Conversions to Orthodoxy

[Akathist]

Hello!

I have been off line for soooo looonnngg. I still don't have internet. I'm using a friend's computer today.

I wanted to let everyone know that I was baptised Holy Saturday and took my first Eucharist at Pascha. My new name is "Xenia" from Saint Xenia of Rome.

The first time I took the Eucharist I felt such warmth and nearly "heat" from it. I had been longing for communion for so long and can't describe how wonderful it is to have completed my conversion.

Now I have finished "kindergarden" as far as learning about the faith is concerned. I am reading books with the veracity that I was 10 months ago when I started exploring this faith!

 

[Kolya]

I wanted to let everyone know that I was baptised Holy Saturday and took my first Eucharist at Pascha. My new name is "Xenia" from Saint Xenia of Rome.

The first time I took the Eucharist I felt such warmth and nearly "heat" from it. I had been longing for communion for so long and can't describe how wonderful it is to have completed my conversion.

Now I have finished "kindergarden" as far as learning about the faith is concerned. I am reading books with the veracity that I was 10 months ago when I started exploring this faith!

Welcome Home TG! And Many, Many years to you. Xenia is almost THE most popular Saint around this board. She's very special, and I know she'll look after you well.

Christ Is Risen!!!

Kolya

 

[prodromos]

Woohoo congratulations xenia , its really good to hear from you again!

Christ is Risen!
John

 

[Mary of Bethany]

It's sooooo good to have you back, Xenia!

Especially with such wonderful news - - - - many, many years!!!!

Mary

 

[Marjorie]

You felt warmth & heat too? I felt that... I kept thinking about it burning away my sins... many years!!!

In IC XC,
Marjorie

 

[gzt]

Though, you know, they add boiling water. Don't be too surprised.

 

[MORTANIUS]

I'm thinking about the origins of the church and if it is true that it matters where I pray and with who I pray.

I'm taking a look at Orthodoxy among other denominations to see if its right for me. I dont wish to convert without understanding a few things first.

So far Orthodoxy is a very interesting denomination.

 

[Kolya]

I'm thinking about the origins of the church and if it is true that it matters where I pray and with who I pray.

I'm taking a look at Orthodoxy among other denominations to see if its right for me. I dont wish to convert without understanding a few things first.

So far Orthodoxy is a very interesting denomination.

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry I came on too strong.

Please feel free to ask whatever you wish.
Kolya

 

[Annabel Lee]

I'm thinking about the origins of the church and if it is true that it matters where I pray and with who I pray.

I'm taking a look at Orthodoxy among other denominations to see if its right for me. I dont wish to convert without understanding a few things first.

So far Orthodoxy is a very interesting denomination.

Orthodoxy is not considered a denomination.

 

[OrthodoxyUSA]

Orthodoxy is not considered a denomination.

Oooh, somebodys raising you right! Sick em....

Christ is Risen!

Forgive me...

 

[OrthodoxyUSA]

I'm thinking about the origins of the church and if it is true that it matters where I pray and with who I pray.

I'm taking a look at Orthodoxy among other denominations to see if its right for me. I dont wish to convert without understanding a few things first.

So far Orthodoxy is a very interesting denomination.

All of your questions are welcome here... we will do our level best to answer carefully...

Christ is Risen!

Forgive me....

 

[Dust and Ashes]

Well, I thought I had posted my story here back last year but I guess I didn't so I'm pasting it from the unstickied thread where I just posted it. Anyway, here it is.

I got some basic Bible teaching from my paternal grandfather, who was a Baptist pastor, but I pretty much grew up as a hedonist. My mom liked to party hard so there was always something going on at my house and for a teen, I thought I had it made. I didn't have to go looking for drugs or a party because it was all at my house.

