# Catholic vs Covenant Church **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 14, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-vs-covenant-church/793635 "2017-08-14T15:22:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-vs-covenant-church/793635/1 "2017-08-14T15:22:06Z")
I’ve been a Catholic all my life (maybe not the best - but have always identified myself as a Catholic). I lapsed at times, didn’t attend mass off and on through the years mostly just being lazy. I was baptized, made my First Communion, was confirmed and was married in the church. My husband the same. We hadn’t been to church in a while and my husband said one day that he’d like to start going to church again, but he didn’t want to go to a Catholic Church. I had a hard time with that - I felt I was abandoning my Catholic roots. But I told him I’d TRY another church (this was after many weeks of going around and around with him). So he picked a Covenant church close to our home. It’s different from what I’m used to - neither good or bad - just different. There are things I miss, but I can live with it. I’m wondering if there are others here that have made a switch like this and what your thoughts are. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-vs-covenant-church/793635/2 "2017-08-14T15:45:05Z")
My wife was a life-long Roman Catholic. Her brother/my brother-in-law is a bishop, as a matter of fact. Both my wife and I are “mere Christians” in the C.S. Lewis sense of the word - committed to Christ but not very interested in sectarian controversies. We used to alternate between attending mass at a Roman Catholic church, and a Lutheran church. I couldn’t take Communion at the RC church, and eventually when we moved we started attending the Lutheran church exclusively. She is now a Lutheran pastor. FWIW. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-vs-covenant-church/793635/3 "2017-08-14T21:24:24Z")
Why not just go Episcopalian/Anglican? It’s a smaller jump than something which sounds to me like a rather “low” church. Even some Lutheran churches are Catholic-esque. I don’t think “Covenant Church” has any meaning beyond that particular church, so without knowing the particular denomination (Evangelical Covenant Church?) it’s hard to say what they believe. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-vs-covenant-church/793635/4 "2017-08-14T21:39:28Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Both my wife and I are “mere Christians” in the C.S. Lewis sense of the word - committed to Christ but not very interested in sectarian controversies. This is, in essence, me, as well. I was raised as a Catholic (Mass every Sunday, went to parochial schools), but the faith never really sank in. As an adult, I discovered my faith, and I’ve been a member of several different churches (and different denominations) over the course of my adult life; I currently belong to a Methodist congregation. When I’ve changed from one denomination to another, it’s been about seeking a particular form of spiritual community, or for family reasons, rather than feeling a strong tie to a particular denomination. If part of what you feel like you’re missing from Catholicism is the liturgy, then, as thelurkinghorror notes, you may want to try a Protestant church that has more traditional liturgy – denominations like the Epsicopals, Methodists, and (some) Lutherans have liturgy that is often very similar in form to a Catholic Mass. My wife was raised in an ELCA Lutheran church, and when we married, I joined an ELCA church – the liturgy there was probably 90% recognizable to a Catholic. But, this can vary widely by congregation, and even the service within a congregation – the early service at my Methodist church is very traditional, and “high church”, but the late morning service is more freeform, and uses modern worship music, with a rock band instead of the pipe organ and piano. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-vs-covenant-church/793635/5 "2017-08-15T00:39:26Z")
FWIW, my husband (active Lutheran) and I (active RC) were both able to feel comfortable with the Episcopalian services. We moved around a lot while married and in some locations we didn’t have churches of both our faiths available, so it was nice to have a comfortable alternative. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-vs-covenant-church/793635/6 "2017-08-15T02:44:55Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > If part of what you feel like you’re missing from Catholicism is the liturgy, then, as thelurkinghorror notes, you may want to try a Protestant church that has more traditional liturgy – denominations like the Epsicopals, Methodists, and (some) Lutherans have liturgy that is often very similar in form to a Catholic Mass. My wife was raised in an ELCA Lutheran church, and when we married, I joined an ELCA church – the liturgy there was probably 90% recognizable to a Catholic. > > But, this can vary widely by congregation, and even the service within a congregation – the early service at my Methodist church is very traditional, and “high church”, but the late morning service is more freeform, and uses modern worship music, with a rock band instead of the pipe organ and piano. The last applies to Catholic congregations as well. Go to a Youth Mass at St. Francis, to a morning service at Corpus Christi, or to a noon service at St. Augustine, and they’re almost in different languages. The decor in the third one will also be a lot barer than in the other two, which will share several images (the saints of Assisi are very popular with the Jesuits; Corpus Christi is very much a Jesuit name). ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-vs-covenant-church/793635/7 "2017-08-15T13:45:28Z")
Sounds like a good organization to me. I know I don’t really belong to the denomination I was raised in, but I’ve not yet really sought out another church yet. Mostly just been reading up on beliefs and such, and this one sounds like one I could get behind. That said, I have been to a Catholic Mass, despite not being Catholic myself, and I did find it quite interesting, too. Growing up, I thought ritual was stupid and “not listening to God,” but I’ve grown an appreciation for that, too, at times. The beautiful art and the scholarship are appealing, too. Point is, I find that you can go and enjoy a service/mass separately to your beliefs. I missed a lot of stuff from my church, but it was still fine.