Conversions to Orthodoxy

[Prisca2006]

I think I'll share my story, although I am pretty private about my past, because I don't want to get stuck meditating on it--Does that make sense? Anyway...

I was born to protestant parents (Free-quaker and Disciples of Christ). My dad was/is a protestant preacher, and today is a non-denominational, charasmatic Christian author/speaker/etc. He has some 50+ books on the market about all kinds of interesting stuff...

Anyway, I was very unsupervised as a child and my mother had emotional problems...my dad was away at church a lot. The church was always there, but I honestly had no love for it. Sadly, I slipped really far away from God in my teens. I got involved with some "interesting" people and lived my life as an "athiest." In an abusive relationship w/ a drug dealer at 15, I was heavily involved in the drug culture of the 80's...I watched many people I loved get hooked on crack and heroine, and live out some crazy lifestyles....

At the age of 17 my mother left my father and we kids were given the choice of moving w/ my dad across country to get back together w/ her or stay in the town we were in. I was desperate to escape my abusive boyfriend, so I chose to "sneak" out of town. He found out the week we were leaving and I woke up one night with a knife to my throat! Thankfully, I was spared--I believe God gave me the words to talk myself out of that situation, and I moved w/ my family.

Out of that enviornment & town, I was able to detox a bit and try to figure out what to do with myself. My parents started going to Benny Hinn's church in Orlando, FL. I attended with them. The whole experience there was *cough* somewhat horrible, and I won't go into too much detail, but I knew that I was not ever going to be a charasmatic.

After about a yr in FL, my parents chose to move back to the town we had all escaped. I was 18--and I got right back into the stuff I had left behind. I was given a choice by my parents--who could finally see that I was messed up: move out and live my life or my parents would pay for me to go to bible school...

Ok, I'll continue in another post, this is long!

 

[Prisca2006]

ok, here is the rest--

So, I actually chose bible school--and one with a strict curfew where I had no car, lived on campus, etc.

It was there that I met a group of people that would all later convert to Orthodoxy. I met my husband-to-be and I will never forget the first time I saw him--he was praying over his pancakes! I had NEVER seen anyone my age actually chose to pray over their food. It just really struck me that there are people out there who chose to be Christians and aren't just that way by default.

DH and I were married in 1994, and shortly after were asked to join a bible study. Some friends of ours had met some people from the EOC (Evangelical Orthodox Church--think Peter Guilquest). Anyway, they were doing like a seekers class and we started going. My husband fell in love w/ Orthodoxy immediately. Of course, he had lived such a different life--I feel like my past really slowed me in regards to coming to Christ. Like it was a big wall that to this day God is still working on w/me.

Anyway, we joined the EOC in 1995, and we had a mission church in Toccoa, Georgia. After 6 years, most of the EOC churches were brought into the OCA, and my husband and I were chrismated shortly thereafter. One of our dear friends from our bible college days was just ordained into the priesthood at St. Vlads. We all have so much to be thankful for!

Personally, I still struggle with huge feelings of inadquacy. I feel like I do everything wrong as an O Christian. Going to church is really hard for me...I am very undisciplined--yet I go. The Orthodox Church has saved my life--my husband and I were so dissillusioned and ready to stop going to church altogether--thank God for the EOC people. I have found life in the Church...I know that God loves me, finally. A slow learner, I am growing in this faith. I have a long ways to go.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to reading the rest of this thread...

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

 

[DonVA]

ok, here is the rest--

So, I actually chose bible school--and one with a strict curfew where I had no car, lived on campus, etc.

It was there that I met a group of people that would all later convert to Orthodoxy. I met my husband-to-be and I will never forget the first time I saw him--he was praying over his pancakes! I had NEVER seen anyone my age actually chose to pray over their food. It just really struck me that there are people out there who chose to be Christians and aren't just that way by default.

DH and I were married in 1994, and shortly after were asked to join a bible study. Some friends of ours had met some people from the EOC (Evangelical Orthodox Church--think Peter Guilquest). Anyway, they were doing like a seekers class and we started going. My husband fell in love w/ Orthodoxy immediately. Of course, he had lived such a different life--I feel like my past really slowed me in regards to coming to Christ. Like it was a big wall that to this day God is still working on w/me.