I began dabbling in the occult at about age 14 and by 15 I was deeply involved. I tried Wicca but I wasn't looking for balance, I wanted power. I bought a Satanic Bible when I was 15 and began practicing the rituals in it as well as other books from varying occultic religions. I even had a book that was essentially a bible for the ancient Babylonian religion. The first place I heard the names Marduk, Ishtar, etc. was not in the book of Daniel.

By the time I was 20, I had developed an aura of influence. Of course my life was falling apart, no one liked me, I was still pathologically introverted and I was dying from loneliness but, hey, I could make things happen to people I didn't like. Then I met this guy at work. He was humble and unassuming and very likable. But most of all, he was incredibly intriguing because whenever I got around him, the aura (read: flock of demons) just kind of fizzled away and I couldn't make it touch him at all, no matter how hard I tried.

Within a month, I repented of all the witchcraft and became a devout Baptist. I guess I can borrow heavily from Matthew Gallatin and say that I felt Christ and knew that He was real and that He loved me.

I loved my Baptist brothers and sisters but I wanted a more spiritual experience in worship so I drifted into the charismatic movement. I enjoyed the excitement and emotionalism but oddly I had a lot of difficulty yielding control of myself to the spiritual influences in the services. I can't get into the why of that here because of forum rules. Anyway, I had gotten to the point that I hated going to church. I loved Christ, I worshipped God (in my ignorant, limited way) but I got less than nothing from the services.

Then I discovered CF. I first logged on with a Pentecostal faith icon and you could probably find some of my posts buried deep in the Pentecostal/Charismatic forum. Then I noticed a couple of people with these really presumptuous signatures. Things like "Orthodoxy - Proclaiming the truth since 33AD." and "Orthodoxy - Pure, unadulterated Christianity."

I traced these people to a forum called The Ancient Way and began to observe how they interacted with each other. I was stunned to find a unity and love that I had never seen in any of the Churches I had ever attended so I was very intrigued.

Honestly, this part here is a little...hazy for me. It was like something was drawing me to learn more about Orthodoxy. I began to ask questions and do research and my excitement mounted as I became more and more convinced that I had found the Church that Christ founded. The Church that had withstood the test of time and kept the faith that was given to Her by the Apostles.

But the clincher....

Ever since I became a Christian way back in 1992, I had suffered from severe demonic oppression. It was like a 20 foot python wrapped around me at all times whispering dark, twisted, evil things in my ears all the time and flashing terrible images through my mind at the worst possible times. Only the small amount of truth that I possessed kept me from falling completely apart.

The moment, the very moment, that I made the decision to become Orthodox, the oppression broke and was gone. Of course my former pastor told me that "Maybe Satan is taking it easy on you to get you to go in a wrong direction." But I know better.

As far as what was the hardest thing for me to give up or accept, it was easily my rabid Zionism. I believed that the nation of Israel was justified in anything that it did simply because it was Israel. I strongly supported the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and got angry with anyone who disagreed. I criticized any mention of peace talks and believed that Israel should go on the offensive and take all the land they wanted in the region. If you wanted to really get me steamed, just suggest that the Church was the true Israel of God.

That was a big, tough pill to swallow for me.

I didn't have a problem with asking Saints for their prayers since I always believed they were with Christ anyway. And I always had a great deal of respect for Mary so it wan't a problem for me to begin to show that respect which she herself prophesied she would recieve.

And the spirituality I have found in Holy Orthodoxy is magnitudes beyond anything I ever experienced in any church or group with which I was involved. The deeper I go, the more I realize I haven't really scratched the surface yet.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

 

[sin_vladimirov]

That is such a story.. only life can be so un-predictable.

When you say you had some powers over other, what do you mean?

 

[Dust and Ashes]

That is such a story.. only life can be so un-predictable.

When you say you had some powers over other, what do you mean?

On several occasions, I performed rituals in order to cause harm to people who had (in my mind) crossed me and they subsequently suffered exactly what I had prescribed.

Lord have mercy on me...

 

[sin_vladimirov]

I understand that, I used to think of the ways to inflict my revenge upon people.
It is what we do when we are in-division (out of Faith).
So human, so evil.

