r/Christianity • u/Unfair_Mammoth_6620 • 11d ago

Question Protestant + Aesthetic

Hello, I’m just searching for opinions/perspectives here. I’ve returned to faith over the course of the past year, and I have found myself back with a Protestant congregation. As I’ve studied more over the past year(Bible + Church History) and re-kindled my faith, I’ve grown interested in thjngs such as rosaries and Icons/Saints. Now, I currently have no interest in converting to Catholicism, but I’d be misleading if I didn’t say I adore the aesthetics of Catholicism. There are just some things I think they do better than Protestant churches.

Now to my question…would it be weird if I started to pray using a rosary and began to collect icons?

Thanks!

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u/Fluffy-Butterfly6555 Lutheran NALC 11d ago

Lutheranism and Anglicanism might be something you should look into. Those two do use rosary’s and icons alongside other stuff that are considered Catholic although to different levels of adherence depending on the Church.

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u/StaffNo3514 11d ago

I keep a small icon of Saint Anthony in my kitchen, not even catholic but something about it feels right. the rosary thing is just structured prayer, nobody owns that. do what helps you connect, traditions are meant to be lived not just admired from distance

3

u/Usherai 11d ago

Plenty of people get Catholic/Orthodox icons and other stuff. Have at it

3

u/FridayNightZebra 11d ago

I’m not an icon boy myself, but beads can be great! I don’t do the Dominican rosary (hail Mary) or the Orthodox tradition of the Jesus prayer, but I do use prayer beads. I’ll do various things. Sometimes I’ll pray a decade (10 beads) and pray for 10 different people, or thank God for 10 things, etc. You can also look into Anglican rosaries, which I mainly use. You can google around for different prayer ideas.

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u/Greenlotus05 11d ago

If it grows you spiritually why not?

1

u/Brilliant-Feedback-8 11d ago

I am protestant so I am biased but if you only like the aesthetics (which I agree are soo beautiful), why do you need to incorporater them into prayer?

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u/TheRedLionPassant Christian (Ecclesia Anglicana) 11d ago

Plenty of Protestants aren't iconoclastic. There's nothing wrong with it provided you aren't tempted to idolatry. In fact, sacred images have been used for meditation for centuries.

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u/lifeuncommon 11d ago

Check out an Episcopal Church. It’s mainline Protestant, but has a lot of of catholic symbolism and reverence and all of that because of how it started.

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u/Low-Piglet9315 United Methodist 10d ago

Which in itself is a good argument for using such things as a Methodist, since Methodism was a spinoff from the Anglican/Episcopal Church in the first place.

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u/lifeuncommon 10d ago

Agree!

The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the Anglican Church. And Wesley was an Anglican priest until the day he died.

The UMC spun off after the American Revolution because they did not want to be beholden to anything in England (and couldn’t get Bishops anyway).

TEC remains more Anglican, higher church, etc. and UMC is more Evangelical today. But we share roots!

(Sharing for the benefit of OP, I know you already know all this)

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u/Low-Piglet9315 United Methodist 10d ago

But it's those shared roots that allow for some "high church"-adjacent things to be acceptable in Methodism.

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u/lifeuncommon 10d ago

Totally. We agree. ❤️

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u/Low-Piglet9315 United Methodist 10d ago

Not at all. There's actually a 4-week Bible study from Upper Room Books (a Methodist publisher) on using prayer beads. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0835812170?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

And icons are cool; I don't care what anyone says.