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Dear Friends,

I think we should think about the practicalities of evangelizing our Church.

First, I don't think we are in danger of dying out. Our Church is Christ's Church. The Church is Jesus Christ and all who are united to Him through the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ isn't going to die, so the Church isn't going to die.

Second, therefore, I think we should concentrate on allowing Christ to better live in us and through us and, thereby, allowing Him to grow the Church.

That, in my opinion, boils down to holiness and marketing.

Holiness is necessary because, simply put, we cannot give what we do not have. If we want to share the life in Christ --the communion of the Trinity-- with others, we must be deeply immersed in that ourselves. Otherwise, our efforts will be in vain.

But evangelizing takes place simultaneously to holiness. They are two sides of the same coin. When we grow in the life of Christ, we naturally (and supernaturally) witness to Him in the way we live the life in Christ.

And part of how we live the life in Christ is to consciously evangelize. That, in turn, in my opinion, requires us to learn from the business practice of marketing. We have to identify what we have to offer, identify who would be interested, and reach out to those people.

We have, in Eastern Catholic Christianity, three principle things to offer (in my opinion).

1. Traditional Christianity. (Morals. Art. Liturgy. Authority and Apostolic Hierarchy. Etc.)

2. Married Priests.

3. Mystical Christianity. (Theosis.)

Now, I think that only a small portion of American society would be interested in all three of those things. Most American Christians are Protestant; therefore, most of them won't be interested in the authority and hierarchy of our Church. Also, most Americans are not very open to mysticism, and they regard it with some suspicion. (And those who are open to mysticism often tend to gravitate to more liberal and non-hierarchical forms of religion, such as Buddhism or New Age.)

But, there are some people who would be interested in all three points that we have to offer: Tradition, Married Priests and Practical Christian Mysticism. Some of them would be Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and others who yearn for a more Traditional form of Christianity (patristics, liturgy, morals, etc.). Some would be Roman Catholics who wish for (or wish to be) married priests. Others wouold be seekers who yearn for mystical communion with God within Christianity (and not Buddhism or New Age). It is all of these people whom we need to target for proselytizing, because they would be most open to what we have to offer and therefore most likely to convert.

How to reach them ? That has been discussed abundantly at this Forum, and I don't need to go over those points here. (I will mention that having an abundance of material on the internet will be useful.)

My main point is that our outreach efforts won't work unless we do two things.

One: we have to market ourselves, by identifying our strengths and those who would be most interested in our strengths.

Second: we must also --simultaneously-- become holier, so Christ can more easily be recognized within us and so He can more effectively operate through us.

Ultimately, we must be about helping people come to Jesus. And our own holiness and our own marketing of our strengths would help us greatly in that effort.

Just my two cents. Any comments?

-- John

St. Seraphim of Sarov said:
Amen!

I whole heartedly agree with your two points:
I do think however that your 3rd "thing we have" is the most important. Our deep rich faith. (Mystysism) I sense that people are spiritually hungry for reality.

God bless,
Fr. Bo

In the BC Church we only have one married priest. So we will have a tough time evangelizing if that is one of the standards.

CDL

That is not true!

we are part of the Catholic Church. Yes, the Catholic Church is not in danger of dying out. However, Christ NEVER promised the Ruthenian Rite it would not die out.

I joined because I believe that our destiny to a great extent is in our hands. Indeed the Catholic Church and her faith will never die. But as you say as a sui iuris Church we will die. We will either help unite Orthodoxy and Catholicism and hences cease to exist as a separate organization or we will simply whimper off into a corner someplace and go out of existence.

On my little poll in another thread a vast majority of people proclaimed their desire to help unite the two troublesome parents and become reabsorbed. Only a handful were willing to die out whimpering.

Can this analysis be applied to the present discussion of the liturgy. I believe so.

CDL

John makes great points, good work, dude!
I certainly hope the Ruthenian Rite does not dies out. hey, I've been sending them part of my tithe for some time now.(the Russians get part of the tithe as well).
whuile it may be true that there are a lot less Ruthenians now than in the old days, as long as there is a Ruthenian to carry the torch, it will last. hey, I am an isolated Russian Catholic, there is no church for hundreds and hundreds of miles, but that will not stop me from identifying myself as I am, nor will it stop me from practicing my Faith.
Much Love,
Jonn

In addition to the target markets already mentioned, I think we need to remember the target market we so often see in the gospels: the poor, the broken, the disenfranchised.

