Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Question on Finding A Church Message-ID: Date: 29 May 90 06:15:15 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu > [I'd be happy to add a paragraph on other traditions if someone would > like to supply it. But do Catholics and Orthodox really "church > shop"? This would seem antithetical to those traditions. --clh] Speaking as someone coming out of the Roman Catholic tradition, it would be pretty hard to imagine a serious Catholic "shopping" seriously among other Christian sects. I always was puzzled when Protestant friends told me of their investigations of churches outside their denominations. Even shopping around for a particular Catholic community in which one feels comfortable, while it's certainly done, doesn't strike me as the norm. I have the impression that most Catholics go to Church in the community in which they live. This may reflect a certain common cultural base, but I think it also reflects the centrality of the Mass in Catholic worship. To the extent you can stretch this analogy (admittedly not very far), it doesn't make sense to "shop" when the same "product" is everywhere. :-) -- Steve Dyer dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer dyer@arktouros.mit.edu, dyer@hstbme.mit.edu [About being puzzled by Protestant "church shopping", note that we don't take the boundaries between denominations as seriously as you might think. For Romans Catholics, unity of the Church is reflected in unity of the organization and hierarchy. Thus leaving the Roman Catholic church is a very serious business indeed. For Protestants, the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church is the mystical body of Christ, which includes all of the denominations as various parts of the Body. Most Protestants probably think of differences between denominations much as you would differences between "rites". Many Protestants certainly have grave suspicions of other Protestant groups, but those suspicions are because of actual differences in faith or practice, not simple organizational boundaries. --clh]