Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want to go to a church where you deep your hands in the holly water. PP's auto correct was poetic.

OP's subject heading sounded more interesting that it turned out to be. Religious rituals that are health hazards would sum it up I think.

People take comfort in keeping things certain way.
Nothing wrong with it. It bonds them with the generations
who are gone but live through the traditions and rites.
Changing those usually leads to all kinds of schisms.
Old people want things just the way they were, young
people want reforms. This sorts out naturally with time.

What is puzzling though that regardless of HUGE progress
in science many actual rituals are not safe and in turn endanger
The very congregations that keep them.

This is puzzling and interesting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps we could rethink the role of the priest, preacher, rabbi?
The whole fiasco is a business, with the congregation paying a lot to support the priests living expenses and family. A lot of that money could be used better to support important work like charity, which is what congratulations are supposed to do.
Historically the priest is just a relic of times gone past. Everyone can read, everyone has a copy of the holy book. Anyone can listen to a sermon via radio, podcast. People are educated enough to not need the services. Paying someone to preach once a week and hold the occasional wedding, funeral is excessive

Clergy typically do far more than the occasional wedding or funeral. If yours doesn’t, it sounds like he or she should do more.

+1

Our clergy are really busy with parish administration and oversight, visiting the sick, providing counseling and spiritual guidance, doing outreach and service, etc. It would be hard to get volunteers to take on all that work, and you'd still need someone to coordinate it. Plus, people like the ritual and the community aspect of a service -- listening to a podcast at home is not the same. Education doesn't have anything to do with it. My church is full of highly educated professionals who WANT to worship together, who value the community.

Anonymous wrote:I want to go to a church where you deep your hands in the holly water. PP's auto correct was poetic.

OP's subject heading sounded more interesting that it turned out to be. Religious rituals that are health hazards would sum it up I think.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps we could rethink the role of the priest, preacher, rabbi?
The whole fiasco is a business, with the congregation paying a lot to support the priests living expenses and family. A lot of that money could be used better to support important work like charity, which is what congratulations are supposed to do.
Historically the priest is just a relic of times gone past. Everyone can read, everyone has a copy of the holy book. Anyone can listen to a sermon via radio, podcast. People are educated enough to not need the services. Paying someone to preach once a week and hold the occasional wedding, funeral is excessive

Clergy typically do far more than the occasional wedding or funeral. If yours doesn’t, it sounds like he or she should do more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok to gluten-free communion wafers bc the upcoming teen generation and many others want to be gluten-free. I believe you can ask for it at our church but my kid won't so just opts out.


But besides that, how about communion wafers that taste great? Our church's communion wafers taste like cardboard.

I think if you are getting "the bread of Life" or "the Body of Christ" it should be something to look forward to. It should hit all your senses: taste (salt and butter!) smell, texture, sight, maybe even a crunch! Or warm! I would love a little warm dinner roll. A donut hole.

I know this sounds amusing, but I'm actually serious. We should be looking forward to going to communion.

I went to a Catholic college, and people could sign up to make the communion hosts for the student mass. My roommate was a *great* baker, and frequently made the communion. Eventually she got yelled at by the priest, because she had adjusted the recipe and put in a ton more honey and stuff, and the communion tasted delicious! Evidently he didn't like that.

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps we could rethink the role of the priest, preacher, rabbi?
The whole fiasco is a business, with the congregation paying a lot to support the priests living expenses and family. A lot of that money could be used better to support important work like charity, which is what congratulations are supposed to do.
Historically the priest is just a relic of times gone past. Everyone can read, everyone has a copy of the holy book. Anyone can listen to a sermon via radio, podcast. People are educated enough to not need the services. Paying someone to preach once a week and hold the occasional wedding, funeral is excessive

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We could all be more welcoming of visitors from other faiths and dispense with any language that suggests God's grace is not for them.

We mere mortals can't possibly know that so we should be more humble.

But the Catholic church DOES know, and has for centuries.

Why the obsession with Catholics? Many religious have this problem. Some atheists also have a problem with humility.

Anyway, you know the Catholics here ignore you and you aren’t changing any minds, right? It’s only me, a non-Catholic, responding to you.

If you're a Catholic, you're not ignoring pp. Plus it's not a matter of humility -- the church knows because it's part of the catechism - the rules of the church.

DP. But why do you guys always pick on Catholics? Protestants and Jews can be similarly unwelcoming to outsiders, viz. the recent threads on that topic.

Maybe it just seems that way -- perhaps you're more sensitive to what seem like criticisms of Catholics that really simply spell out the rules of the church.

A lot of other Christian denominations rely on various interpretations of the Bible, but the Catholic Church has a carefully spelled out catechism that clearly sets out the rules.

Anonymous wrote:Growing up in a midwest Lutheran church, we had teeny little glasses for communion wine.


But I though OP had things like menstrual huts in mind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We could all be more welcoming of visitors from other faiths and dispense with any language that suggests God's grace is not for them.

We mere mortals can't possibly know that so we should be more humble.

But the Catholic church DOES know, and has for centuries.

Why the obsession with Catholics? Many religious have this problem. Some atheists also have a problem with humility.

Anyway, you know the Catholics here ignore you and you aren’t changing any minds, right? It’s only me, a non-Catholic, responding to you.

If you're a Catholic, you're not ignoring pp. Plus it's not a matter of humility -- the church knows because it's part of the catechism - the rules of the church.

DP. But why do you guys always pick on Catholics? Protestants and Jews can be similarly unwelcoming to outsiders, viz. the recent threads on that topic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We could all be more welcoming of visitors from other faiths and dispense with any language that suggests God's grace is not for them.

We mere mortals can't possibly know that so we should be more humble.

But the Catholic church DOES know, and has for centuries.

Why the obsession with Catholics? Many religious have this problem. Some atheists also have a problem with humility.

Anyway, you know the Catholics here ignore you and you aren’t changing any minds, right? It’s only me, a non-Catholic, responding to you.

If you're a Catholic, you're not ignoring pp. Plus it's not a matter of humility -- the church knows because it's part of the catechism - the rules of the church.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We could all be more welcoming of visitors from other faiths and dispense with any language that suggests God's grace is not for them.

We mere mortals can't possibly know that so we should be more humble.

But the Catholic church DOES know, and has for centuries.

Why the obsession with Catholics? Many religious have this problem. Some atheists also have a problem with humility.

Anyway, you know the Catholics here ignore you and you aren’t changing any minds, right? It’s only me, a non-Catholic, responding to you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Catholic masses women should be given the opportunity to say the homily.

I remember women giving the homily in the 70s at our Catholic folk mass.

Anonymous wrote:At Catholic masses women should be given the opportunity to say the homily.