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Hello all,

It's been awhile since my last post...it was actually long before Stormshadow and I were married.

Anyway, since I'm relatively new to the BC tradition, I'm curious about the other BC's out there...only because we are an anomaly where we live. I'd never known any other BCs before I met Stormshadow, and still don't. It's hard not to feel alone in this great big Catholic world.

How far do you drive to your church?
How many parishioners attend DL? (averages are OK)
What is the average age of those attending?
Do you have any groups? The RC parish I grew up in had a ladies guild, KofC, CCD program, different committees that made up the Parish Council, etc. Of the two BC churches I've attended, there's nothing besides liturgy.
Do you know/are friends with many/any parishioners?

Thanks for your time!

Blessings,
Pisces

Hello,

It takes us about 20 minutes to drive the 16 miles to our parish. Some of our parishioners drive nearly 2 hours to get there, but I think we're about average in our parish. Our normal attendance varies from 45-50. About 16 of that number are children under 10. Their parents make up a good portion of the remaining number. The rest are mostly over 60, some into their 80s. We have ECF, but it has been sporadic. We just lost our teachers (a young couple who are converting to Orthodoxy), but I think our priest is going to teach the class to the older kids. (I think the class will be comprised of his two oldest kids, my two oldest, and one other).

Having groups is hard, because we are so spread out geographically. Attendance for weekday/holyday liturgies is quite low, sometimes only 4 or 5 people can attend. For some, it is because of the distance from the church. For others, it is because it is challenging to attend an evening liturgy and still feed a bunch of young kids and get them to bed at a reasonable hour. It is definitely a problem.

We are friendly with most of the parish. Sunday Divine Liturgy is at 10:00. For the most part, nobody clears out until 12:30 or 1:00, frequently later. We stay to have lunch and socialize. It hasn't always been this way, and what we have now is a great blessing. A family in our parish recently lost a newborn baby, and many parishioners attended the funeral, in spite of the distance and timing. We are definitely family-like.

Thanks for your reply, Babochka! That's really great that you have a family-like atmosphere.

I should have shared my own experiences in my OP, but it looks like my DH and I are in a similar situation. We drive about 30 minutes (27 miles), which seems to be the average for all parishioners. There are about 30 to 40 of us, weekly. There's one family with three children that attends regularly, another with six kids that lives about an hour away (they join us monthly), and a third with two little ones that alternate between an RC parish (mom's church) and our parish (dad's). I don't think we have an ECF.

DH and I are the youngest adults! So it's a little odd when most of the people could be our grandparents--no joke. There aren't many who would be our parents' ages. DH and I would love to have more of a community aspect in our parish, especially as we don't have many friends or social outlets. I'm envious of your Sundays! After DL, everyone seems to book it from the building. Ours starts at 9, and we are done by 10:30.

I know our churches are threatened by low numbers, but it's frustrating when DH and I are bringing new blood and it doesn't seem to do much. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing to know you're not alone in this.

We drive maybe 7 minutes to liturgy. There are usually 12 people there with an average age of maybe 32. When we go elsewhere, attendance drops by half and average age jumps by close to 15 years. That's the English liturgy. The Ukie liturgy gets probably 50 people with an average age of about 988. I think some of them were probably there for Volodomyr's baptism.

There are a bunch of groups. There's a Ukrainian dance troupe that's almost as good as the pyrogies and cabbage rolls made and sold monthly by the ladies of the parish. I'm not sure how to get the dancers or their families to show for liturgy. There's other stuff, but we don't pay much attention to that.

Our church is not yet a mission. We have only been meeting twice a month and for feast days. We pay a nominal rent for use of the Catholic Student Center near the University. We have around 20 people attend Divine Liturgy. Last Sunday we hit a record with 25. One family drives about 40 miles, I drive about 25. Somewhere in there is typical I think.

At this point it is hard to say who is a member since we don't have a regular parish. We have one family who lead the singing with several of the children in their 20's. We also have two young couples who are with child so we will get to have our first baptism soon. There are two other families who attend who have children of high school age. At the moment there are two of us who would mostly constitute the "old fart" congregation. This seems to be a very unusual group for a typical Byzantine church.

