Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have many questions so I apologize in advance if any of these questions seem silly.
I was brought up in a church that was non-denominational. I attended until I was in my 20s and then stopped. I never lost my faith but I didn't go to church either. I thought it was enough to not have a home church, but it's not anymore. I need a place to worship. I need a home church. I want a church has some tradition, history, symbolism.
Well, I started looking into Catholic and Episcopal faiths and all I can say is wow. I'm so impressed! But I'm also a bit overwhelmed. I cannot believe how much terminology there is. I may as well never have been to church at all. My church was so watered down and I never knew it. We never took communion. They didn't baptize. No confirmation. No honoring of saints. There was a whole lot of clapping and singing to words on a projector screen but not much else.
You Catholics and Episcopals have got the church going on! I've attended both and for the first time in my life I felt full of the Holy Spirit. I feel like I've been missing out all of these years. THIS is what Jesus wanted church to be.
I was baptized as a child in the Lutheran church so I took communion in the Episcopal church but not the Catholic church. I honor and respect that I'd have to be Catholic to receive.
Anyway....I want to decide which church to be my home soon. I want to officially become a member of the church and at 40 years old I want to do my confirmation. So I do have some questions if someone could answer. Though I'm an educated woman, I have to say, much of the terminology confuses me so don't feel as though you are condescending me if you talk to me like a child. I've been reading this forum for months trying to learn all I can but sometimes the conversations go a little deeper and I get confused.
1) Am I understanding this correctly that the Catholics and Episcopals have built their traditions, liturgy, and sacrements on more than just the Bible? As you know Protestants will always say when referring to some RCC traditions that, "It's not in the Bible".
But one day I was thinking, wasn't the New Testament put together like 300 years after Jesus died? So what did they use to build the church? How did they build the church after Jesus died? That's when I started reading and there seems to be other forms of references that Catholics/Anglicans use, but honestly my head spins when I start to read.
Is there other information that would have been pre-New Testament reference? Such as something that would tell us to honor saints and ask them to pray for us? Or the meaning behind the sacraments? I hope this makes sense.
2) Is it correct that the Catholic church prefers that people attend the church that is closest to their home? I live in the country and I attended a church 45 minutes away. Is that frowned upon to by pass churches closer to one's home to attend a further one?
3) I only went to one Catholic service and was in the back and couldn't see too well. Do Catholics not drink wine during the Eucharist? I know the Episcopals take the wafer and wine but I don't know if Catholics take both.
4) I've watch a lot of Episcopal videos on youtube and I see a lot of them have a person swinging the container for the incense during the procession (I'm sure this has a name but I don't know what). The church I went to didn't have a person doing that, however I did smell incense during the service (What a wonderful smell). Is there a reason for this? What is the name of the incense that was burning?
5) What is the difference between an Episcopal high versus low church? I think this church I went to would be high but I honestly don't know. Also do Catholic churches have high or low services or are they all the same?
6) I just started attending service right after Easter. I could be wrong but it seems that Catholics/Episcopals hold Easter at their most important holiday even over Christmas. Our church always had an Easter Sunday program and that was it. No Palm Sunday, no stations of the cross, no Good Friday, no Lent. Christmas was always a bigger holiday it seemed.
I always felt that Easter wasn't given the attention it deserved in many Protestant churches. This is the day our Lord was risen! There should be no bigger day to honor. It seemed the people at my old church would be very fixated on Christmas and Jesus is the Reason for the Season and Easter felt second. Am I wrong in my perception that Easter is going to be a much bigger day at the Catholic/Episcopal church?
Here it is July and I cannot wait for Easter!
7)How exactly was the Episcopal church formed since it's so close to Catholic already? We know today the Episcopal church is more liberal but was that the reason it was formed in the first place? I don't want to start any type of feud here, just wondering of its origins.
8) Is each service in a particular order or will it change up each week? Is the Eucharist always done at the same time, etc? It seems more orderly and structured like there is a reason behind each thing they do.
I'm going to think of more questions as we go I'm sure. I just can't tell you how happy I am to have church back in my life. Even my husband is loving it. He was brought up as I was and we both are amazed at how much meaning there is. This is what Christ wanted for his people.
