The Light That Failed (Episcopal Church)

They think nothing of spending $5 at Starbucks for coffee or $10 to see a lousy movie at the theater, but whine and complain when it comes to supporting their church on Sundays. Who do they think pays the heating and a/c bill, the priest’s salary and expenses, the janitor, the grounds keeper, cleaning supplies, the bread and wine, the religious education programs for the children, insurance, etc. etc.??? Don’t they realize everyone else has the extra burden of paying their way too?

Awwwww! Did you get offended?

I am on our church's vestry. I know exactly how the bills are paid. We get a report every month. We pay all our own bills and we also send out thousands to our Cluster for the ministry of the Church.

Do you sit on your Catholic church's board? Are you allowed to vote on what gets done? Or, does the church take your donations and do what they want with them?

A message to these “Catholics” that attend the Episcopal church in Connecticut: “Good riddance!!!” The Episcopal church can have them.

BTW, that's the second most stated reason they left: The intransigence of their fellow Catholics and their lack of compassion.

MOST of the developing world provinces of the Anglican communion are VERY orthodox

The sentence reveals two problems with your ecclesiology.

First, MOST is not ALL. And the "Anglican Communion" has no mechanism to turn most into all, and therefore no mechanism to overcome the Gates of Hell into which ECUSA is disappearing (along with CoE), so the delusion that Anglicans are in some way "catholic" is falsified.

Second, there is no such thing as VERY orthodox. An orthodoxy which requires adjectival modification is actually heterodoxy.

I feel very bad for my continuing Anglican brothers and sisters. I still love the rite.

But it's time to give it up.

Exactly. My husband always jokes about the numbers of late model cars in the parking lot, compared to the weekly collection totals. My b-i-l, who is Pastor of a Parish on the MS Gulf Coast has a weekly collection almost equal to ours, with 1000 fewer families. But he DOES give sermons on sacrificial giving and tithing, and it touches the folks who actually take their faith seriously.

Northeastern Catholics have what I've heard called the 'deep pockets-short arms' attitude when it comes to giving to their Parishes. They still have the notion that they are 'immigrants' who don't have the money to support the Church. But their parents and grandparents DID give money to help build the large churches standing empty in the inner cities, while helping their children get the education they never had. Their children moved up and out into the suburbs, started raising their own kids, and complain about supporting the churches in those comfortable suburbs.

Exactly. Since I became Catholic my giving has increased many times over.

To my parish, to EWTN, to Food for the Poor (I bought a goat, what a kick that was, lol) to St. Vincent dePaul Society and to Peter’s Pence and the food bank with groceries.

Please understand that I am not saying I give like the widow in the Bible who gave her very last mite. I’m just saying that is is truly wonderful that God has given me so very much and it is wonderful to give back. It really is better to give than to receive.

It is amazing how much money we actually have to give to others.

And not just money. I have the honor to bring communion to the sick and elderly. How awesome is that? What a blessing Sunday has become, not only for the Mass but for the communion which brings such joy to shut-ins, sick, and nursing home residents.

Thank you, God, for making me Catholic.

Offended? People are free to worship as they please. I don’t really care about these people—I don’t know them. I sorta feel sorry for them. They had diamonds in their pockets and went off searching for rhinestones. My church will be there for me regardless of their actions, since Christ did say he would be with us until the end of the age.

Your new friends are probably naive, too. The Church makes very few changes. If they want female clergy, gay marriage, approval for abortion, etc. they can go to the Episcopal or Universalist whatever-it’s-called Church and find those things.

Our church, like most, has a finance council and a parish council. Members are free to run to serve on these boards. If your new friends had a beef with the church they could have run to serve and make changes, but I guess they chose to pick up their marbles and run home. Our church also keeps track of every dime it receives. We receive a financial report every year with specific details of how the money is spent. I don’t concern myself with the finances—I’m there to receive the sacraments and hear the Word of the Lord. I have attended my current church for 20+ years and have only been asked once to give more—it was during the recession when contributions fell off and bills needed to be paid. I even once had a priest say that we were not obligated to donate to every cause, but to pick and choose the ones that you could support. And if you couldn’t support them, don’t.

Lack of compassion? I’m sure your new friends probably never heard of Catholic Charities. I donate throughout the year when possible and at Christmas to support the House of Charity, a homeless shelter. Many of our churches have St. Vincent de Paul collections for food to feed the needy. We provide Christmas baskets with turkeys to many families. My niece once went to the emergency room at our Catholic hospital. She couldn’t afford to pay and the hospital reduced the bill to next to nothing.

Lack of compassion? I’m sure your new friends probably never heard of Catholic Charities.

I actually meant lack of compassion toward fellow parishioners.

Your new friends are probably naive, too.

Yep, everybody's naive but Catholics, right?

My church will be there for me regardless of their actions, since Christ did say he would be with us until the end of the age.

Since we also worship Christ and have the same Sacraments as you how does that make us all that different?

. I don’t concern myself with the finances—I’m there to receive the sacraments and hear the Word of the Lord. I have attended my current church for 20+ years and have only been asked once to give more—it was during the recession when contributions fell off and bills needed to be paid.

Lucky you! At the Catholic churches I went to after every sermon there was a plea for money for some such charity and two collections. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure I believe you.

Many of our churches have St. Vincent de Paul collections for food to feed the needy. We provide Christmas baskets with turkeys to many families.

And, guess what? We deliver food regularly to the St. Vincent de Paul church near where we live. We take up collections of food. We also take a dinner, cooked mind you, for 65 people at that church every two months. And, we are a very small congregation.

But, you go on thinking that only Catholic churches reach out to the needy, hear the word of Christ, know anything about the Bible, etc. It must make you feel better about your choice to denigrate others' choices otherwise why would you do it?

If you took my reply as denigration it was not intentional. What do you expect when you, for what reason I am still unsure, label another group of people “beggars” and accuse them of having “animosity” toward others, comments that most would find denigrating? Surely you knew it would raise some eyebrows.

Call it a truce and agree that it’s okay to disagree. Christians get enough crap from the Left anyway. We don’t need to dish it out against other Christians.

One other point: (Don’t take this as a personal attack—it’s just an observation.) I remember reading about a study done in 2010 that found the Catholic Church’s membership rose while the Episcopal Church’s declined. I wonder why.

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