I'm new to the Forum and also new to the Byzantine Rite, which I've just started learning about via attending the Sunday liturgy at a local Byzantine Catholic church.

My web site ("Theist Gal, formerly Atheist Gal") which describes my return to the Catholic Church from a nasty bout with atheism, used to proclaim my return to the "Roman Catholic Church," but I've removed the "Roman" now, as that does not seem to be appropriate.

Or is it? I am still struggling to learn all the terminology. Some people have told me not to refer to the Divine Liturgy as "Mass", others say, "Of course it's the Mass!" So please be patient with me if I don't use the right words at first - I really want to learn!

Thanks for a really interesting site and I look forward to "meeting" y'all! :-)

Shlomo (Peace in Aramaic) Theist Gal,
Welcome The majority of the board is of the Byzantine Tradition, but we do have members of the Antiochene-Edessan Tradition (myself), Alexandrian Tradition, Armenian Tradition, as well as people like you from the Roman Tradition.

It is quite appropriate that your web site listed that you returned to the Roman Catholic Church since that is the specific Church within the Catholic Communion that you had belonged too.

As for the case of Mass. Mass is appropriate only if you are refering to the Latin Church's Divine Liturgy.

Poosh BaShlomo (Stay in Peace),
Yuhannon

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Welcome to the forum.

This is the absolute best place to learn about your faith. there are many posters here, far more knowledgeable than myself who will be glad to share their knowledge. We are all learning.

As Yuhannon has said, there are many traditional lines of Christian heritage that extend back through history to the earliest apostolic period. In a way they verify and validate each other. Nothing artificial here, you get the real thing.

As you will soon know, there are 22 particular churches in communion with each other. These are the Catholic communion. I applaud you in your decision to worship in the Byzantine tradition, this is your right and I believe that you will find it a fulfilling experience. You may also attend worship in the many other Catholic churches as well.

God Bless you on your spiritual quest!
Michael

Welcome to the Forum! I agree with Coalesco's statement - I have learned an incredible amount about the East from this forum, and the folks on it are wonderful! I love your webpage, too!

Glory be to Jesus Christ!
Glenn

Great Website!!!
Welcome,
Sam

Welcome!

Officially it is not "Mass". I think it has something to do with Einstein.

We convert Mass to Energy!

One of the finest things you can do here is go up to the parent site, www.byzcath.org , and follow the links.

John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck

Thiest Gal!!

Welcome to the Forum! Here you will find many knowledgable and friendly people from the Byzantine Catholic, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox traditions. But I'm sure that the strongest trait among the people here are their true kindness which I hope you will find.
There are VERY few "flame" wars here as compared to other sites on the Net in my experience.
I would refer you to the pages of Saint Elias Ukrainian Catholic Church for a great introduction to the Eastern Christian Church and it's Liturgy and Spirituality. It is at www.saintelias.com

Again, Welcome!


Brian Seraphim

Welcome indeed.

And as everyone says it is a wonderful place from which to learn.

I'm glad that Brian mentioned the St Elias Site as that reminded me of something

A pre-requisite for joining us is :-

You must have at least 1 bucket of Lego and be skilled in the construction of things

St Elias and the 'Fath and Worship' forum will explain

Have fun with us all

Let the education continue [ and yes I have said that on many occasions here]


Anhelyna [ whose real name is Angela - but I have been re-named by some of the members here ]

Dear Theist Gal,

Welcome to the Forum. I can only echo the comments of the posters above.

It is truly a spirit filled place, at least it has been in my experience. As a Latin Catholic, I am a guest here. I've learned so much by being here.

At times the discussions are very energentic and very frank; but they are really productive, as the diplomats say.

Welcome again. I join the others in saying that I'm glad that you're here. Long may you stay.

Steve

And sometimes they are very silly.

Theist Gal, I want to ASSURE you that we will not hold it against you if you lack legos, or are of the Mega or Duplo Block persuasion.



Welcome!

Sharon

Dear Theist Gal,

Welcome to the forum!

The beauty of the Church of Christ is its many traditions, all of equal value and each communicating its own unique message about Christ and His Gospel.

Here we respect the myriad colourful traditions and Churches, and some of us have the motto, "Live and let dye . . ."

You need not worry about terminology, that is not the important thing - and we know what you are talking about in any event.

Your story reminds me of the former atheist, C.S. Lewis.

He used to debate Christians at Oxford regularly about the existence of God. His one point that he felt could not be disproven was that since "the world made no sense, there could be no God" the ultimate "Sense-Maker."

Yet, one day, he thought that if the world or universe made no sense, and he was part of that universe, then HE would never KNOW that it made no sense.

In other words, his insight was that to say "the world is senseless" is to make sense of it.

He defeated his own argument - and we know the rest of the story.

I'm really not into lego, truth be told.

Do you collect religious cards?

Alex

Thanks, everybody! (Can you tell I'm trying to do my "Dr. Nick" impression? Is it working? Is it funny? If I have to ask, probably not - but not possessing any Legos I just have to do my best.

Of course, while I don't have any Legos, I do have the Logos in my heart - is that good enough?

Dear Theist Doll:

In joining this Byzantine Forum, there are 3 caveats you must heed:

(1) Refrain from calling the Ukies "Roman Catholics of the Ukrainian Rite" or anything close to it;

(2) Byzantine Cartholics are, for the moment, the Ruthenians, until such time that the other Eastern Catholics agree to from a "homogenous" Byzantine Catholic Church in North America; and

(3) Quickly you must learn to eat, better still concoct, pirogies(sp?), pysanky,(sp?), and baklava(sp?), but not necessarily in that order. (And master their respective spelling! Drat!)

Amado
(A Roman Catholic of the Latin Rite) :p

Dear Theist Gal,

You have an excellent command of Greek, for a Latin!

Welcome, once again!

Alex

Amado,
I am going to have to comment here..... :p

I think you are right on the number being 3 but I think you got them wrong.

Agreed on this one.

Wrong on this one, as there is no such thing as a "Ruthenian". That term "Ruthenian" was made up by the Vatican. So Members of the Byzantine Catholic Church, which I am , are just that, Byzantine Catholics. Just as you do not call Ukrainian Catholics members of the Roman Catholics of the Ukrainian Rite.

I find calling me Ruthenain just as offensive as Ukies find that.

I would say that number two is that you should not say that all slavics are Ukies or Russians, or any other one ethnic group.

I would disagree with this, reference the on going discussion on ethnicity within our churches. But if you do consider this important why have you left out the Melkites? They are Byzantine after all.

So then you must add stuffed grape leaves and hummus.


David

ps sometimes on this forum I get the impression that people think that Byzantine = slavic and nothing else