I’m Episcopalian, currently attending a rather “high” church. I like the rituals, but every now and then I have to break out and try something different.
Like others, I like the shared community and familiarity, and I (usually) understand the meaning behind the rituals. They can be quite powerful. However, I can’t discount the fact that many of them are just aesthetically pleasing to me (particularly when the church has a great choir and organist). I love the vestments, the chants, and (as someone mentioned) the smell of the place.
As I said, I do have to break out every now and then and try something different. I do that because, after a while, I start doing things by route and they lose some of their importance. The creeds and responses just come out of my mouth with no real thought as to what they mean. When that happens, I’ll go somewhere else. Seeing how different people worship makes me think more about the things I do and why I do them.
I know you’re joking, but I should explain myself; for me, the breaking of the bread is a key symbol; the bread (in my tradition) represents the body of Christ, broken for us all; I suppose some could say it’s an unnecessarily over-the-top exaggeration of symbolism, but for me, a single loaf torn apart for us all strongly resonates with the concept it’s trying to represent; a little stack of dry discs; already separate (in fact never having been part of a coherent whole) just doesn’t mean anything (for me). YMMV
I like to refer to myself as a fallen-away Catholic - I was raised as one, even confirmed, but currently do not regularly attend Mass, Confession, observe Lent, etc. I disagree with many of the Church’s teachings as well. Not sure what my religion is at this point.
However, oddly enough I find that I still like attending Mass - the more traditional the better. I think someone else has already mentioned that it makes them feel comfortable - that about sums it up for me. The chanting, the hymns, the Eucharist (which I still receive when I attend Mass - yes, I’m going to Hell) are all soothing because they are familiar. Plus I find it aesthetically pleasing - the solemn ambience, if you will. I would definitely be upset if the rituals were changed, despite the fact that I no longer wholeheartedly believe in the dogma behind them.
Roman Catholic person speaking. I like the rituals and traditions, and if they change it does throw me. I try to roll with it, though. Changes don’t offend me on a religious level, I think I’m just easily confused. It is funny to me, however, that my grandmother, my mother and I have different views on some of the church traditions because they have changed over the years and we each remember different things from our childhoods.
The Roman Catholic church isn’t really known for being a hotbed of radical change, so most of the changes I have experienced have been more along the lines of something that got a bit lax in our particular church, and then at some point it gets tightened up. It still feels like a change to me. The most recent, and significant, to me is removing the eulogy from a friend/family member from the Mass itself – I grew up with it being in the middle, before communion, and now it’s separate from the ceremony. As I understand it, the eulogy was never supposed to be in there to begin with, but that wasn’t necessarily enforced. I’m not sure if this was a widespread problem, or more specific to my region, but we always had eulogies, and I think it came as a big shock to the average church-goer that they weren’t supposed to be there. I was certainly shocked. But I’ll get over it, eventually.
UCCer here. Being low-church Congregational, rituals aren’t too important, although I can’t imagine worship with some of them- the ringing of the bell, the passing of the peace, etc. I don’t know if those even count as rituals, considering that they’re so integral to mainline Protestant (and probably Catholic) worship.
I haven’t gone to church in years and the two I can remember were luthern and baptist(not southern baptist). This thread has made me wonder if I should have tried a more ritualistic church and if that would have made me more spritual/religious, instead of the near-agnostic I am now.
My belief in Christianity has dimished practically to nonexistence. However, my partner is on a spiritual search right now, so we are presently attending the Episcopal cathedral that I used to go to a few years ago. She likes it, a lot. And I don’t hate it, so all is good.
What gets me through are the rituals, the responses, the vestments, the processions, the beauty of the building, the fantastic pipe organ, the hymns, the choir, the bells, etc.
(Somehow communion is still meaningful in a way that I can’t really articulate. Not sure why. Maybe it’s just the strong port wine. Maybe it’s the sense of community. Whatever. It works.)