We don't have any formal groups yet. As for social interaction, everybody knows everybody else and we practically have to drive people out after the coffee hour.

We have liturgy at 10:00 and have to be out by 11:00 so the students can set up for their mass.

It remains to be seen whether we will grow or not but we pray.

Our parish, Holy Trinity in Sykesville, PA is about ten minutes away from my house by car. We average 70-80 adults on Sunday morning for liturgy. There is a very nice spread in the age demographic; we have about 30 kids active in our ECF program. We really don't have any formally recognized groups, but in addition to our youth program there is a group that actively volunteers with our St Nicholas Day program. Our Parish Council meets on an infrequent basis. Aside from 2nd and 3rd generation relatives (a pretty large part of our parish) I am not aware of a lot of friendships that exist within the parish itself.

How far do you drive to your church?
10 minutes

How many parishioners attend DL? (averages are OK)
Maybe 60 for English DL, maybe 70 for Ukrainian DL.

What is the average age of those attending?
Forties?

Do you have any groups?
OLPH, two parish councils, prayer tree, Saturday School, children's Ukrainian dance class, probably a few others. There's a Ukrainian club next door that also has some social things.

Do you know/are friends with many/any parishioners?
I'm chatty with several people, although we're not socializing away from church.

It's hard not to feel alone in this great big Catholic world.
Pray for converts and new parishioners! Also, invite people. Other parishes probably have social and charitable things, too. And then you can also tell them how awesome it is to be BC. :->

That's an impressive effort. An hour and fifteen is the minimum time I've seen for the Liturgy in an Orthodox or EC Church down under(excluding the hours, matins, whatever comes before and after it).

My bad. We have Divine Liturgy at 9:00. Usually, Fr. Ramon serves the Liturgy in one hour and 15 minutes or less. A normal amount of time I surmise. We gobble down our goodies and coffee and are out around eleven. We still get a lot of socializing in.

Drive time is 20 - 30 minutes depending on traffic
Numbers about 300 families
Attendance is usually full on Sundays
Average age about equal, lots of little ones and youth
Yes our parish socializes and I do too.
Groups yes
Maybe cuz I was raised SB, I watch for new folks coming in, maybe cuz I was a deacons wife, don't know. Maybe just a natural born greeter.

Ss Peter and Paul RO Cathedral, Passaic, NJ

3. I drive 22 miles

2. Parishioners - not many. It's a very big cathedral though, for 900 people. At coffee hour, all of a sudden there are many people sitting down.

3. Age: older people, some adults, some kids. A little of everything. Altogether, not so many people. We have a small, but dedicated group of hardheaded people, for whom, they said, "this is home."

4. We have a FOCA chapter; a Bible study group bi-weekly; the Trustees and their meetings; Sunday school for kids; the choir which has rehearsals and attends Vespers; we used to have bingo but it was retired last year or the year before.

5. I've been to the church regularly for 2 and a half years, and on and off prior to that. I'm in the choir, so I know and am cordial with all choir members. I've been to the choir director's house; I've been to Father and Matushka's house, gave gifts to them and their kids. I try to talk to these people and learn about the history of the church and how things used to be when there were a lot more people. I'm very interested in the history of Passaic in general, I spend many hours exploring it on foot. The view of the many churches - Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, Rusyn Byzantine Catholic and Rusyn Patriarchal, Old Polish Catholic, and all of these church domes and towers lie behind a big great field where their historic factory lies in ruins, and Hispanic residents walk by.

Just got out of our annual meeting. The total number of parishioners is 275.

I know what you mean. I was baptised at and formerly a parishioner of St. Michael the Archangel BCC. Stop by and introduce yourself to Fr. Marcel sometime. You'll likely catch him on the corner by the rectory getting some fresh air (taking a smoke break). He has a good knowledge of the history of the city and the neighborhood. Your church is on the nicer end!

And I'm sure you'll enjoy the newly renovated outdoor Marian shrine in front of the rectory, now with a beautiful icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

I have a nice recent picture of myself in front of that shrine, but this forum doesn't let you attach a picture to a post.

You can upload and post it in the Photo Gallery.