Do You Attend Church Services?

OneEyedDiva said:
You're welcome, of course. Another thing I thought about is that there's no passing around the collection plate in most of the mosques we attended, though requests donations may be made.
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OneEyedDiva said:
You're welcome, of course. Another thing I thought about is that there's no passing around the collection plate in most of the mosques we attended, though requests donations may be made.
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Church is every morning that I wake up breathing. I thank God for blessing me with another day. I thank the Angels for saving me from uncountable bonehead decisions. I look out the window at our companion trees. Then there is coffee.
 

Yeah just returned from a 9am mass. A solid 250 people in attendance at the ceremony. One of 5 masses to be held today. Unlike most of you that have turned your backs accepting death and eventual eternal non-existence, I still hope for eternal life so live my life to that end. I won't give up on Jesus's church and its myriad well meaning good people simply because I don't agree with church dogma's, behaviors of some, realize there are strong reasons it won't happen for logical and science reasons, or am lazy. Per below, the path to such has a clearly stated requirement.

Significantly versus dominant church dogmas, I do not believe in an Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent magic like actions without real forces entity as "god" but rather a powerful ancient entity with physical limitations.

John 6:44 (RSV)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."
 
Radrook said:
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You asked a question, which I believe is what you deleted. I saw the question when scrolling through on my tablet, but I don't like typing on my tablet; would rather do so on the computer. Thus it may take me a couple of days to respond to something. I seem to remember you asking something like are visitors welcomed at mosques if they are interested in learning about Islam. I have only been to one masjid where vistors (us...and we're Muslim) were made to feel uncomfortable. It was a masjid in East Orange, N.J. After the kutbah (message, sermon) and people were filing out, I was looking for my husband. You may know that the men sit in one area and the women in another (another difference from churches).

Anyway, I know my husband could spend hours talking and I was ready to leave. The Sister who I asked to help me find him was going through asking if anyone saw him, saying "They're not of our community". Perhaps she took exception to me now wearing traditional hijab like the sisters in that mosque. But that's me. I never have. My hair was covered and I was dressed modestly. Perhaps she didn't think my red head wrap was appropriate (a lot of the young sisters wear all black these days).

It made me feel uncomfortable and no Muslim or anyone else should be made to feel that way when visiting masjids (mosques). I told my husband that we were never going back there again. We had visited several masjids in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia. My husband was well known and well liked in the Islamic communities. We visited mosques that were primarily Arabs and Turks and those where the congregations were primarily Black (like the one in East Orange) and none of them were ever anything but gracious and welcoming with us and other visitors.
 
Mitch86 said:
I used to attend church services at a Presbyterian Church for many decades. Now my geriatrician declared me "house bound" and I cannot leave my house since he warned me I could die if I left my house.
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Why Mitch? do you have oxygen at home?
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Perhaps she took exception to me now wearing traditional hijab like the sisters in that mosque. But that's me. I never have. My hair was covered and I was dressed modestly. Perhaps she didn't think my red head wrap was appropriate (a lot of the young sisters wear all black these days).
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What a shame. I wonder how many people have been made to feel unwelcome in a place of worship because of their clothing?

After fifty-some years away from church, my brother went to church with a Baptist girlfriend. My brother was wearing a nice silk shirt, not tucked in, but out over a pair of black sweat pants. He had gained weight and couldn't get into any of his dress pants. Some man came up to him and told him he wasn't dressed appropriately so he never went back.
 
David777 said:
Yeah just returned from a 9am mass. A solid 250 people in attendance at the ceremony. One of 5 masses to be held today. Unlike most of you that have turned your backs accepting death and eventual eternal non-existence, I still hope for eternal life so live my life to that end. I won't give up on Jesus's church and its myriad well meaning good people simply because I don't agree with church dogma's, behaviors of some, realize there are strong reasons it won't happen for logical and science reasons, or am lazy. Per below, the path to such has a clearly stated requirement.

Significantly versus dominant church dogmas, I do not believe in an Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent magic like actions without real forces entity as "god" but rather a powerful ancient entity with physical limitations.

John 6:44 (RSV)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."
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Preach it, David!

About ten years ago I quit my Methodist church because the new pastor had been there 8 months and not once had communion. When asked, he said he just had so many other things to do. I was shocked. The founder of the Methodist church, John Wesley, believed the Lord's Supper to be “the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God”

So I joined the Lutheran church which has communion every week.
 
