Talmek
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Out of interest, is there anybody here that has converted to Catholicism?
I, myself, am in the process of converting to the Catholic Church from the Anglican Communion and was really wondering whether others have had similar experiences...
Recent convert here from the American Episcopal church - I'm a new forums member and came across this thread and decided to share my experience over the last couple of years.
In 2013 I converted from Episcopalian to Roman Catholic after years of worship in that denomination. However, it wasn't because I found anything "wrong" with the Episcopal faith, only that I knew that the structure of the Catholic faith was something that I had desired all my life. My mom was a strayed Catholic, so everything I had learned about God and faith as a child was from a non-denominational perspective.
Fast-forward to adulthood and marriage/divorce. I was in the military for a number of years, and wanted to become a Catholic after one of my deployments (having no idea what the process was, I simply walked in and asked a priest at a local parish outside my base). He informed me that, because of my marriage and subsequent divorce that I couldn't convert. This was devastating news as I had been looking for something to reestablish my faith after so much that had broken it down.
Rather like the proverbial lost sheep, I began to research other faiths that had similarities to the Catholic faith and discovered "high church" Episcopalianism. From the moment I walked in I had never felt so welcomed, or so loved in all the years of attending different churches through my life. The particular (Episcopalian) parish that I attended was also where my daughter and I were baptized. I can say that their message was one that still strongly resounds with me and one that I try to emulate. Said to me by their pastor, "We don't care what you've done in your life that has made you stray. It's not our job to condemn you or to judge you - we're here to love you anyway."
For years I attended that church, paid tithes and was an active part of the community there; however, something still felt missing from the overall journey. Talking unknowingly to a Catholic coworker one day about how I had become an Episcopalian, they were rather upset when I had told them that I had become so out of rejection by the Catholic Church. They advised me that if I was still interested in becoming Catholic that I should speak to a (now local, thousands of miles away from the original) parish priest. I did so, and learned much in that initial conversation with him (primarily how much one priest's opinions can influence and do harm to a prospective convert - but I digress...)
I began the conversion process through RCIA with my coworker as my sponsor and completed the process during Easter vigil, 2013. It has been one of the biggest events in my life, and one that I wouldn't trade for anything. In a sentence - After so much searching for God and the right way to do things (for me - not a generalized statement) it felt like I finally walked in the door and found home.
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