I went through the RCIA when I was in my early teens. I am the only person in my immediate family that has actually been confirmed during the church. It was during an extremely confusing and screwed-up time in my life, and I don’t know that I believed in what I was doing even as I was doing it, as I was involved with things that directly contradicted the tenets of the Church. That being said, taking the classes was neat, and the ceremony was very nice.
We really didn’t have that much interaction with our parish priests. Most of the interaction was with a teacher who only did RCIA (and some of Sunday school). I did a combination of both Confirmation classes and RCIA classes. They were of approximately equal difficulty–that is to say, not very. Then again, I’d been a voracious reader of religious and secular texts for years beforehand, and was the only person in either class to have read the entire Bible, cover to cover (except for things like Judith, Tobit, Sirach, etc., which were not in the one that was given to me, and which I have since read). I still found the classes interesting, though.
I think that my joining the Church was out of a desire to have some sort of spirituality in my life. As the majority of my religious heritage was Catholic in nature (and the remainder was Greek Orthodox), I naturally turned to the Church so I could express my spirituality in a way that was viewed by my family as legitimate.
So, not currently Catholic; pagan, actually. But I did go through RCIA.
Thanks, jayjay, I appreciate your apology. Bishop Robinson in and of himself is not the reason I struggle with TEC, although I did object to his election and consecration taking place before the church had settled the issue of same-sex marriage/blessings. And I have no problem at all with the ordination and leadership of women; although I understand and respect the views of those who do.
Not to go into specifics, but as a whole the Episcopal Church is just getting too liberal for me (and, just as importantly, increasingly intolerant of conservatives). The growing affirmation of homosexuality is just one issue; but it is also things like the support of unrestricted abortion; non-traditional (and sometimes downright heretical or pagan) theology and worship; the rejection of pre-enlightenment scholarship; et cetera.
It used to be that people of opposing views on these issues could co-exist peacefully, but since the Robinson election that hasn’t been the case. The escalating war between the progressives and conservatives just wears me out. For God’s sake, we have bishops of this church accusing another bishop of abondoning the faith of the church for fear that he might let congregations take their property when they leave the church. Both sides have acted shamefully.
I love my local parish (FriarTed, I think you would also - it’s a relatively charismatic, theologically orthodox and conservative church; but not stridently dogmatic).
I admire the Catholic church’s adherence to ‘the faith handed down.’ I greatly admired JPII and the current pope. Ultimately, though, I hesitate for pretty much the same reasons as FriarTed.
I just noticed that jayjay said “gay men and women” and I mistakenly read that as “gay men, and women.” That’s why I mentioned women’s ordination. Sorry, it’s a Friday afternoon.
My wife did something like this also; instead of taking the standard RCIA classes, she had a series of one-on-one sessions with a former RCIA leader. It was like a streamlined and customized version of RCIA. I’ve found that the Church is actually pretty flexible with respect to the RCIA process, though I don’t think you can blow it off completely.
There are Charismatic movements within the Orthodox & Lutheran (even M-S) Churches but they are very suspect by the larger body.
In the late 70s-early 80s, my town had a thriving interchurch Charismatic group, hosted by the Episcopal Church whose rector was Charismatic (he now pastors a
Charismatic Anglican church in Florida which recently left the Episcopal Church) and which was led by a Catholic couple, and included a good mix of denominations. It eventually faded out as people, including the rector, moved
away, and those here joined the AoG or another Charismatic church which they
started.
If the one in your parish is anything like the one my husband attended, it won’t be aimed at the newly Christian. My husband was not only the only person in his class from a non-Christian background, he was the only one to be baptized in the whole diocese that Easter. The rest had previously been baptized either as Catholics or in another Christian denomination and were attending the classes to prepare for Communion and/or Confirmation.
When I was younger, I wanted to convert to Catholicism. But then I found out that in order to do so, I’d have to pay 60 dollars for the class and then another 100 for something else (I forget what). Yeah, no. I ended up going Wiccan.
Can someone tell me why I had to pay anything at all? It’s always seemed so weird to me. They actually wouldn’t let me attend the church unless I took the classes. :-\
Sounds odd. I could see, perhaps, paying for educational materials, (although $60 seems really high and I am not aware of any parishes who charge for those).
I am curious how they expressed the idea that you could not attend the church; were they planning on putting bouncers at the door with your photo?
As part of the process, different parishes follow the old practice of the catechumenate, where the persons undergoing instruction attend the first part of the mass, through the readings and homily, then adjourn to a separate room for study during the Eucharistic prayer, but a claim that one could not attend at mass, at all, sounds like a communication failure of some sort.
Another former Episcopalian/Anglican checking in. Like Lissla Lissar, I’d been reading Chesterton, O’Connor, Waugh, Merton, etc. long before I took the plunge. In short, I read my way in.
I had some extreme traditional Catholic friends at the time (5-6 years ago) who were offended on my behalf that I was going through regular RCIA at the parish for my zip code (with no Latin Mass, bad architecture, etc.), rather than setting up special meetings, but I really enjoyed RCIA. There’s something to be said for taking what comes with humility and trying to learn from it (seems kind of, well, Catholic).