In the days when my parents used to drag me to our Presbyterian church, communion was a rare event and only for who my mother referred to as the 'holy holys'.
Personally, I would like to see religion consigned to history and people working together as one to sort out the world and its problems.
 
Della said:
Preach it, David!

About ten years ago I quit my Methodist church because the new pastor had been there 8 months and not once had communion. When asked, he said he just had so many other things to do. I was shocked. The founder of the Methodist church, John Wesley, believed the Lord's Supper to be “the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God”

So I joined the Lutheran church which has communion every week.
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Methodist church? Pastor?

Perhaps he wasn't an ordained minister and therefore unable to officiate at communion.
 
I did once back in 1968, got married there. ...... Well after seeing how that turned out, I said I ain't ever goin' back in there again ......... :rolleyes:
 
Sure. I have led them, and performed a wedding or two, being a certified minister. :) In my 20's I was a true Christian believer. Then I started messing with astrology, and it has been downhill ever since. :)
 
No I haven't in years. As a child in Rochester, NY, I went to Sunday School. When in church, I was totally bored. I tolerated it as an adult. I'm usually at odds with the church, especially the Catholic Church. And I was a groundskeeper at the local Catholic church for 16 years as a part time job.
That church has been closed since 2010 because of the shortage of priests. I have always thought that the Catholic church should have allowed male priests to be married and that they should have allowed women to become priests. If they would have come out of the 14th Century, and kept up with the times, and have married male priests and female priests, years ago, there wouldn't be all of these abandoned and empty Catholic churches all over my state.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
You asked a question, which I believe is what you deleted. I saw the question when scrolling through on my tablet, but I don't like typing on my tablet; would rather do so on the computer. Thus it may take me a couple of days to respond to something. I seem to remember you asking something like are visitors welcomed at mosques if they are interested in learning about Islam. I have only been to one masjid where vistors (us...and we're Muslim) were made to feel uncomfortable. It was a masjid in East Orange, N.J. After the kutbah (message, sermon) and people were filing out, I was looking for my husband. You may know that the men sit in one area and the women in another (another difference from churches).

Anyway, I know my husband could spend hours talking and I was ready to leave. The Sister who I asked to help me find him was going through asking if anyone saw him, saying "They're not of our community". Perhaps she took exception to me now wearing traditional hijab like the sisters in that mosque. But that's me. I never have. My hair was covered and I was dressed modestly. Perhaps she didn't think my red head wrap was appropriate (a lot of the young sisters wear all black these days).

It made me feel uncomfortable and no Muslim or anyone else should be made to feel that way when visiting masjids (mosques). I told my husband that we were never going back there again. We had visited several masjids in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia. My husband was well known and well liked in the Islamic communities. We visited mosques that were primarily Arabs and Turks and those where the congregations were primarily Black (like the one in East Orange) and none of them were ever anything but gracious and welcoming with us and other visitors.
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Thanks for the information. Much appreciated. I experienced a hair-raising response once from a certain place I tried to attend as a visitor. So I am much more cautious now.
Warrigal said:
Methodist church? Pastor?

Perhaps he wasn't an ordained minister and therefore unable to officiate at communion.
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Then that's the explanation he should have provided.
 
Paladin1950 said:
No I haven't in years. As a child in Rochester, NY, I went to Sunday School. When in church, I was totally bored. I tolerated it as an adult. I'm usually at odds with the church, especially the Catholic Church. And I was a groundskeeper at the local Catholic church for 16 years as a part time job.
That church has been closed since 2010 because of the shortage of priests. I have always thought that the Catholic church should have allowed male priests to be married and that they should have allowed women to become priests. If they would have come out of the 14th Century, and kept up with the times, and have married male priests and female priests, years ago, there wouldn't be all of these abandoned and empty Catholic churches all over my state.
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I don't know why Catholic priests can't marry, but I doubt if it would make a lot of difference. Here in the UK. most 'Christian' churches where the clergy have been allowed to marry have shown a steady decline in numbers with many churches being closed.
 
When Covid became such a factor our church began to stream services. One would think that the risk involved would be gone by now, but it seems every time we consider returning to in person attendance we learn of still another person suffering from Covid. Within the congregation there have been a number who succumbed to its effects. Since my wife has underlying conditions it just makes sense to continue with the streamed services. We still submit our offering which is also handled electronically these days. That's just us.
 
