I probably would be a Catholic today if my grandmother hadn’t left the church because of an attempted sexual assault by a priest. I didn't know this until after she had passed away, but some of her faith was always in me, and I have been infatuated with Catholicism as long as I can remember. As a child, I begged my parents to let me go …
I probably would be a Catholic today if my grandmother hadn’t left the church because of an attempted sexual assault by a priest. I didn't know this until after she had passed away, but some of her faith was always in me, and I have been infatuated with Catholicism as long as I can remember. As a child, I begged my parents to let me go church with my Catholic friends; I was completely enrapt when I discovered the writings of St. Teresa of Avila; my proudest moment was a getting graduate degree from a Jesuit intuition. And yet….the things that have always stopped me in the thousand times I contemplated becoming an actual member of the Church were the ever-present reminders of the near zero tolerance for abortion and the seemingly unlimited tolerance for sexual abuse. Makes me sad when I see those two things entangled into one big mess after another.
Hahaha! No papers required. There is a wonderful book called “Searching for Sunday” by Rachel Held Evans that described what it was like when she started going to an Episcopal church. People are low key friendly but will probably leave you be—pushiness isn’t our style. We offer communion to all baptized Christians, so we do get a lot of Catholics who for whatever reason aren’t receiving there.
I probably would be a Catholic today if my grandmother hadn’t left the church because of an attempted sexual assault by a priest. I didn't know this until after she had passed away, but some of her faith was always in me, and I have been infatuated with Catholicism as long as I can remember. As a child, I begged my parents to let me go church with my Catholic friends; I was completely enrapt when I discovered the writings of St. Teresa of Avila; my proudest moment was a getting graduate degree from a Jesuit intuition. And yet….the things that have always stopped me in the thousand times I contemplated becoming an actual member of the Church were the ever-present reminders of the near zero tolerance for abortion and the seemingly unlimited tolerance for sexual abuse. Makes me sad when I see those two things entangled into one big mess after another.
The Episcopal church welcomes you. ;-)
Is it that simple? Can I just show up? I don't need papers, or months of classes or something?
After getting married and having my son baptized Catholic, I feel like I should bring some papers.
Hahaha! No papers required. There is a wonderful book called “Searching for Sunday” by Rachel Held Evans that described what it was like when she started going to an Episcopal church. People are low key friendly but will probably leave you be—pushiness isn’t our style. We offer communion to all baptized Christians, so we do get a lot of Catholics who for whatever reason aren’t receiving there.
"Searching for Sunday" is one of my favorite books!