Church Shopping, part II

This past Sunday we visited St. Thomas More in Decatur. Aimee was skeptical from the beginning because it shares its name with the parish she grew up with (St. Thomas More, Munster, IN)! All in all, it was a nice place.

Here is the Parish Mission Statement:

Saint Thomas More Parish is a welcoming Catholic community rich in diversity and culture. United by our love of God and one another, we come together to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, foster mutual love and spiritual growth, and provide outreach to the community by sharing our time, talent and treasure. We strive to grow in faith through our celebration of the Eucharist and sacraments of our Roman Catholic tradition.

I liked that their website showed the planned music for the upcoming Sunday. Their selections were nice, though I find it tough when a less common mass setting is done without music to read as an aid.

The other people in the assembly were very nice and welcoming and the liturgy seemed to be well thought out. The lectors were clear and well understood which kept us engaged -- at least up until the homily.

We found two key things off-putting in the bulletin. The first was a section in the beginning about being an "active Catholic" and how there are several requirements that must be met before they would verify one's status. It mentioned: "Your envelope will let us know that you are attending mass regularly." Just didn't feel very welcoming.

The second was a large, bold section with a "quote" from the National Right to Life News. It was a little inflammatory and dangerously close to being mis-quoted (they left out the fact that the article at that point was referring to non-US health care programs). That was important because it implied that our programs, that our president, was in fact euthanizing the elderly. When, in fact, there are a lot of factors in determining end of life care including our faith, our own notions of humanitarianism, our insurance, and how those actually involved are economically situated. It's not that I necessarily disagree with this but since we picked up a bulletin on the way in, these were essentially our first impressions and those can be tough to overturn.