How do we do it?

Should it be a one-on-one ministries, with individuals visiting the imprisoned, feeding and clothing the poor, etc., as the spirit moves them?

Should we do it as a community? If we do it as part of the greater Catholic community, will we be recognized as Byzantines, with something else to offer over and above what the RCC has to offer?

At what point and in what way - other than by our example of holiness - do we make known our message? The poor are indeed hungry, and not just stomach-hungry. Often, their circumstances have made them especially open to the Spirit.

What about a once-a-month (or once-a-week in more heavily populated Byzantine areas) pirhohi-kitchen to augment the soup kitchens of other denominations?

Sophia

Sophia,

There may be a food shortage still is some corners of this country but the bigger problem regarding foos in this courntry is not too little but too much of the wrong kinds of food. Food shortages are not a big problem anymore. How one befriends the poor is a bigger problem. How do we help them find ways not to live on impulse is the greatest. There may be a time once again when lack of food is a big problem but it is relatively minor right now.

Spiritual problem are much more serious. I wish we could just give food away to solve the problems of our country but we have moved to other areas of poverty.

CDL

Dan,

I agree that we don't have a "shortage" of food in this country. The problem is in "distribution."

Above are the homeless statistics and the efforts of just two of the Catholic organizations that help to feed the homeless and the almost homeless in my own community.

Sophia

I used to be involved in ministries like that. I still support them. But there is apparently a lot of distribution going on. Those who used to be skinny and poor mostly are fat and poor. There are exceptions. I think those who fall between the cracks as far as food is concerned are those in emergency situations (breadwnnner dies) or are mentally ill and choose to live on the street. God bless those who still work in this area but it really isn't the problem in this country that it was even 20 years ago.

Here's an example of something that bothers me more.

My friend tells me that he has worked with foster children for many years but he's had it. He is not allowed to either withhold funds from a drug addicted prostitute teenager in order to get her to actually go to school nor is he able to reward her if she does. The buracracy won't allow it. All the girl seems interested in is going from one "sugar daddy" to another because she enjoys it and likes the drugs. She is not interested in school.

He also tells me that many of the grown men he knows have no trades whatsoever. They claim back injuries or they live off of women etc. Even a generation ago the men in these circles would have had land, or a job, or a trade. But no more. There is a black middle class but a majority of blacks (he's black) have simply become leeches on society.

The poverty runs much much deeper than food distribution. I understand that you probably know that but it's important if only for me to remind myself that the spiritual needs have ramifications than run far deeper than food distribution.

CDL

Dan,

I agree that we don't have a "shortage" of food in this country. The problem is in "distribution."

Above are the homeless statistics and the efforts of just two of the Catholic organizations that help to feed the homeless and the almost homeless in my own community.

Sophia

Dan said:

I do see some "fat" people in food lines, but (1) often this is because of high-carb, low protein diets that these people subsist on, and (2) who are we to judge which people in line are deserving and which are not? When Jesus fed the 5,000, he didn't have the apostles ask who could afford food and who was poor. They were there, and they were hungry.

Moreover, I never intended my original post to be about whether the homeless are "leeches" or "lazy." What I meant to propose was a possible "practical" vehicle for evangelization by example.

Sophia

P.S. Dan, are you okay? Your posts lately seem to have a negative thrust lately?

To Ray S., so true! I guess if the Ruthenian rite dies out then it never was the body of Christ? Also if one is afraid of the Church dying out then it will, right? We must have faith to move mountains and trust in Christ or if we doubt and are afraid we will sink as did Peter after taking his eyes off Jesus!

They aren't negative at all. I'm glad there are some who care for these folks. It's just that if we all do it we wind up not taking care of the other needs. Keep up the good work.

CDL

I'm not Ray S but I don't believe that was exactly his point. I'll let him explain himself. As for me if we cease to exist because we have been faithful it does not mean that we weren't part of the Church. It means that we are. If we cease to exist because we were unfaithful that means we stopped being part of the Church.

CDL