www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Finding a Mate?

Might I suggest that you hang out where nice girls also hang out.

Being Australian when I first saw this trail I thought you were asking where Eastern Rite men made friends / Buddies when i saw the term 'mate'. I was a bit confused at first but soon got the message.

I have been a member of three different Byzantine parishes, and at each one, I really have not found "single women" in my age group. (Well, I can modify this a bit, and say sometimes there were one or two women around my age in the parishes I have gone to, but one I wouldn't say was fully single, and other other just never inteacted with me to get to know even just as a peer to know if single or what). I find I am usually alone, and I have to and do interact with all the nice elderly people -- but it is difficult to have a community life in a parish without peers. This is true not only when it comes to looking for a mate, but even just for general peer-related social needs.

This is one of the problems I have found in many of the Byzantine parishes, and I think it shows a problem which needs to be addressed: how will we survive in the majority who go to our parishes are elders who have remained Byzantine all their life, but young adults do not go? While there are a few families, I do see the rate of growth from children far exceeded by the rate of death by our elderly. This can and does affect those who happen to be a faithful young adult, male or female, who happens to go to their parish and have no peers. I think it is one reason among many that younger Byzantines tend to drift to the Roman parishes, that is IF they remain a faithful church goer.

I am already feeling elderly in my own way, even though many people will claim I am still young at 31. In the years I have been Byzantine, people have kept telling me: if you want to find a mate, find one at your church; if there is none there, go to a different church. I have answered I am Byzantine, and I am faithful to my tradition... but it does seem to be a bit of a martyrdome at times (for me and I am sure many of the other young-adult Byzantines who are alone in their parishes)

Amen, brother!

Ungcsertezs (I want a girl, just like the girl that married dear old "D'ido"!)

I have only a slight familiarity with a couple of Byzantine parishes(is it called a parish?), and my personal observation is that younger people are coming back, AFTER they are married and are raising young families of their own. Maybe Byzantines find each other in univeristy, or maybe they find mates who are willing to convert. At the parish I visit most often there are young adults, but their age and sex does not match up, so there are no real choices. My Protestant daughter is engaged to a young man who is Byzantine and she has simultaneously fallen in love with Eastern Catholicism and has chosen to convert. Her fiance's brother is also planning to marry a Protestant girl who is converting. These couples found each other in a shared hobby-Civil War reenacting! You might say it would have been better if the boys had found RC or Orthodox girls, but so many RC young people are liberal and don't understand their faith. The conservative Evangelical background of these girls actually made them more suited to these faithful young men than if they had been raised in liberal Catholic parish.
Well, that's just my 2 cents and I realize that it won't be appreciated by all, but I felt led to share this experience with you all. Just food for thought, I guess.
Blessings
Michele