Last edited by TheLonelyGoatherd; 07-02-2012 at 12:05 AM..
Also, please note I'm not saying the Protestant church is wrong. It just wasn't right for me or my husband. I don't want to offend. Everyone has to be in the church that they feel Christ wanted. In my heart I truly feel this is it.
I have many questions so I apologize in advance if any of these questions seem silly.
I was brought up in a church that was non-denominational. I attended until I was in my 20s and then stopped. I never lost my faith but I didn't go to church either. I thought it was enough to not have a home church, but it's not anymore. I need a place to worship. I need a home church. I want a church has some tradition, history, symbolism.
Well, I started looking into Catholic and Episcopal faiths and all I can say is wow. I'm so impressed! But I'm also a bit overwhelmed. I cannot believe how much terminology there is. I may as well never have been to church at all. My church was so watered down and I never knew it. We never took communion. They didn't baptize. No confirmation. No honoring of saints. There was a whole lot of clapping and singing to words on a projector screen but not much else.
You Catholics and Episcopals have got the church going on! I've attended both and for the first time in my life I felt full of the Holy Spirit. I feel like I've been missing out all of these years. THIS is what Jesus wanted church to be.
I was baptized as a child in the Lutheran church so I took communion in the Episcopal church but not the Catholic church. I honor and respect that I'd have to be Catholic to receive.
Anyway....I want to decide which church to be my home soon. I want to officially become a member of the church and at 40 years old I want to do my confirmation. So I do have some questions if someone could answer. Though I'm an educated woman, I have to say, much of the terminology confuses me so don't feel as though you are condescending me if you talk to me like a child. I've been reading this forum for months trying to learn all I can but sometimes the conversations go a little deeper and I get confused.
1) Am I understanding this correctly that the Catholics and Episcopals have built their traditions, liturgy, and sacrements on more than just the Bible? As you know Protestants will always say when referring to some RCC traditions that, "It's not in the Bible".
But one day I was thinking, wasn't the New Testament put together like 300 years after Jesus died? So what did they use to build the church? How did they build the church after Jesus died? That's when I started reading and there seems to be other forms of references that Catholics/Anglicans use, but honestly my head spins when I start to read.
Is there other information that would have been pre-New Testament reference? Such as something that would tell us to honor saints and ask them to pray for us? Or the meaning behind the sacraments? I hope this makes sense.
2) Is it correct that the Catholic church prefers that people attend the church that is closest to their home? I live in the country and I attended a church 45 minutes away. Is that frowned upon to by pass churches closer to one's home to attend a further one?
3) I only went to one Catholic service and was in the back and couldn't see too well. Do Catholics not drink wine during the Eucharist? I know the Episcopals take the wafer and wine but I don't know if Catholics take both.
4) I've watch a lot of Episcopal videos on youtube and I see a lot of them have a person swinging the container for the incense during the procession (I'm sure this has a name but I don't know what). The church I went to didn't have a person doing that, however I did smell incense during the service (What a wonderful smell). Is there a reason for this? What is the name of the incense that was burning?
5) What is the difference between an Episcopal high versus low church? I think this church I went to would be high but I honestly don't know. Also do Catholic churches have high or low services or are they all the same?
6) I just started attending service right after Easter. I could be wrong but it seems that Catholics/Episcopals hold Easter at their most important holiday even over Christmas. Our church always had an Easter Sunday program and that was it. No Palm Sunday, no stations of the cross, no Good Friday, no Lent. Christmas was always a bigger holiday it seemed.
I always felt that Easter wasn't given the attention it deserved in many Protestant churches. This is the day our Lord was risen! There should be no bigger day to honor. It seemed the people at my old church would be very fixated on Christmas and Jesus is the Reason for the Season and Easter felt second. Am I wrong in my perception that Easter is going to be a much bigger day at the Catholic/Episcopal church?
Here it is July and I cannot wait for Easter!
7)How exactly was the Episcopal church formed since it's so close to Catholic already? We know today the Episcopal church is more liberal but was that the reason it was formed in the first place? I don't want to start any type of feud here, just wondering of its origins.