Repentance... is a powerfull tool.

Lord Jesus Christ, You know we love You, keep us that way.

 

[pilgrimtim]

What is my story? It is a long and traveled story like so many that have found their way into this Orthodox Faith.
I am combative when it comes to the truth. When I was fourteen years old (1973) I was at a summer camp of the Salvation Army when I heard the Officer speaking at the Sunday morning service say that Jesus is the Truth. That is firmly etched in my mind. I decided to follow this truth wherever it would lead me. In the years I have learn that it is never dangerous to probe truth with questions. Truth can respond to any question but I lie is revealed in its responses to question of clarification.
I stay with the Salvation Army not see any good reason to go join some other church. I had set my course on being an officer in the Salvation Army but by God's grace I was kept from that path. But I did dedicate myself to the two thrusts of the Salvation Army making disciples and helping the poor. Around 1990 after some struggles I was providentially taken to Jesus People USA of Chicago. For the next five years I was a servant of all. During that time I found the next path of service I would be a missionary to Eastern Europe and help all those poor souls rebuild their faith. In my conversation about the faith I have always tried to be sensitive to the framework people hold their faith in. I do not try to get baptist to be methodist or catholics to be protestants. SO I had to do some research on this sect call Orthodox. First step "The Orthodox Church" by Kalistos ware and then "the Orthodox Way" by same.
In due course with GOD continually prodding me to go to Romania I left Jesus People to find the money and support to Serve GOD in Romania for the rest of my life. I land in florida at a Western Rite Orthodox Church. The Priest was starting inquirers class the week after I arrived. What providence. And The day I decided to go and observe a service I was Taken to the Greek Orthodox Church in Orlando to hear about the differences between Orthodox and Catholics. Enlightening.
During the course of inquirers class I would think over things that were said or reservations that I had and no sooner had I formed a question in my mind but Gpd brought the response to it either in a book that I would be reading or in the class. The response was so clear and guileless that i could not find follow-up question that vanquish the new teaching.
After Inquirers class I consented to be Chrismated on the Eve of Christmas 1995 and made my first pilgrimage to Romania as an Orthodox Christian after Pascha 1996.
Now eight years later I am Reader in Church and Assist the Priest in the Altar During Divine Liturgy. Still going to Romania regularly and visiting orphans and encouraging (challanging) the Christians there.

 

[MariaRegina]

Welcome, Pilgrim Tim

 

[Kolya]

Welcome to TAW, Pilgrim Tim.

 

[Yiannis550]

Since I was born in Cyprus, I was baptized Orthodox when I was a baby and I don't exactly remember my feelings that day. But their was a conversion that took place in me. My whole life changed in a process that lasted about 3 years and the last year was the most dramatic one.



In Cyprus and Greece most people are Orthodox just in the papers and name. And that is who I was. I believed in God and I was going to Church every major holiday like Christmas or during the Holy Week and that was about it. I didn't know many details apart from the Bible as a fairy tale type of story.

Then I went in the US to college to study Engineering (Today when I say to people I am an Electrical Engineer they watch me in awe and surprise because they expect me to say I am a Theologian or something like that!)

I was subscribed in a Greek Jokes list and used to receive jokes everyday in my email. One day somebody sent a link to a Greek website, (it is usual that people sent other interesting links besides jokes in this list). The website was oodegr.com and the article was about God. It was explaining what is God and why he doesn't come down here to tell us "See I am here, I am your God" so to believe in him. That website is amazing. I kept reading other articles until I finished everything they had. It was serving me Orthodox Theology in a language that I understood as an Engineer, with citations and proofs. I still visit that website daily for reading new articles they publish. So now although I didn't become more religious I was more open and I understood better things about God and about Orthodoxy and it's difference from other Christian Dogmas.

