I recently moved several hundred miles to a smaller town where I know none of the residents. I’d like to attend some social events, but life here seems to be centered around the christian church. As a lapsed catholic, this doesn’t please me. I’m OK with the basic message of religion - Do Unto Others and all that. The ten commandments are generally reasonable. But the Bible and whole supernatural being thing isn’t likely to lure me again now that my age is in the double digits. I’m looking for a sect with a more rational approach. Is there any hope for me?
These seem to be the dominant strains around here:
Assemblies of God / Baptist / Church of Christ / Episcopal / Lutheran / Moravian / Pentecostal / Presbyterian / Quaker / Seventh Day Adventist / United Methodist / Wesleyan
Episcopal. You’ll find the religion part of it similar to Catholicism, but the Episcopal church (in the US) is not so dogmatic as Catholicism nor as bible-thumping as Baptist/Assemblies of God/Pentecostal. I think you’ll find it’s more about living a moral life than about the supernatural, though this probably varies depending on the Congregation.
Quakers are good people but depending on your tastes may be a little more earnest/boring.
Quakers are about as unferverent as they come, but I don’t know that it would satisfy any lingering proto-catholic need you have for rituals and formalities. A Quaker meeting just consists of people sitting in silence until they feel moved to speak. that’s it.
That was my reaction, too. Somebody once rather flippantly introduced the Unitarian Church to me as a “church for people who don’t believe in God”. Less flippantly, it provides the structure of a church without any attached dogma.
Otherwise, it depends what you mean by “rational approach”. If you are referring to the actual beliefs espoused by the church, you may be out of luck. If you just want to use the church as a social club, and are looking for the ones which place the least emphasis on having you profess their doctrines, try either the United Methodists or Presbyterians.
United Church of Christ tends to be very mellow and progressive - YMMV depending on the particular church near you. I even remember singing a hymn that talked about evolution as God’s means of creation.
I’m going to raise a big red flag here by saying that almost every Protestant denomination has fractured into more and less conservative factions, (IIRC there are something like nine different bodies that call themselves “Presbyterian” and five “Lutheran”) so that even a “brand” like Baptist or United Methodist doesn’t have the meaning it did 25 years ago.
That said, you’re probably safest with Episcopalians, since the conservatives generally prefer to call themselves Anglican. I don’t have much experience with Moravians, but they have a less doctrinaire, more down to earth tradition.
ETA: Ferret Herder refers to the United Church of Christ. Remember that the Church of Christ and United Church of Christ are two very different animals.
Oh yes. Just about diametrically opposite, from what I can tell. UCC doctrine is very socially liberal and accepting, but of course, things may vary by congregation.
One Unitarian church in the county. Too far away for me to drag myself there, especially on a Sunday morning. By comparison, there’s one synagogue and one Salvation Army congregation in the county. Both have more members than the 250-300 that the Unitarians claim, and there are five times more Muslims.
Yes, I’m looking for social interaction. I assume that being accepted at these functions will entail at least some attendance on Sunday morning and am looking for someplace that will chafe me the least. I realize that I’m being disingenuous, but if that’s how you network around here then I can try to go along to get along. However, if I ended up with some Jerry Falwell acolyte then I’ll only last ten minutes before I laugh and walk away.
I’ve met someone who’s a member of the local Presbyterians, and the Methodists are across the street from me, so both of those sound like options for me.
If the goal is social events, the Lutherans may be the only ones who actually know how to enjoy themselves. The drinking and carousing will likely be familiar to a lapsed Catholic, and you won’t have to feel guilty afterward.
Well, as Kunilou said, there are a lot of confusing names for various doctrines. If I understand things correctly, the nearest Congregational church is about twenty miles away. That would run counter to my desire to meet folks here in town. I’ll keep it in mind though. The listings I’ve found online often have a catch-all category for non-denominational and independent churches. The Congregationalists may fall into one of those categories.
As kunilou notes, that likely depends entirely on the strain of Lutheranism.
I’m an ELCA Lutheran, which I’ve seen referred to as “fun Lutherans” on this board. Many ELCA congregations are at least moderately progressive socially. The standard ELCA liturgy will feel fairly familiar to a Catholic (I grew up Catholic, and find the structure of an ELCA service fairly similar to that of a Catholic mass).
OTOH, Missouri Synod and Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) Lutherans tend to be fairly to extremely conservative, and are far closer to more “fundamentalist” Protestant sects. (For point of reference, infamously conservative Congresswoman Michele Bachman is a WELS Lutheran.) A friend of mine is a Missouri Synod Lutheran; he’s only partially joking when he says that he doesn’t consider the ELCA to be a Christian church.
I was raised in the Friends (Quaker) church, Mid America Yearly Meeting. Apart from lack of rituals like water baptism and bread & wine/juice communion, there’s not much difference in worship services from the Methodist church I’m currently a member of. Call to worship, hymn, scripture reading, choir sings, sermon from the pastor, hymn, benediction. There is a time of open worship before the sermon, and some churches have an early open worship service, but definitely not just people sitting in silence until moved to speak. Certainly not unfervent. There’s even a formal written doctrine, called Faith and Practice.
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Moved thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion, since it doesn’t look like much of a debate at this point. Hopefully, it can stay that way.
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For the latter one should check if its the PCUSA or the PCA/OPC, the latter are** very heavy** on doctrine, even more so than your average non-denominational megachurch or a Baptist church.
A lot of (if not most) Congregational churches is under the umbrella of the UCC.
A friend of mine calls the ELCA the “happy-clappy” Lutherans (meaning it in a very positive way) and refers to the Missouri Synod as the “Misery Synod.” Plus at least a couple of Missouri Synod pastors have been reprimanded by their synods for participating in interfaith prayer services after events like the Sandy Hook shooting and the 9/11 attacks.
I was married in an ELCA church but have crazy inlaws who attend Missouri and Wisconsin Synod churches, and I second (or third) everything that has been said here about them.
I grew up in a big German Lutheran area and they weren’t too bad - a tad boring and big on undecorated churches, but basically decent. Plus lots of Bach.
Many ELCA congregations are at least moderately progressive socially. The standard ELCA liturgy will feel fairly familiar to a Catholic (I grew up Catholic, and find the structure of an ELCA service fairly similar to that of a Catholic mass).