www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall There is no Eastern Catholic Church around me.

Glory to Jesus Christ!/Слава Ісусу Христу!/イエス・キリストに栄光!

I am a Roman Catholic living in Tokyo, Japan, but currently attend services regularly at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and serve as a member of the choir. I would like to transfer to the Eastern Catholic Church to learn more about the Eastern Christian tradition. The problem is that there is no Eastern Catholic Church in Tokyo yet. I have asked the Australian Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Ukraine Greek Catholic Church for advice on this, but have not received a response.

Of course, being a member of Roman Catholic Church does not hinder one from practicing the Eastern tradition. However, I am sure that everyone in this forum is well aware that the identity issue of whether to participate as a guest from another tradition or to place oneself in that tradition and do it as one's own liturgy is not a small one.

Would you give me some advice on what approach to take in the future?

Glory be to Jesus Christ!!

John Ephrem,

Welcome to the forum. We hope and pray your time with us is spiritually fruitful.

Bob
Moderator

It is at all possible you could find Eastern Catholics there to start a mission or outreach? if they're not there yet, you can always bring them there. While I would still suggest you go to Mass, I think it could be beneficial for you to learn about Eastern spirituality. However, I know that some (not all, and mostly on the internet), people can get rather extreme, either way. I wish I could give better advice.

Welcome to the forum!

First of all, a couple of questions: Which services do you regularly attend? Vespers? The Divine Liturgy on Sundays? If you attend the Divine Liturgy are you receiving Holy Communion? Do you attend Catholic Mass on Sundays? Do you receive Holy Communion there? Are there ANY Eastern Catholic parishes in Japan, perhaps within reasonable travel distance of where you are?

As a Roman Catholic, I'm sure you're aware of your obligation to attend Mass on Sundays. So, my first piece of advice is to (continue to) do that if you're not. One thing that was suggested to me once in light of the fact that I cannot attend an Eastern Catholic parish was to attend Roman Catholic Mass on Sundays, and to satisfy my Eastern Christian longings, attend Vespers on Saturdays and/or during the week at an Orthodox monastery just 15 minutes from where I live. Not a perfect solution, but that way I remain in Communion with the Catholic Church AND am still able to partake of and benefit from Eastern Christian liturgical services and all that surrounds that. You could, perhaps, attend Vespers at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and then Mass at your Catholic parish. Or...a Vigil Mass at the Catholic Church on Saturday (if that is done in Japan) and then the Orthodox D.L. on Sunday. I wouldn't suggest, however, receiving Holy Communion at both :-)! That is, if the Orthodox priest even lets you!

You can learn much about the "Eastern Catholic tradition" from books, of which there is now a plethora, mostly Orthodox. There are also numerous online resources available. Of course, the best thing is to attend the Divine Liturgy if that is possible for you, but if you want to remain in communion with the Catholic Church...You can, perhaps, watch a livestream of an Eastern Catholic D.L. There are quite a few available--check the websites of E.C. parishes or the eparchial websites for availability-, although the time differences might be an issue for you. There are many, many videos available, for instance on youtube, that are well worth the time. Dn. Anthony Dragani, for example, at east2west.org has a number of them. Check out https://godwithusonline.org/ Good stuff there! And, "Becoming Byzantine" at https://www.youtube.com/@becomingbyzantine2827/videos .

And then there's what Adamcsc suggested above.

Hope that helps, at least a little bit!

God bless!

Are there any other easterners around you who would be willing to organize a Typica Service. Or you could do it by yourself. It is a legitimate alternative for us easterners when Divine Liturgy is not available. Of course as a Latin Catholic, you do have that Sunday obligation so Typica would be in addition to that.

I was never going to lose hope even if there was no response at all, now I am very happy to see some questions and suggestions. Thank you so much.

I am sure there are several Ukrainian Greek Catholics who participate in the liturgy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. However, I do not know of any other Eastern Catholics. There are several thousand Ukrainians in Japan, so by my calculations there must be at least several hundred Eastern Catholics, but unfortunately they are not organized at all, nor could I find any records of them.

My primary attendance is at the Sunday liturgy, but I am not able to receive the sacrament there. Fortunately, I receive Holy Communion at Mass which is held at another time in the Catholic Church. There are no Eastern Catholic parishes in Japan and I have been unable to find any records of Eastern Liturgy Masses.

Thank you for the suggestion of utilizing books and videos. In fact, I frequently refer to videos of Masses of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on YouTube for reference to sing in the choir. They are so similar that I can't immediately find the differences between them and the Ukrainian Orthodox liturgy, and I often lose track of which one I am watching. I will watch the other videos you mentioned.

Thank you for the great idea of doing the Typica Service by ourselves or by myself. I know that even the smallest thing can be a great blessing if we practice it ourselves. I will invite a Ukrainian Catholic acquaintance to do it.

Slava na viky!

May God bless you! How wonderful it would be for a mission to start in Tokyo! Let me know if you are in need of any liturgical texts or music - I may be able to help!

I am sorry to hear that. I am an Eastern Catholic and there is no parish within a six hour drive for me. I attend a Greek Orthodox church. I tried inquiring with several Latin parishes but there seems to be only one other Eastern Catholic here and that person attends an Antiochian Orthodox parish 3 hours away.