After 2 years I graduated and went back to Cyprus. I started going more often to Church but still that added a few Sundays to my "Only in major feast days" schedule. One day I went with my brother to visit the Church of Saint Raphael the Neo Martyr in Cyprus. There in a small bookshop with Christian books I got the idea to ask for a book about Saint Kosmas the Aitolian. He is a saint that lived in Greece in the 1700s and he said a lot of prophecies that most of them became true. Some are still not here yet since they are about the second coming. I read about him in OODE website and I asked for his book. So I got a book that wasn't just about prophesies but also about his life and teachings. That book changed me totally. It changed the way I think and live. He speaks in such a simple language and explains our faith in such a way that he is magnificent. I still thank Saint Kosmas for his help in my prayers. And then while I was still reading that book, I came here in Edinburgh for my postgraduate degree. As soon as I came here I start looking for a church and I wanted to confess my sins (I never did it before) to a spiritual father. And isn't God and His ways amazing and mysterious! For I happened to live in a city where the Orthodox Church is in the University's Campus (University of Edinburgh) and that we have two amazing priests! One, Father John, is an old Scottish man who was an Episcopalian minister and he went to Constantinople to study the Orthodox faith and become an Orthodox priest because he felt the calling. He is so spiritual that he draws people around him like a magnet with his prayers. The other, Father Raphael, is a Greek young priest, who has this amazing gift of speech, that makes you hanging from his lips to listen what he has to say. I confessed for first time to Father John. I never felt like that in my whole life. That was last September or October I think. Since then my life is like new. I am a new person. Having so close to me these two magnificent fathers I am learning and improving everyday, because everyday I am going there for vespers. I forgot to say that Father John has it as a rule, to have every day Matins in the morning and Vespers in the Evening. I don't go for matins because I am a lazy stupid fool , to wake up and go so early in the morning, but I try to not miss Vespers.



Through the advice of father John, father Raphael and Elder Paisios (I read so many of his teachings this past year and he is so amazing that everything he says affects me!) God is bringing me closer and closer. I believe it was all planned. I mean even when I have a question, or a problem, a solution comes out of nowhere, either from some book I happen to read, or from a website, or a talk, or father John will just walk to me and give the answer... All I can do is thank the Lord who brought me close to him and allowed me to get to know the magnificence of the truth! In Orthodoxy everything makes sense and everything is true! All we need is the right guidance and lots of prayer.



To tell you some more about our community, I am now the student representative in the Committee of St Andrews Orthodox Church, and I will advertise some activities in case some of you are near our areas and want to visit

every Wednesday we have Bible Study with Father Raphael, who explains the Gospels line by line according to the Orthodox Fathers

Every Thursday we have Choir Practicing (I am trying to learn to chant but I am horrible)

Every Saturday we have spiritual talks by Father John



Finally all these activities are after Vespers which are Daily at 6:30pm

Matins are Daily at 7:30 am except Sundays and Feast Days when there is a Liturgy therefore Matins are at 9:00 am and the Liturgy at 10:30 am.

Our Community is like a family. We are all so close that everybody says they never found a place like that in any other place in Greece or Cyprus. I believe is all because of the prayers of Father John

God Bless you and if you are around Edinburgh send me an email to tell you where to find our Church.

 

[MariaRegina]

Since I was born in Cyprus, I was baptized Orthodox when I was a baby and I don't exactly remember my feelings that day. But their was a conversion that took place in me. My whole life changed in a process that lasted about 3 years and the last year was the most dramatic one.



In Cyprus and Greece most people are Orthodox just in the papers and name. And that is who I was. I believed in God and I was going to Church every major holiday like Christmas or during the Holy Week and that was about it. I didn't know many details apart from the Bible as a fairy tale type of story.

Then I went in the US to college to study Engineering (Today when I say to people I am an Electrical Engineer they watch me in awe and surprise because they expect me to say I am a Theologian or something like that!)

