Last night my partner & I went to mass at an independent, queer-friendly catholic church. I'd been intending to go since moving in May, but for one reason and another (including services being in the evening), we didn't get around to it until yesterday. But I'm glad we finally went. It's a small, very friendly parish - we probably spent more time talking with people after mass, than time in mass. The mass was the traditional Catholic liturgy (Novus Ordo) with a few changes: making the references to God more gender-neutral (totally awesome, although it was hard for me to not recite some of the things by rote), a homily open to everyone to comment on the readings, and the congregation going up around the altar for the Liturgy of the Eucharist. While sometimes I'm fond of more formal ritual, it was the same liturgy, and I liked the intent of the changes.
My partner also liked the church, which is good. It was her first time at any sort of Catholic service, so she was a bit lost by some of the things I take for granted and that the missalette wasn't too helpful on (like the signs of the cross before the gospel). And she left the missalette at her seat during the communion liturgy, but that at least is close enough to the Methodist one that she's familiar with.
It amuses me that it was pointed out which people are straight, but none of the queer people had their orientation mentioned directly.
All in all, it seems to be what I was looking for: something Catholic (since there are some things, particular the ritual and some theology, that I like about Catholicism) that's queer friendly and liberal.
No comments:
Post a Comment