Religious or Spiritual? Same or Different?

When thinking about religion, many times automatically think of church and/or establishment. People often ask me if I'm "religious". Most of the time I respond with "no, but I do consider myself very spiritual." I guess I always tended to view religion as going to church, reading the bible, having communion, things like that. I was brought up Catholic, however, I consider myself a non-denominational Christian. I think this is partly due because I maybe didn't agree with some aspects the church/establishment entailed in my eyes. This is not a rip on the Catholic Church by any means, I just didn't feel comfortable and found it hard to make a spiritual connection with God. Although we're discussing in class the community aspect of faith and religion, I find my own personal connection with God to be a greater asset than the community aspect. Again, I want to reiterate that this is my own personal experience and do not hold judgements or criticisms of those who are of different faith or of different view points. I guess, it's difficult sometimes to find people to discuss religion with in a non-threatening, judgemental setting. Maybe that's a reason why I took this course...to understand other people's view points and to have an open discussion where people are free to express there thoughts and opinions. I understand that this course is meant to observe the effect of religion on many societies, but hopefully I will gain perspective on my own personal view on spirituality and/or religion.