don't belong in Church - I'm not "holy" enough."

Real quick - answer this: If I say the word "Church," what's the very first image that pops into your mind? Don't know about you, but for me it's the image of a church (building, that is) with the Divine Liturgy in full swing, incense a-smokin', icons a-plenty, gold and glitter in abundance AND lots of pious-looking participants, all of them looking, as though they absolutely belong. "Certainly not like me!" I'd think. "Why, I'm just a normal guy... maybe even sub-normal... man, those holy folks would toss me right out the door if I tried to participate with them!"

Sure, I exaggerate. The point is, many folks think they need to already be "holy" in order to attend and be welcome at Church. They feel that if somehow their own "holiness" has been compromised (divorce, past sins, whatever...), they are no longer welcome. This, I believe, is the single biggest obstacle to evangelization, especially with regard to fallen-away members.

How do we win them back? I dunno... but I think it might help if we tried to ease them back with outreach endeavors outside of the intimidating majesty of our worship where many undoubtedly feel less than "fit" to attend, maybe even fearful that their attendance would constitute a sacrilege of sorts.

They must first be made aware that all are welcome!

...just some thoughts and observations...

a pilgrim

I think it's somewhat less difficult to get the lapsed BCs back. Make the parish more ethnic and make sure your ethnic events are well publicized. My father-in-law will be happy to go to a Polish event, but never a liturgy. The folks who don't like church are more likely to come to a less "holy" event.

But then you have to put up with ETHNIC things in your church. YUCK!

Friends,

I don't like the way that post sounded. I will rephrase.

Yielding to pedestrians in the church parking lot is what I do to be friendly and courteous to my fellow parishioners.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Mathhew, 5:5)

Paul

Dear francis,

Good things are happening at your parish.
The fact that you have an evangelization committee is a giant step forward.

Paul