Capt Lightning said:
I don't know why Catholic priests can't marry, but I doubt if it would make a lot of difference. Here in the UK. most 'Christian' churches where the clergy have been allowed to marry have shown a steady decline in numbers with many churches being closed.
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Same down here in Australia. Small congregations like mine cannot afford to support full time ministry. Churches in rural regions have been having the same problem for decades.

Creativity with regard to new models of ministry, especially models that utilise the talents of the laity, is keeping the flame of faith from disappearing.
 
Yes, I do. I was at best a nominal roman catholic for years. Maybe even an agnostic for a while. That all changed is 2005 when at a low point in my life I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Since then, I've been attending services, bible studies, marriage and men's conferences. Not to say my walk is perfect by any stretch, but always trying walk closer to Jesus each day.
 
Capt Lightning said:
I don't know why Catholic priests can't marry, ...
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The Roman Catholic church demand for celibacy of priests was the most stupid policy the church ever made. Satan is still probably rolling on the ground hysterically laughing. It has resulted in enormous moral rot, evil sins, and ghastly pain to myriad abused children and women. Church pro celibacy information dominates what one may find on the web while the below is uncommon information they would prefer remain buried.

When did the prohibition of marriage for priests in the Catholic church originate?

Every informed pastor (the Pope included) knows that celibacy was not universally imposed upon the clergy until the Middle Ages, but only very few are aware of the history whereby papal attacks on clerical marriage were resisted for many generations by pastors and their wives.

The origins of universal clerical celibacy emerged as an unexpected byproduct when eleventh century church reformers [known as the Gregorian Reform] tried to deal with problems surrounding the inheritance of Church properties and of Church offices by the sons of clergymen. Reforming popes initially tackled this problem by trying to reduce the number of “sons” fathered by priests. Priests and their wives were accordingly required to sleep in separate beds.

When this approach failed, their wives were required to live in separate houses. Fines were imposed. Priests stubbornly living with their wives were suspended. Bishops were required to make pastoral visitations and forcibly separate priests from their lawfully wedded wives. In many instances, these bishops were often bombarded by angry parishioners throwing rotten fruit. Meanwhile, in other areas, wives of priests who became pregnant were publicly shunned by parishioners and, in some instances, priests wanting to advance their careers within the Church were forced to abandon their wives and children in exchange for a better priestly post.

The First Lateran Council (1123) was so frustrated by the inability of the Vatican to impose compliance to earlier legislation that they took the radical step of declaring the sacramental marriages of priests “null and void.” The Council decreed “that marriages already contracted by such persons [priests, deacons and monks] must be dissolved, and that the persons [both husbands and wives] be condemned to do penance.” In a Church that was endeavoring to sustain the notion that no sacramental marriage could ever be dissolved by anything less than death of one of the spouses, the First Lateran Council’s open hostility toward the sacramental marriages of its priests was a shocking (and many would say “ungodly”) departure from its own theology of the indissolubility of the marriage bond.

There followed three centuries where discovering secret mistresses and illegitimate children became the ongoing concern of the Vatican and reform-minded bishops. Only when the laity were finally persuaded to boycott the altars of priests “living in sin” and bishops began demanding a solemn vow of celibacy prior to ordination did the campaign for clerical “chastity” finally take hold.

All in all, the whole ugly mess surrounding the imposition of celibacy did not approach anywhere near a universal adherence until the seminary system was instituted following the Council of Trent. In the new seminaries, the sexuality of young boys could be closely monitored and their youthful characters could be informed (some would say traumatized) with a morbid fear of having any contact whatsoever with women outside of the confessional.

This opened up the floodgates for developing new theologies calculated to foster clerical “virginity.” Gifted preachers moved from parish to parish promoting this message: “That a priest’s hands ought to be entirely virginal since only then could they worthily bring God into the world [at the words of consecration] just as did the Virgin Mary.” Out of such pietistic theologies that circulated during the 17th and 18th centuries, the charism of celibacy put forward in Paul VI’s Sacerdotalis Caelibatus was developed.
 
Catholic here, but I can't chant the mantra. Let em all live their religious (rebel) beliefs is my thought.
I thank the lord for what he has let me accomplish. Luck has nowhere here!

Me thinks protect their families. That was to plan. They survived mostly. Retired they drive around in their sports cars too.
 
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I believe in God but I don't think God believes in what the churches are doing in His name.
 

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