Conversions to Orthodoxy

[Suzannah]

Newtolife: GRAND STORY!!! LOVED IT!!!


Matrona...you've done it again.....we're still in agony waiting for Part 2

LOL!

 

[Matrona]

Okay, I've finally gotten around to writing this... It's only a little bit more, but I feel bad about leaving this unfinished for so long. So here's some more of my story!

***

I decided I would try an OCF meeting. I came so close to not going--I am notoriously lazy, and it was either walk all the way over to Greene Street for the meeting, or have an extra hour to zip around on the internet and listen to music (by far my favorite pastime).

I'm not really sure how, but I somehow managed to talk myself into going. I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed by it, mostly because I couldn't understand half of what Father was talking about.

Chrismation?

Pascha?

Liturgy?

Logos?

Theotokos?

What the hell was this, Alice in freakin' Wonderland?!

Still, despite the meeting going way over my head, I was still interested in Orthodoxy, so I figured, if it was worth understanding, I'd eventually figure out what was going on. I had done a little reading--not much, but some--over the weekend, and I was particularly interested in hearing about why the Orthodox Church claims to be the New Testament church. The New Testament church. I mean, I'd never heard anyone make that claim besides total wackjobs who claimed early church worship was like a "bible study". (How do you have a bible study when the New Testament canon won't be compiled until 300 years in the future, I wonder? Why don't you just ask me to write a research paper on a textbook that won't be completed until the year 2304? Anyway, I digress, sorry...)

One of the other OCF students gave me her phone number and told me to call her if I ever wanted to visit church with her. It took me until that Saturday to work up the nerve to call her, but I did. That Sunday morning, I set foot inside an actual church for the first time in six years.

Naturally, despite how well-prepared I thought I was, I was really confused by it. The incense made me sneeze like crazy, I got sick of standing REALLY fast and had to sit down, and even though the entire thing was in English, I still wasn't sure what was going on, and I found the whole thing intimidating. It was like the whole church had a "holiness armor" that I couldn't get through. I'd never felt this way before about anything. But I knew I really wanted to understand Orthodoxy, I really did! There was something about this odd church with the pictures everywhere and the constant music that made me feel like I HAD to figure this out.

Later on, when I was comparing this with all the Campus Crusade revivals I had been to, I realized there really wasn't any comparison at all. It was obvious--Crusade couldn't hold a candle (ha ha) to this beautiful, strange liturgy thingy.

As dumb and ignorant as I was (and still am) about Lord Jesus, and the Bible, I could tell, from just that one liturgy, that the Orthodox definitely knew God. Crusade was a bunch of happy songs about some Jesus guy who I couldn't understand, then a sermon that put me to sleep faster than dramamine. Not one person there could tell me what it meant for Jesus to be the Son of God, or what the Trinity was, or why this Jesus guy could come back from the dead.

On the other hand, Orthodoxy was deep. How else could they sing so eloquently and passionately about the Trinity? Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us... How else could they celebrate the Resurrection as though it had happened that morning?

These people are clearly onto something, here!

Two weeks after my visit to the OCA mission, I decided to try the Antiochian mission. This time, I would be going for matins as well as the liturgy. Oh boy, I thought that Saturday night, as I drifted off to sleep. I get to wake up an hour earlier than last time, just so I can go home with two and a half hours' worth of aching feet. Why, exactly, am I doing this?!

Please don't hold that against me. I couldn't have known how the next day's visit would change my life forever.

To be continued...

 

[Suzannah]

You do know that the phrase, "To be continued..." is keeping me awake at night???
\Seriously, I have wondered about Part 2 for what two weeks????

 

[Matrona]

You do know that the phrase, "To be continued..." is keeping me awake at night???
\Seriously, I have wondered about Part 2 for what two weeks????

I'm sorry. Tomorrow I'll try to write more, I really will... it's just difficult for me to write about such deeply personal things, even when I badly want to share them. Right now I gotta go to bed, but I promise I'll wrap this up really soon!

 

[MariaRegina]

I'm sorry. Tomorrow I'll try to write more, I really will... it's just difficult for me to write about such deeply personal things, even when I badly want to share them. Right now I gotta go to bed, but I promise I'll wrap this up really soon!

Matrona -- you're a good writer -- it was better than reading a Left Behind book!


I too eagerly await your third installment.

