I don’t hate Catholics. Husband’s brother & family are Catholics and the situation with them seems to appear to be more of a hatred of ME than the other way around.
I tried the Orthodox situation a few years ago; in fact, about the only real friendliness there seemed to me to come from the pastor. I spent a few years there until I got so old and decrepit I couldn’t stand for the long services they had (what few seats that were provided were quickly taken and kept throughout the services; plus, endurance was a virtue I suppose). Every time the bishop came to visit, more changes were initiated and more chairs were taken out and the services and music got more and more Greek, and the congregation wasn’t Greek but most had made extreme changes to become Orthodox in the first place. First impressions were of a beautiful order of service that just changed over time.
I’ve had to resort to going closer to home these days as driving forty and fifty miles round trip to and from a church isn’t feasible for me any more.
I think Vineyard churches are more consistently more
New Testament Biblical
and
more loving and balanced than most Evangelical or Pentecostal/charismatic churches.
Calvary Chapels are great on teaching but can be a big stiff and regimented for my taste.
Some Four Square are wonderful, healthy and balanced and some are a mess. Ditto Assembly of God.
from what I understand, in Orthodoxy, you don’t have to stand through the service...as long as one person is there, it’s the same as if all are there, so you can leave and come back.
But the only Russian Orthodox church that I am familiar with had pews and services in English...I guess it varies from place to place.