I guess when you are convinced there is such a thing as a religious organization's perfect or near-perfect explanation and embodiment of spiritual Truth, it becomes much easier to discern where you ought to worship and belong.
But when you are convinced that Truth is completely elusive to any single human endeavor, the standard arguments for or against any one expression of said Truth become obsolete.
Instead, you need to rely on your own personal relationship with God. Where does God want you to be, for whatever reason? Maybe it will be life-long, maybe not. But for where you are in life now, where is God calling you to follow Him?
For me, years of research and contemplation have helped me narrow down my choices to within Christianity. At least there's that. Furthermore, I've also eliminated Protestant denominations due to the fact that once they started protesting, there has been no end to the protests.
Let's ponder this a bit more. Why have I eliminated Protestantism? First to go were fundamentalists and evangelicals. They're understanding and focus on the wrath of God against non-Christians simply doesn't jive with my understanding of a loving and merciful Father of all creation.
But what about mainline Protestants? They're much more subdued. They don't preach hellfire and brimstone. Why not them?
I've been to Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, etc churches. I can't for the world of me figure out what exactly separates them? It seems every time there's a disagreement about a factor of faith or practice, there's been a split. And so, you just never know if the church you join will split again while you're there, and you'll be forced to choose sides.
I had been attending what I thought was an Episcopalian church for about 5 months when I found out that they had recently split from the Anglican church, and the particular parish I was attending chose the more conservative Anglican side of things, but mislabeled themselves as Episcopalian in order to "lead seekers to the truth".... via a blatant lie. (I literally asked the pastor about this mislabeling, and that is the response I got!)
I have also eliminated Protestant denominations for another reason - aesthetics. And while I know it sounds superficial, it really isn't. Not when we're talking about an embodied faith. If whatever is good, and true, and BEAUTIFUL comes from God, then a beautiful aesthetic ought to be our goal whenever we desire to approach God.
Modern aesthetics have been relativized with everything else, unfortunately. We no longer agree on what is beautiful. We claim that beauty is "in the eye of the beholder". But there is only a little bit of truth to that, and what's most important is that our preferences are largely learned! If we are exposed to a certain interpretation of "beauty", then we will come to only see beauty in that way.
But if that's the case, then how can anything be objectively beautiful? It's all in how beauty affects us. Does it inspire us to do something? Does it give us a sense of awe? Does it take us out of the here and now and connect us to something somehow eternal?
Especially in worship, beauty is a crucial component of helping us turn our hearts and minds towards God. We want to stand in awe before our Creator. We want to be reminded that God is greater than anything we alone can do. Enter: liturgy.
Protestant churches that I have attended leave much to be desired in terms of beauty. The music - if present - is either boring or downright entertainment. Neither is conducive to inspiration or awe.
And if the interior is plain, as often is the case, that leaves nothing for the imagination. You're in a secular place, through and through. Nothing special about this time and place "set aside" for God.
I don't go to church out of obligation. I don't believe what I'm told to believe just because someone told me to believe it. There, I've said it. I believe in universal revelation (Taoism/Deism), and I believe in personal revelation (private discernment). Third party revelation becomes very tricky for me. There have been various conflicting claims regarding revelation. It's quite difficult for me to not take such claims with a grain of salt.
Because I don't feel compelled to allow other people's revelations be binding on myself, I have a different problem; instead of the problem of having to submit my will in obedience to some authority (obviously, I want to submit to God), my problem is having to weigh the various aspects of different options (of a denomination, or church, or liturgy) and decide.
My choices are to choose option A, option B, or to alternate between the two. For the time being, our go-to has been some variation of option C (alternating between the two).
Since we already belong to the Catholic church, receiving Holy Communion can be a part of our experience when going there. On the other hand, while we have to abstain from Communion at the Orthodox church, otherwise we are welcome to participate without any formal conversion.
At one point I was concerned about separating what I considered the more reverent/joyful liturgy (Orthodox) from the reception of the Eucharist in the Catholic church. I was worried that it would send the wrong message - that the reverence wasn't for the sake of the Eucharist. But then I started to realize that the Eucharist has become a sort of idol within Catholicism, and perhaps it is not that bad after all if there is that separation.
Jesus did say, take and eat/take and drink .... and we do at Catholic Mass. And at the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, we get all those other spiritual needs met, become inspired to pursue a relationship with God, and surround ourselves with like-minded (read: similar values) people.
For the time being, this is the best we can offer for our children. That said, I still want to iron out which Catholic Mass will serve as our alternate Sunday option - some sort of elusive reverent Novus Ordo Mass? Or a silent Tridentine Low Mass? Or a sung Tridentine High Mass? If we are lucky, we may come to love the TLM (high or low or both), and perhaps then we can take the Orthodox DL out of rotation. But for now, this is the game plan.
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