Yours in Christ,
Elizabeth

 

[Suzannah]

I'm sorry. Tomorrow I'll try to write more, I really will... it's just difficult for me to write about such deeply personal things, even when I badly want to share them. Right now I gotta go to bed, but I promise I'll wrap this up really soon!

Love you Matrona...you are one of the dearest people I've ever met and I just wanna hear your story...we Irish are insatiable with stories....

I know its hard...I did it too..but I did in ONE PEICE, haha...so there!
Love,
Suzannah

 

[Momzilla]

you have me on the edge of my seat, Matrona! But I will do my best to wait patiently until you are ready to finish your story ....

 

[Photini]

Coming soon: Photini's conversion story ....

 

[xenia]

Here's where you can find my story, and Jeff the Finn's story, too!

http://www.orthodoxconvert.com/testimony/

Love, Xenia

 

[Iacobus]

I love conversion stories. For what its worth, here’s mine. Its not that interesting, but I love to tell it.

My wife and I have home schooled our kids for quite a while. Several years ago, I was looking at a curriculum catalog, and in particular a Church History block. One of the books that was a part of that course was Father Peter Gillquist’s Becoming Orthodox. The blurb in the catalog talked about 2000 evangelicals becoming Orthodox all in one fell swoop. “What the heck is that all about,” I asked my wife. I just thought it was weird.

At that time, Orthodoxy had never really entered onto our radar. I had been to a Greek Festival about 20 years before, but had not gone into the Church. I really had no clue what Orthodoxy was about. The blurb was enough to pique my curiosity, though, so I started reading everything I could find, starting with the usual suspects – Mathewes-Greene, Schaeffer, Gillquist, Bishop Kallistos. I was stunned by the whole thing. For the first time, everything in the Bible was presented in a way that was seamless and completely coherent. After several months of reading, I had pretty much converted in my head, but I still had not been into a Church.

The problem is that where we live, there are no Orthodox Churches closer than two hours away. On top of that, aside from my day job, I was a local pastor in the Methodist Church – kind of minor league clergy – and Sundays were spent doing that job. Finally though, I couldn’t stand it anymore, and located a ROCOR church, and went for Saturday evening vigil.

I’ll never forget that first visit. I went into the building, and put my hand on the door into the Church proper. I could hear the choir singing music I had never heard before, and I could smell the incense. I knew, beyond any doubt, that if I turned that doorknob and went in, my life would never be the same. I hesitated a few seconds, thought to myself “Toto, we’re not in Kansas any more”, and then turned the knob and went in.

For the first 10 or 15 minutes, I fought the urge to run screaming out of the building. It was so — different. Then I spent about 10 minutes thinking my feet hurt. Then the next time I looked at my watch, two hours had passed without me realizing it. I left in a daze, still processing what I had seen and heard. The next day in my Methodist Church, I was preparing to start the service when, without warning, I caught a whiff of incense. My head snapped up and I looked around, but, of course, no one was burning it there. For the next week, at odd moments: in the car, in court (I’m a lawyer), walking down the street, I’d catch the smell of incense. A couple of weeks later I took my oldest daughter for vigil, and the same incense thing happened to her. In fact, the day after, we were back in the Methodist Church, and she turned to me and said “Dad, I don’t think I can ever go back to the kind of worship we do here.”

Like a lot of people, I was concerned about my wife and kids. In fact, I was prepared to become kind of the Methodist Orthodox Lone Ranger if my wife, in particular, wouldn’t convert. I really did not think that she would go for it. Theological issues aside, I think it freaked her out when I took her to the ROCOR parish and some people refused to believe that she wasn’t Russian. After several months, however, she casually told me one day – “We need to convert. Orthodoxy really is the true church.”

After I picked myself up off the floor, we didn’t waste much time. For a while, I tried to have a foot in both camps, but after Pascha of that year, I resigned my position with the Methodists and we concentrated on being catechumens. We found a Carpatho-Russian parish nearer the house, and we love it. What was even more gratifying to both of us is that our two daughters, both teenagers, independently decided to convert as well. We were careful to leave that decision to them, but – Praise God! – they both decided to become Orthodox as well.

To be honest, my only regret was that I couldn’t take my Methodist congregations with me. I confess that I really loved the local pastor bit, and I loved those people. With some of them I’m a bit of a pariah, but most have been pretty good about it. I’m still working on them!

