Although, honestly, I did look into the Episcopal Church briefly before I stopped completely. From what I could tell, it's sort of a middle ground between Roman Catholicsm and the Protestant denominations. I liked what I saw, but. . .I don't have much more than that. Good luck, Seldes.
Thanks. I'm going to need it. While I'm guessing that pretty much no one in the church will care whether I stay or leave (and if the upper-level church officials knew my opinion of some of this stuff, they'd probably
pay the Episcopal Church to take me on), it's still an unpleasant and painful process. There are a lot of good things about the Catholic Church; it's just that the negative things have become very prevalent lately.
An associate of mine at the local school district is a Catholic who made the switch to Episcopalianism, so I sometimes get to ask her about her experiences. I'll post or send any information I get if you're interested.
A sucky predicament, even if I ceased practicising the Christian faith a decade ago.
So what do you practice, if I may ask?
First off, I have misgivings about switching to Episcopalism because it is similar to Catholicism (I haven't double checked but I'll take your word for it), but since you already expressed some fundamental problems with the presence of feminist community in Catholicism, then perhaps the more important justification is to determine where you stand with Catholicism and run with that.
This is one of the reasons I've stayed here as long as I have. Roman Catholicism has some very positive attributes. It doesn't insist on a literal interpretation of the Bible. I can't understand how anyone could take the Bible literally, and I won't join a church that does so.
There is also a large emphasis on community service and involvement, which I think is all to the good. While I understand the idea that no one is "saved" by doing charitable works, I think they should be part of a Christian lifestyle.
There are now a number of jobs in the church that can be filled by lay-people (people who are not ordained priests) that weren't open before. I've served as both a reader and alter server at mass in the past, although not at my present church.
I guess my real feeling on this is that I don't think the church is corrupt or should be torn down, but I do think there are things that could be changed. And yes, I understand that the Catholic Church changes with the speed of a glacier. Compound asked several pages and weeks ago about Vatican II and rethinking church teachings and policy. I really feel that every church should take a good, hard look at itself every generation, in light of social and scientific changes. I also feel that the hierarchy, especially the one at the Vatican, should get their collective rear-ends out of the ivory tower and down into the trenches with the rest of us, at least once in a while.
I think the church also needs to remember that, while humanity has two genders, each is made up of individuals. This represents a huge range of interests, talents and tendencies. I think the church is doing itself and its members a disservice by lumping us all together as "all women" or "all men". The only difference between that and sexism in society is that the church uses God as an excuse instead of genetics.
*sigh* Now I'm sermonizing. Someone please shoot me.... :arrgh:
I'm inclined to think that reconciling feminism with a dedicated adherence to Catholicism is nigh impossible, and while we do have feminist groups in the Philippines that attempt to be Catholic, they're either half-assed in their ideas about what feminism is -- I wish one of them had the balls to be postfeminist, just for the perverse extremism of it all
"Postfeminist" meaning what, just out of curiosity?
-- or they are actually explicitly breaking the rules of the faith they claim to adhere to. ("Cafeteria catholicism" as The Da Vinci Code film put it. Hated the film, but I love that line.)
Haven't read the book or seen the film, for whatever reason. I have, however, heard the "cafeteria Catholicism" term before. Yes, I suppose that would be me. And a lot of other Catholics, too.
Sorry if I come off a little edgy. It's just been one bad experience after another for me.
There's a book called
The End of Religion, by Bruxy Cavey. (I think it's a male author....) The book discusses how Jesus was fairly irreligious and how organized religion really works against many of his messages. Cavey refers to religion as "licking the cup" instead of drinking from it. He really differentiates between it and spirituality. If you get a chance to pick this up, it might be worth a look.