I was subscribed in a Greek Jokes list and used to receive jokes everyday in my email. One day somebody sent a link to a Greek website, (it is usual that people sent other interesting links besides jokes in this list). The website was oodegr.com and the article was about God. It was explaining what is God and why he doesn't come down here to tell us "See I am here, I am your God" so to believe in him. That website is amazing. I kept reading other articles until I finished everything they had. It was serving me Orthodox Theology in a language that I understood as an Engineer, with citations and proofs. I still visit that website daily for reading new articles they publish. So now although I didn't become more religious I was more open and I understood better things about God and about Orthodoxy and it's difference from other Christian Dogmas.

After 2 years I graduated and went back to Cyprus. I started going more often to Church but still that added a few Sundays to my "Only in major feast days" schedule. One day I went with my brother to visit the Church of Saint Raphael the Neo Martyr in Cyprus. There in a small bookshop with Christian books I got the idea to ask for a book about Saint Kosmas the Aitolian. He is a saint that lived in Greece in the 1700s and he said a lot of prophecies that most of them became true. Some are still not here yet since they are about the second coming. I read about him in OODE website and I asked for his book. So I got a book that wasn't just about prophesies but also about his life and teachings. That book changed me totally. It changed the way I think and live. He speaks in such a simple language and explains our faith in such a way that he is magnificent. I still thank Saint Kosmas for his help in my prayers. And then while I was still reading that book, I came here in Edinburgh for my postgraduate degree. As soon as I came here I start looking for a church and I wanted to confess my sins (I never did it before) to a spiritual father. And isn't God and His ways amazing and mysterious! For I happened to live in a city where the Orthodox Church is in the University's Campus (University of Edinburgh) and that we have two amazing priests! One, Father John, is an old Scottish man who was an Episcopalian minister and he went to Constantinople to study the Orthodox faith and become an Orthodox priest because he felt the calling. He is so spiritual that he draws people around him like a magnet with his prayers. The other, Father Raphael, is a Greek young priest, who has this amazing gift of speech, that makes you hanging from his lips to listen what he has to say. I confessed for first time to Father John. I never felt like that in my whole life. That was last September or October I think. Since then my life is like new. I am a new person. Having so close to me these two magnificent fathers I am learning and improving everyday, because everyday I am going there for vespers. I forgot to say that Father John has it as a rule, to have every day Matins in the morning and Vespers in the Evening. I don't go for matins because I am a lazy stupid fool , to wake up and go so early in the morning, but I try to not miss Vespers.



Through the advice of father John, father Raphael and Elder Paisios (I read so many of his teachings this past year and he is so amazing that everything he says affects me!) God is bringing me closer and closer. I believe it was all planned. I mean even when I have a question, or a problem, a solution comes out of nowhere, either from some book I happen to read, or from a website, or a talk, or father John will just walk to me and give the answer... All I can do is thank the Lord who brought me close to him and allowed me to get to know the magnificence of the truth! In Orthodoxy everything makes sense and everything is true! All we need is the right guidance and lots of prayer.



To tell you some more about our community, I am now the student representative in the Committee of St Andrews Orthodox Church, and I will advertise some activities in case some of you are near our areas and want to visit

every Wednesday we have Bible Study with Father Raphael, who explains the Gospels line by line according to the Orthodox Fathers

Every Thursday we have Choir Practicing (I am trying to learn to chant but I am horrible)

Every Saturday we have spiritual talks by Father John



Finally all these activities are after Vespers which are Daily at 6:30pm

Matins are Daily at 7:30 am except Sundays and Feast Days when there is a Liturgy therefore Matins are at 9:00 am and the Liturgy at 10:30 am.

Our Community is like a family. We are all so close that everybody says they never found a place like that in any other place in Greece or Cyprus. I believe is all because of the prayers of Father John

God Bless you and if you are around Edinburgh send me an email to tell you where to find our Church.

Amazing. Would Father John and Father Raphael be willing for you to publish some of their sermons here at a CF? Or better yet, would one or both of them be willing to post here occasionally and help us out.