So now, at this point, we’re fully integrated. I’m in the diaconal program, my older daughter (when she comes home from college) and I are in the choir, and we’re all happy as clams. And Lent has become one of our favorite times of the year. Go figure.

 

[Suzannah]

I love conversion stories. For what its worth, here’s mine. Its not that interesting, but I love to tell it.

My wife and I have home schooled our kids for quite a while. Several years ago, I was looking at a curriculum catalog, and in particular a Church History block. One of the books that was a part of that course was Father Peter Gillquist’s Becoming Orthodox. The blurb in the catalog talked about 2000 evangelicals becoming Orthodox all in one fell swoop. “What the heck is that all about,” I asked my wife. I just thought it was weird.

At that time, Orthodoxy had never really entered onto our radar. I had been to a Greek Festival about 20 years before, but had not gone into the Church. I really had no clue what Orthodoxy was about. The blurb was enough to pique my curiosity, though, so I started reading everything I could find, starting with the usual suspects – Mathewes-Greene, Schaeffer, Gillquist, Bishop Kallistos. I was stunned by the whole thing. For the first time, everything in the Bible was presented in a way that was seamless and completely coherent. After several months of reading, I had pretty much converted in my head, but I still had not been into a Church.

The problem is that where we live, there are no Orthodox Churches closer than two hours away. On top of that, aside from my day job, I was a local pastor in the Methodist Church – kind of minor league clergy – and Sundays were spent doing that job. Finally though, I couldn’t stand it anymore, and located a ROCOR church, and went for Saturday evening vigil.

I’ll never forget that first visit. I went into the building, and put my hand on the door into the Church proper. I could hear the choir singing music I had never heard before, and I could smell the incense. I knew, beyond any doubt, that if I turned that doorknob and went in, my life would never be the same. I hesitated a few seconds, thought to myself “Toto, we’re not in Kansas any more”, and then turned the knob and went in.

For the first 10 or 15 minutes, I fought the urge to run screaming out of the building. It was so — different. Then I spent about 10 minutes thinking my feet hurt. Then the next time I looked at my watch, two hours had passed without me realizing it. I left in a daze, still processing what I had seen and heard. The next day in my Methodist Church, I was preparing to start the service when, without warning, I caught a whiff of incense. My head snapped up and I looked around, but, of course, no one was burning it there. For the next week, at odd moments: in the car, in court (I’m a lawyer), walking down the street, I’d catch the smell of incense. A couple of weeks later I took my oldest daughter for vigil, and the same incense thing happened to her. In fact, the day after, we were back in the Methodist Church, and she turned to me and said “Dad, I don’t think I can ever go back to the kind of worship we do here.”

Like a lot of people, I was concerned about my wife and kids. In fact, I was prepared to become kind of the Methodist Orthodox Lone Ranger if my wife, in particular, wouldn’t convert. I really did not think that she would go for it. Theological issues aside, I think it freaked her out when I took her to the ROCOR parish and some people refused to believe that she wasn’t Russian. After several months, however, she casually told me one day – “We need to convert. Orthodoxy really is the true church.”

After I picked myself up off the floor, we didn’t waste much time. For a while, I tried to have a foot in both camps, but after Pascha of that year, I resigned my position with the Methodists and we concentrated on being catechumens. We found a Carpatho-Russian parish nearer the house, and we love it. What was even more gratifying to both of us is that our two daughters, both teenagers, independently decided to convert as well. We were careful to leave that decision to them, but – Praise God! – they both decided to become Orthodox as well.

To be honest, my only regret was that I couldn’t take my Methodist congregations with me. I confess that I really loved the local pastor bit, and I loved those people. With some of them I’m a bit of a pariah, but most have been pretty good about it. I’m still working on them!

So now, at this point, we’re fully integrated. I’m in the diaconal program, my older daughter (when she comes home from college) and I are in the choir, and we’re all happy as clams. And Lent has become one of our favorite times of the year. Go figure.

What you mean, "not that interesting"???? I LOVED THIS STORY!!!

So!!! When are you going to become a priest???

I thought it was wonderful in your story that you kept smelling the incense...you know what? Me too! I also had pieces of the Liturgy stuck in my head. "Kyrie eleson..."
I still seem to have "repetitive record syndrome"....every Sunday I hear something "new" and it sticks "...holy GOD, holy MIGHTY, holy IMMORTAL.." that's what is "stuck" this week...

