I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm going to take it to the next level. I've decided to the the RCIA. When I've done that I will know if I want to join the RCC or not.
Most of you know I'm an Anglcian whoes beliefs are very similar to Roman Catholicism but I'm getting a bit disolusioned with the Chufch of England because I don't feel it is the chruch I gerw up with. I'm annoyed with the Vicar (Parish priest because he doesn't respect our traditions and he has no people skills), the Diocese, the Bishop, the Archbishop of Cantabury (because he wants British Muslims to have Sharia law and he is also a Druid). I'm not happy about women Bishops, I don't think people are catechised properly and I'm quite frankly depressed when all I see in the fews on a Sunday is grey heads.
Despie all oft he I still love the CofE and don't want to leave but the RCC is offering what my own church is struggling to deliver. I think the ahrdest thing would be the guilt of leaving a struggling church.
So I'll do the RCIA to see if the RCC is right for me.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Well first I see you are in Sunny Old England.
I feel for you that you cannot know or see the difference between the Anglican Churches Teaching and that of the Roman Catholic Church.
I was raised in a mixture of Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. I came out of that to learn what the Bible actually teaches. Now I still have family who remain in these Churches despite having their salvation truly grounded in having repented and received the Saving Blood of Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and reconciliation with God.
However the traditions and other teachings of these Church Denominations are not fully based on Christ NOR do they support what the Bible reveals to us as God's Truth and then there is all the religious superstitions and stories that are all intermingled in their Faith often confusing those of my family who are trying to live according to God's Truth.
Feel free to enter the Catholic Faith it won't stop you from being a Saved Believer if your salvation is truly grounded in Christ Jesus. Personally having to follow all the traditions and observe all the religious rituals were nothing but a bondage. Just like the Circumsion group did to the gentiles. The Apostles agreed that gentiles only needed to observe the following:-
AC 15:19 "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath."
The Apostle Paul had this to say about those who were trying to make gentiles try to gain salvation through following laws instead of remaining Saved in Christ:-
GAL 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
GAL 5:2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
GAL 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. 11 Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
The whole book of Galatians is worth a read before you decide to go and become the member of a Christian Denomination that values the observance of it's own religious teachings and Church traditions over the Gospel of Salvation. I know I was raised in that Church and I have left but my family remain and I often return to these Churches for many family events and just to go to Church on the odd occassion with my family (they then might come with me to a Good Bible Teaching Protestant Church in return).
However I see your problem is that you enjoy thye pomp and ceremony of what I call High Church. So maybe Bible teaching isn't your priority. You mention you prefer the traditions. You will like the Eastern Orthodox they have more elaborate Priestly garments and the golden censors. We have the big ornate decorated in gold and red velvet Bibles that the Priest reads about two lines of scripture from if you are lucky. Then there is all the bowing and crossing oneself at the appropraite times. This is done every Sunday rather than just only on the special occassion when the Catholic Church pulls out their finests garments and all the accessories.
Of course there is the Holy Water. Where would my family be without our Holy Water? They don't have a clue what the Holy Water is but they have to go to Church on the special feast days that the Holy Water is permissable to be given to the congregation members to take home.
They use the Holy Water on the dead. We have coffins open traditionally in the Eastern Orthrodox funerals and I haven't seen one of my relatives of family friends come back to life after they have poured the Holy Water on them. Apparently it is supposed to heal you but all these people died applying the Holy Water in Faith that what the Church told them was True. I know a few of them died know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour but not because the Church brought them the Gospel message. Most of my parents family born just before World War 2 and in a war torn country out in the villages they didn't get an education. So over here in Australia I had to learn to read the Bible in their language to read to them the Gospels. It was my reading the Bible which brought to them the Gospel. I used wanting to practice my reading as an excuse to read them the Bible (Yes I used a Bible as my choice of material). Several of my illiterate family finally heard the full story of Jesus from Birth to Death. I led them to say a salvation prayer when they understood it was by Christ we are Saved.
There are many who can read and write in the Eastern Orthodox Churches today but they are not being taught the Bible as they should instead they are being taught folk tales and religious inspirational stories about Saints. My Catholic family go to Bible Study and they too rarely get any teaching from the Bible instead they read all sorts of relgious books that embrace all faiths not just the Christian Faith.
Even the Protestant churches are no longer teaching God's Truth. You have to be in your Bible daily if you want to know wether or not your Ministers and Pastors are teaching God's Truth or Heresy.
It is a shame that we cannot rely on getting proper Bible teaching from our own Churches.
Fortunately if you have repented and received Christ as Lord and Saviour, Jesus made a promise to all who would receive Him.
JN 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
You have been given the Holy Spirit who is able to teach you all things from God's Word. The Holy Spirit is able to give you spiritual discernment and enables you to recognise what is taught from the scriptures as being God's Truth or NOT.