There were questions raised by the lapsed Catholics who missed confirmation and were trying to get right, by the somewhat grudging spouses (usually with newborn kids) or soon-to-be-spouses of Catholics, by the hippie-dippie seekers who eventually dropped out of the class, and by whoever else showed up – questions that I never would have thought of (or dared to ask) but wished I had.
As for Clockwork and Candy’s experience, are you sure it was the Catholic Church? I was given copies of the Catechism and the New American Bible (though I would have and could have happily paid for them), and never paid a dime while I was in RCIA (aside from anonymous donations in the collection plate). I was never asked for money at all, even for the books. (Now, I get the envelopes, of course).
I am surprised, too, that they made Clockwork & Candy pay $$$ for RCIA. Sounds like a good way to turn people off from the Church.
I am so impressed at the idea that people decide to convert after reading Merton, Chesterton, et al. It’s such a thinking man’s way to get to the Church. Very cool.
I was raised non-denominational. Indeed, I was raise to believe that members of organized religions were misguided souls who believed their rituals would save them. Nonetheless, I always felt a draw to the Catholic church. I married Suburban Plankton, a lapsed-Catholic, in 1993. We went to several different churches and finally settled on not attending anywhere for years.
When our son was ready to start school we sent him to the local Catholic school. Eventually, I felt drawn to find out more about Catholicism. I went to RCIA in 2003-2004 and was confirmed at Easter of 2004. Around the same time Suburban Plankton started going to the Catholics Returning Home group.
I am very happy with my choice, and for the first time, feel really comfortable with my religion.
Well, I suppose I can bring something in from the other side of the pond. My female birth giver is “Catholic” and my dad is athiest. I was always sent to private Catholic schools (grade school through college) and got all the learning and such. I decided relatively early that Catholocism was NOT my cup of tea at all.
With all that being said, I DO wonder why people convert from one faith to another. I’ve always wondered. Hell, personally, I’d think it’s a lot like when George chose to convert and Kramer had the kvorka.
I don’t know, but it’s a good question. I think most people know the basics…it’s just that it’s very complicated. I have a copy of the Catechism in a regular paperback size, and I would say it’s about 1000 pages or so. There’s a LOT of detail. You could easily understand the stuff you need to know for everyday life & worship as a Catholic, and still learn plenty from a refresher course.
I think Judiasm is kind of like this. Some people literally spend their entire lives studying the Talmud.
Sorry about resurrecting. I was just reading a few subscribed threads and realised I’d missed the last few responses in this one.
Lots of reasons. Have you ever changed your mind about any significant issue? Experience, relationships, arguments, reading- there are all sorts of reasons. Primarily I think it’s that you gradually become interested (because of a romantic interest, the faith of friends, books you’ve been reading), do some research, find it cropping up in your mind, cautiously take up some of the practises, and become more and more convinced or moved by the faith.
What gets me about Judaism (and to an extent, Catholocism) is that there’s this book. It’s remained more or less unchanged for 2000 years (yeah, King James, choosing what made it into the modern version, all that stuff) the Torah (which would be more than 2000 years) the Qu’ran (the same) and that we still go on about it. I mean, after all those years of scrutiny, we’ve virtually exhausted any tangent we could go on. Am I right in thinking this? I don’t excatly have my finger on the pulse of modern Bible study or anything.
The way I see it, it’s like golf. Many people play the game, yet don’t know all the rules. Some know some of the rules, but choose to ignore them in favor of local rules or for convenience.
Yeah, but that’s one hell of a mind-changing. That’s essentially saying that everything you believe is wrong and not only is there a way that seems better, but it answers more with asking less.
I would personally think that most conversions are done because a person is raised to be a certain denomination and then they realize that they simply don’t believe all these teachings.
Is changing your mindset from a religion to being atheist or agnostic considered a conversion or does it only work one way?
I think most atheists would find the term ‘conversion’ applied to their becoming atheists a little misleading, since conversion (I think) has religious overtones. Dunno, though. I’m not an atheist.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by this- do you mean the your new religion will both have more explanatory power and fewer requirements than your old one?
Maybe it’s because I went from Anglican to Catholic, but a lot of the Church teachings didn’t require mind-changing. It was more a feeling of logical extension, “Oh, that’s why! Okay, that makes sense”. It didn’t mean totally remaking my worldview.
I find it meaning that it is referred to not as “converting” but “being converted”. A spirit or inspiration works within you and you are open to where it is leading. That was certainly the case with my Mom; she wasn’t looking but when she went to Catholic churches she felt something and was open to it. I’ve been Catholic all my life but after not following its guidelines for some years I happened to get called back to it, not on my own whim but through a spirit that hit me. And I could have ignored it but didn’t.
And it’s not (strictly) about following a book and figuring out what it means. Faith and grace are alive and changing all the time, and following God’s will is a living thing.