8) Is each service in a particular order or will it change up each week? Is the Eucharist always done at the same time, etc? It seems more orderly and structured like there is a reason behind each thing they do.
I'm going to think of more questions as we go I'm sure. I just can't tell you how happy I am to have church back in my life. Even my husband is loving it. He was brought up as I was and we both are amazed at how much meaning there is. This is what Christ wanted for his people.
I am an Episcopalian. Raised in the Reformed Church of America (sort of like Presbyterian, but more hell/death/fear oriented). Became an Episcopalian at the age of 35. It was just the church where I felt I fit the best.
1) The Roman Catholic Church is built upon Tradition (with a capital T) and Scripture. They believe things were handed down from the apostles that weren't written down. The Bible (one of Paul's letters, forget which one) even refers to "those things that we have written and those things that we have taught you." The RCC believes the Traditions were oral, not necessarily recorded on paper. The Episcopalians take it one step further and say Scripture, Tradition and Reason. You are expected to think and use your judgment. Of course, then not everyone will agree, but that's OK. You can have a range of beliefs about different aspects of Christianity and still be Episcopalian. As for the rest of this question, there is too much--about the saints, about purgatory, about the other Traditions, to put into a post. A good book to learn about why they are believed is this one, by a Catholic apologist. I read it and it helped me understand a lot, even if I am not Catholic.
2 & 3) Not Catholic, so I'll let a Catholic answer.
4 & 5) Some churches use incense, some do not, and some only use it at certain times of year, like Lent. The original use of incense was to make the church smell better in the days of unbathed people all squished into the same building, lol. Actually, I think the original use goes back to the Hebrews and days of animal sacrifices and the related smells. Now we say it becomes part of the worship using all the senses. I like the incense myself. Others don't. In the Episcopal church, you'll hear the terms "high church" and "low church". High church is usually more formal and the congregations usually more conservative. The churches usually are more ornate and have a lot of statues and do more genuflecting and bowing before the altar. They also use more incense. But Trinity Wall Street, the neo-gothic Episcopal church in lower Manhattan does a beautiful formal service with incense and they are a liberal church, so that's not always a rule, either. Low churches are usually plainer, people dress down, and they are generally more casual. Some high churches use the older, 1928 Book of Common Prayer (the current one is from 1979.) All Episcopalians do the Eucharist, or Communion, all the time, though. We do love our ritual.
6) Easter IS the most important day in the Christian Church.
7) The Episcopal Church was formed because King Henry VIII of England wanted to divorce his wife and marry Anne Boleyn, because his wife didn't produce a male heir. (Neither would Anne, but he didn't know that yet.) It's more involved and complicated than that, and the whole process took years, but that's the gist of it. The Pope said NO. So Henry declared himself head of The Church of England. It was essentially the same as the Catholic Church except there was no Pope. Eventually his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, revamped the Church of England to remove some of the Traditions they felt the Catholics had added over the years that weren't proper, and she included the Book of Common Prayer so that everyone would have the same thing the priests had, in English (Catholics only held services in Latin and only the priests knew what was being said.)
At the time of the American Revolution, the Church of England threatened to cut off its members in the colonies, so they formed the Episcopal Church, ditching the monarch of England as head. Episcopal simply means "run by bishops", which it is. Now everybody's back together as one big happy in what is called The Anglican Communion, meaning the Episcopal Church in the US as well as other countries' churches that came out of the English church plus the Church of England itself.
8) Yes, there's pretty much a reason behind each thing they do, but basically it follows the order of worship in The Book of Common Prayer. There are several different Rites in the BCP.
Episcopalian here as well. Mighty Queen did an excellent job of explaining it from our perspective. Of course, one of our Catholic brethren in faith will need to chime in on his or her side of the equation.
There are only two things I might add to MQ's post. First, that liturgical churches such as the Catholics, Episcopalians, and Lutherans have a very rich and expressive tradition that literally goes back millennia. We feel that such traditions are certainly not a substitute for the Gospels, but only serve to heighten the message of the Gospels. In the case of the liturgical calendar, our sense of tradition provides a year-long cycle of understanding of Christ's life and service. And I also agree that I never feel so full of the Holy Spirit as when I attend an Episcopal service. The liturgy evokes a sense of transcendent beauty and timelessness. One comes away with an understanding that one is an heir, through hope, of the priceless inheritance of Christ's divine love and God's abundant mercy.
