Recently in Faith Category

So. For those of you who don't know (Luke, basically)...I remember attending Mennonite, Anglican-or-something-like-it-I-think (what exactly was Society of the Good Shepherd??), conservative Episcopal, Orthodox, and Methodist churches regularly, as well as non-denominational, Methodist, and Pentecostal? youth groups. The youth groups were all of my choosing, while all but the Methodist church were churches I went to with my family. We also visited Lutheran, Catholic, and Baptist churches.

So I've been to a lot of different churches. But all I ever did was go to the church services. I went to Sunday school 1st-3d grade at one of the Episcopal churches, and then at the Methodist church in 10th-12th grade.

If you asked me what the Methodist church believed, I couldn't tell you. I could tell you a bit more about Episcopal beliefs (specifically about a sacrament (I think) being an "outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace" -- that's about all I remember of the Episcopal Catechism..sorry Mom!), but not much without looking at my Book of Common Prayer. I have even less idea of what exactly Foursquare believes -- though I think that's part of them, they don't have specific doctrines, they're concentrated more on other things.

Actually, I could tell you that all of those churches (except the Baptist) believe in the Apostle's and Nicene Creed, with the Orthodox leaving out "and the Son." I could tell you they all believe that you must be saved in basically the same way. But other than that? I'm completely lost. I know they're all Christian and I know they don't really agree about a lot of things. It's a pitfall of Christians; they tend to disagree on matters of doctrine. Loudly. Especially Protestants. Aside from Episcopalians, that is; they try to bridge most of it.

I'm fully convinced that they are all Christians. That's not a problem. But now I'm becoming more interested in the doctrines, since I never really learned any of them (aside from the Orthodox's image of the Trinity as a triangle). I'd kind of like to pick a denomination for its beliefs at some point in the future, if that makes any sense.

And since I happen to be surrounded by Catholics, I figured I might as well start learning about their doctrines. Major objections to this exploration are to be emailed to me. It's interesting, because my family has actually never gone to a Catholic church for long periods of time, my grandparents were nominally Catholic, and I've begun to think that Anglicans are Catholics without the Pope and praying to the saints. Though Anglicans definitely have the best music. Or Incarnation does, at least....

In other news, I went to the Welcome Mass at Cistercian a few days ago. There was one lady there with two small children. She was wearing a mantilla, as was her little girl. It reminded me of how I used to have to wear one, and it made me smile. I was going to say something to her about it but I wasn't able to, which is probably just as well.

Also, I got an 84 on the theology quiz which I thought I would get 65-75 on. So that's good. It also means that I currently have two As (in my TWO German classes) and two Bs (the other one is in English). I'll get the grade on my first Politics midterm tomorrow. I won't know my Euc grade until the end of the semester

Oh yes: Anything written herein which is seen as sorely incorrect I implore you to forgive and to tell me what is actually true. That is not the best sentence in the world, but I will leave it as is.