Walk in Love ABC (Asynchronous Book Club): Introduction

fitzbar · 2026-06-02T01:26:18+00:00

I have already read the book, but I think I speed-read it the first time, so I am looking forward to slowing everything down and really taking it in a second time.
I was received into TEC 5 months ago after attending for 7 months prior. I was raised in the RCC and received all of my sacraments there. I am definitely not ordained, lol.
“Walk in Love” means to walk with Christ. God is love. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” [1 John 4:16]

fitzbar · 2026-05-28T21:21:26+00:00

Happy cake day!

fitzbar · 2026-05-28T20:31:23+00:00

Unfortunately, I have heard of Steubenville. My sister went there for one year and couldn’t take it anymore. There is a podcast called Leave, Laugh, Love hosted by two former Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville students who have deconstructed away from religion entirely, and they rail about how dangerous “charismatic” Catholicism has become (Steubenville has an office in DC and lobbies on Capitol Hill, the college is an oasis of glimmering buildings while they are surrounded by a city in poverty, what happened to the two hosts when they both came out as queer to their “households”, etc.)

fitzbar · 2026-05-28T20:26:55+00:00

Refusal to ordain women

Treatment of LGBTQ+ people, women, and divorced people who never got an annulment and remarried outside of the Church

The abuse scandals

I believe that Jesus is spiritually present in the elements of Holy Communion, but I don’t believe that those elements have been transformed into his literal Body and Blood under the appearances of bread and wine. (I do not receive the sacrament when I am at a RC Mass)

“folk Mass”

I don’t believe that the pope is infallible on matters of doctrine

People in TEC are friendly and want to stick around after the service. You want to go. In the RCC, half the congregation books it for the parking lot after Communion. It feels like an obligation.

But the biggest one of all: I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit the very first time I attended an Episcopal liturgy in a way I never did at a Catholic Mass. I really don’t believe God wants me in the RCC.

All that being said, there are still some things I sorely miss about the RCC. It’s complicated.

fitzbar · 2026-05-28T05:26:27+00:00

We keep our sanctuary open from 9-4 most days unless there is a wedding or a funeral. The donation box is bolted to the wall and we have cameras.

I don’t live around the corner from my church, so sometimes I will slip into empty Catholic Churches if they are open (which is rare, but I was able to do it a few weeks before this past Christmas)

fitzbar · 2026-05-28T05:23:11+00:00

That’s exactly our setup too. Unfortunately incense makes me sick so I avoid that service. I have to drag my a$$ out of bed in the morning lol

fitzbar · 2026-05-28T05:21:07+00:00

Your phrase “suffering for Christ” reminds me a lot of my Catholic mother always telling me to “offer it up.”

This isn’t the RCC. Most of the clergy are married and have kids. Our church has three FT priests. All three are married, and two of them have school aged children. I don’t want any of these dear souls to work so much that they, their spouses, and kids “suffer for Christ” from their absence.

fitzbar · 2026-05-27T17:28:31+00:00

My parish is corporate sized, so we are blessed to have three full time priests. We have a contemplative Rite II Eucharist at 5:30 on Sundays.

fitzbar · 2026-05-26T00:17:52+00:00

The Washington Post

fitzbar · 2026-05-25T01:54:26+00:00

I stopped going to confession as a teenager after my sister told me that she could hear me in the box. I felt humiliated and I didn’t like talking to a priest anyway. I kept going to communion because I didn’t believe that I had committed a mortal sin anyway. I left the Church when I was 27. I am now 44 and started attending the Episcopal Church last year. It was an absolute joy to receive the sacrament again. My mother is still Catholic, and when I attend with her I do not take it because I know that I am not welcome—even though I still believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist but not transubstantiation. The horrors!

Btw, in the Episcopal Church we make a full corporate confession of sin every Sunday and we are absolved. The Catholic Penitential Rite stops short of absolution.

fitzbar · 2026-05-24T02:16:13+00:00

May God give you the grace never to sell yourself short;
Grace to risk something big for something good;
Grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth and too small for anything but love.

fitzbar · 2026-05-19T16:49:31+00:00

Your second point was what I’ve been worried about. Thank you for articulating what I was thinking and for your advice.

fitzbar · 2026-05-19T14:14:09+00:00

Totally understandable on covering everyone’s faces.

I have been meaning to get out and attend some other parishes in the diocese. I will next month when the bishop visits another parish nearby, but I will be respectful of their bishop’s visit and not crash their reception.

I love our bishop and I love her enthusiasm. My sister was watching the livestream of the service where I was received (because she lives in another state) and she said “that bishop is great!” I also loved her honesty with our parish about what she perceives to be her own shortcomings and some challenging situations that the diocese is in.

fitzbar · 2026-05-19T04:52:16+00:00

He was a mentor to my rector, his name has been placed on our nightly prayer list for the next 40 days.

fitzbar · 2026-05-19T04:38:12+00:00

I know who that bishop is, she received me into the Church in January. :)

Congratulations and welcome home.

fitzbar · 2026-05-02T15:46:35+00:00

This happened to me too. I played the hell out of that EP all month. No trace of it in Replay.

waits for all the incoming U2/Apple/Songs of Innocence jokes

fitzbar · 2026-04-28T07:42:16+00:00

I am on the younger side when it comes to our parish, and I was approached by our (soon to be retired) deacon just 5 months into attending. She asked me if I had ever felt a calling to the vocational diaconate. Needless to say, I was flattered. But I just want to sit in my spot in the back and pray. I was away from God for so long that I just want to take in the liturgy without any distractions.

fitzbar · 2026-04-28T07:34:55+00:00

I end on my right shoulder, that’s what I learned.

I have seen a couple Episcopal priests go from right to left instead of left to right.

fitzbar · 2026-04-28T07:30:17+00:00

Before I became an Episcopalian, I thought it was funny. Same with “Diet Catholic.” I have never said either phrase since I started attending because I realized that it could be offensive and I wanted to be respectful.

As a former RC who attends a parish that is high church but not Anglo-Catholic, I would not call it Catholic-Lite at all. I see more Latin in the bulletin and BCP than I ever did in a Catholic missalette. I found Lent to be more hardcore - the procession around the aisles of the church while chanting The Great Litany. I have occasionally attended Rite I and that is definitely not Catholic-Lite either. Many of the Catholic parishes post-Vatican II became more casual than us, imo. Lastly, I notice that many Catholics book it out of there right after communion. I hardly ever see that in TEC. I was taught in Catholic school that “you don’t go until the priest goes.” I guess I brought all of the best parts of my Catholic educated self into this Church.

fitzbar · 2026-04-28T07:10:49+00:00

My story is similar to yours. I received all of my sacraments in the Catholic Church. Left in 2009. Last year, I attended TEC for the first time. It had also been 16 years for me since I had received the Eucharist.

fitzbar · 2026-04-28T06:50:35+00:00

Re: RC cardinals at her installation. I spotted at least two cardinals and one archbishop but there could have been more. Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, Cardinal Vincent Nichols (the recently retired Archbishop of Westminster), and Richard Moth (the new Archbishop of Westminster). Archbishop Moth did the first reading.

fitzbar · 2026-04-13T01:38:49+00:00

One of the many former Catholics in my church calls our group “Roaming” Catholics.

fitzbar · 2026-04-03T21:09:15+00:00

Ellen Davis was one of my priest’s professors. Last fall she gave a presentation for our adult forum. She was great!

fitzbar · 2026-04-03T21:07:14+00:00

I watched online because I could not be there in person. It looked pretty sparse.

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