On the question of communion, it is the Episcopal belief that any baptized Christian may receive. I believe Catholics only allow Catholics to receive and, in some cases, members of other Orthodox such as the Greeks or Russians. I invite a Catholic to correct me on that. The difference is that Catholics believe in transubstantiation of the bread and wine, so they require that those taking communion adhere to that belief. Meanwhile, Episcopalians as a body do not fully subscribe to either transubstantiation or consubstantiation. Rather, we are content to label it a mystery where the Holy Spirit is present and leave it at that.
Of course, this is when some self-important lunatic will chime in, stating how only his 87-member fundamentalist congregation in backwoods Kentucky represents spiritual truth. I'm waiting on that one. Because it always happens in every thread centered around the Catholic or Episcopal faith. I fully admit that when I read your thread's title, I thought, "Uh oh. Here we go again..."
Episcopalian here as well. Mighty Queen did an excellent job of explaining it from our perspective. Of course, one of our Catholic brethren in faith will need to chime in on his or her side of the equation.
There are only two things I might add to MQ's post. First, that liturgical churches such as the Catholics, Episcopalians, and Lutherans have a very rich and expressive tradition that literally goes back millennia. We feel that such traditions are certainly not a substitute for the Gospels, but only serve to heighten the message of the Gospels. In the case of the liturgical calendar, our sense of tradition provides a year-long cycle of understanding of Christ's life and service. And I also agree that I never feel so full of the Holy Spirit as when I attend an Episcopal service. The liturgy evokes a sense of transcendent beauty and timelessness. One comes away with an understanding that one is an heir, through hope, of the priceless inheritance of Christ's divine love and God's abundant mercy.
On the question of communion, it is the Episcopal belief that any baptized Christian may receive. I believe Catholics only allow Catholics to receive and, in some cases, members of other Orthodox such as the Greeks or Russians. I invite a Catholic to correct me on that. The difference is that Catholics believe in transubstantiation of the bread and wine, so they require that those taking communion adhere to that belief. Meanwhile, Episcopalians as a body do not fully subscribe to either transubstantiation or consubstantiation. Rather, we are content to label it a mystery where the Holy Spirit is present and leave it at that.
Of course, this is when some self-important lunatic will chime in, stating how only his 87-member fundamentalist congregation in backwoods Kentucky represents spiritual truth. I'm waiting on that one. Because it always happens in every thread centered around the Catholic or Episcopal faith. I fully admit that when I read your thread's title, I thought, "Uh oh. Here we go again..."
I can't rep you again, cpg, but what I bolded expresses what I feel just beautifully.
Thank you so much for the answers. I've been doing so much reading but it's nice to have concise answers that come from actual members' experiences.
Quote:
he difference is that Catholics believe in transubstantiation of the bread and wine, so they require that those taking communion adhere to that belief.
I read about transubstantiation and don't quite understand it. I thought they meant it in a figurative sense but the more I read the more I see it's more of a literal sense. But wouldn't a person taste blood in the wine if that was the case? I definitely feel the Holy Spirit but not in a taste. That one confused me a bit. I'll save that for later.
Quote:
I'm waiting on that one. Because it always happens in every thread centered around the Catholic or Episcopal faith. I fully admit that when I read your thread's title, I thought, "Uh oh. Here we go again..."
You know, if anyone from the Protestant church clicks on this thread, they can feel free to back right out of it. I'm not interested in the Protestant opinions of what church is best. If one prefers a low church with no hymns, people wearing jeans, a rock band, people crunching bagels during service that's all good. However people want to worship and praise is up to them. I'm happy to live in a country where we have that choice. To say one prefers Protestant is one thing. But I'm looking to go back to the roots of the church and I don't know how anyone could deny that is the Catholic church.
However I may be a bit too left leaning for the Catholic church which is what brought me to the Episcopal church.
I grew up knowing many Catholic democrats so I know there are many left leaning Catholics. It's going to come down to finding the right church. For now I'm happy to have it narrowed to the Catholic or Episcopal denomination.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