 

[Iacobus]

I still seem to have "repetitive record syndrome"....every Sunday I hear something "new" and it sticks "...holy GOD, holy MIGHTY, holy IMMORTAL.." that's what is "stuck" this week...

I love the Trisagion. What a powerful prayer AND piece of music! Some Sundays we sing that and the power of it just about knocks me down.

 

[xenia]

Wow James, what a great story! I too also smelled incense at odd moments, like a whiff of heaven.

-Xenia

 

[Matrona]

This is too weird! I've had that smelling-incense-at-odd-moments thing, too! Even if it's been close to a week since I've been to church and I'm wearing totally different clothes, and I'm not anywhere near where someone would be burning incense, I'll catch a whiff of it for just a second. I have never had much of a sense of smell--I am usually the last to smell food going bad in the refrigerator, etc. But at random times in random places, I'll catch the scent of incense. This happened a LOT when I was an inquirer/catechumen, but I never told anybody before because I was afraid they would think I was crazy.

 

[Suzannah]

This is too weird! I've had that smelling-incense-at-odd-moments thing, too! Even if it's been close to a week since I've been to church and I'm wearing totally different clothes, and I'm not anywhere near where someone would be burning incense, I'll catch a whiff of it for just a second. I have never had much of a sense of smell--I am usually the last to smell food going bad in the refrigerator, etc. But at random times in random places, I'll catch the scent of incense. This happened a LOT when I was an inquirer/catechumen, but I never told anybody before because I was afraid they would think I was crazy.

Everyone knows I'm crazy so I'm not afraid of being accused...
But I do want to tell you that if you're crazy and the rest of us are crazy, I hope they never find a cure....
Incidentally: I don't much sense of smell left either...too many years at sea working on boat engines with fuel and the fumes...
wierd huh???

 

[MariaRegina]

Everyone knows I'm crazy so I'm not afraid of being accused...
But I do want to tell you that if you're crazy and the rest of us are crazy, I hope they never find a cure....
Incidentally: I don't much sense of smell left either...too many years at sea working on boat engines with fuel and the fumes...
wierd huh???

I've been Orthodox since Lazarus Saturday, 1996, and yes, at times I do smell incense or the beautiful aroma of sanctity when I pray to the Theotokos at home or even in the car going to or coming home from church.

One we were coming home from church and my husband, my son, and I all smelled an exquisite aroma of heavenly flowers -- and it wasn't springtime, neither did it smell like those artificial fabric softeners used in dryers. No, it was so delicate and we didn't sneeze like we would do if it was earthly.

Another time we were watching a video tape of Myrna. She is the Melkite Catholic (her husband is Antiochian Greek Orthodox) from Syria who has holy oil streaming from her face. As we watched that video, our whole living room became like a Church with the smell of incense and fresh flowers -- indescribable. Again, we are located at least 25 to 30 minutes from any Orthodox Church. The Antiochian Orthodox Bishops investigated her case and believe that it is authentic. Since her husband is Orthodox, she falls under the Orthodox jurisdiction also according to Syrian customs.

 

[Photini]

Wow...I've also caught the *whiffs* of incense on occasion.
I also remember my son mentioning this. One time he walked into the living room, and out of the blue said, "Momma, it smells like prayers in here." (I had explained to him that the incense is like our prayers rising into the heavens.)

 

[Eusebios]

Suzannah et al.
Awesome testimonies, have you ever thought of sharing them on a wider level?I will post my long and winding oddesy sometime soon.
His unworthy servant,
Eusebios.

 

[Michael G]

I will write my conversion story, as I have been trying to do for the past 5 years since I was chrismated. It may take some time, but once written I will post it here. I hope no one starts yawning during the 2nd paragraph of it.
Michael

 

[Photini]

I will write my conversion story, as I have been trying to do for the past 5 years since I was chrismated. It may take some time, but once written I will post it here. I hope no one starts yawning during the 2nd paragraph of it.
Michael

I am looking forward to it....and also for yours Eusebios.
I recently had a "Christian drifter" ask me for my conversion story, along with a couple of others who have seen me in GA and a couple of other places around here. I am feeling the gravity of such a thing, as I don't want to say anything stupid that would turn them away. I guess that's why I've been putting off the detailed version of my story for a while too.