Anyway, we joined the EOC in 1995, and we had a mission church in Toccoa, Georgia. After 6 years, most of the EOC churches were brought into the OCA, and my husband and I were chrismated shortly thereafter. One of our dear friends from our bible college days was just ordained into the priesthood at St. Vlads. We all have so much to be thankful for!

Personally, I still struggle with huge feelings of inadquacy. I feel like I do everything wrong as an O Christian. Going to church is really hard for me...I am very undisciplined--yet I go. The Orthodox Church has saved my life--my husband and I were so dissillusioned and ready to stop going to church altogether--thank God for the EOC people. I have found life in the Church...I know that God loves me, finally. A slow learner, I am growing in this faith. I have a long ways to go.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to reading the rest of this thread...

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

Beautiful testimony, Prisca. Thank you for sharing that part of your life with us.

I hope God continues to bless you and your family.

 

[MariaRegina]

Wow, Prisca.

I had read the story Becoming Orthodox but Father Peter never mentioned what became of the EOC group that did not go with the Antiochians. I am so glad that they were finally brought into the OCA.

If I have misunderstood you, please correct me.

I came into Orthodoxy on Lazarus Saturday of 1996.

Thanks for your testimony.

 

[Prisca2006]

Wow, Prisca.

I had read the story Becoming Orthodox but Father Peter never mentioned what became of the EOC group that did not go with the Antiochians. I am so glad that they were finally brought into the OCA.

If I have misunderstood you, please correct me.

I came into Orthodoxy on Lazarus Saturday of 1996.

Thanks for your testimony.

Yes, after the original EOC group went into the Antiochion OC there were some remaining parishes left. When my husband and I were catachized (sp?), we were unaware of what "group" we were going into--we knew nothing of the canonical church at first--just that the EOC had had some issues trying to speak with different patriarchs about becoming canonical--that is a huge story in itself.

Thankfully, many of the leftover EOC parishes "saw the light" and joined the OCA church in 2001, yet there are still one or two EOC churches--I believe in Canada. There were a couple of EOC bishops that felt going into the canonical church was "wrong." I can't explain why they thought this--makes little sense to me.

I am VERY thankful for the EOC peeps--they brought the faith to many people who would have otherwise never heard the truth. Pretty cool people!

 

[Prisca2006]

Beautiful testimony, Prisca. Thank you for sharing that part of your life with us.

I hope God continues to bless you and your family.

Thank you! God bless you, too!

 

[Shubunkin]

I'm still reading the conversions stories. DonVA has a wonderful testimony!

Well, as of now, I have been to three Divine Liturgy services and two Matins. I will have to miss services tomorrow due to my severe head cold, and bronchitis (asthma) coughing my head off here. We will be leaving for vacation for a week, so I'll miss two Sundays in a row. I will be so happy when coming back! I will surely miss it all.

 

[Elizabethcynthia32]

Hi,

I just started posting today, I found you guys yesterday. I was baptized Orthodox right before Lent of this year. My husband and I found Orthodoxy when I dragged him on a tour of a local Greek Orthodox church here in our small town during a Greek Festival right before Lent last year. I knew that the Church had symbolism in the building and I love that kind of thing, my husband thought he was going to get in a nice little nap, ha,ha,ha!!! He ended up being just as interested in what the priest had to say as I was and on the way home, we were both quiet for a little while. Then, he spoke up, saying what I was thinking, that the priest had said a lot of things that made a lot of sense to him. We came home and agreed to try to find an English language Orthodox Church so that we could understand what was being said in the liturgy and stand in on a service. We found an OCA church an hour's drive away, e-mailed that priest, and he agreed to watch out for us. Since we are both redheads, that was easy for him. We attended for a few months before he asked us if we wanted to become catecumens. We happily agreed and right after, we found out that a "retired" priest in our area (less than an hour away) was going to form a mission church for the Carpatho-Russian diocese. He knew our priest and we got a blessing to become catecumens at the new mission. I'm thankful we did because this priest, Father Nicholas, has made Orthodoxy easy for us. A few weeks before our baptism, Fr. was out of town and there was no substitute priest, so we attended the Greek Church we had done the tour of and we understood the liturgy in Greek. The priest there was very happy that his tour had made us converts, so now we try to attend services at both churches.

That's my conversion story. I hope it's not too long and drawn out and I hope to meet new people and make new friends here.

Blessings,

Elizabeth, my baptismal name after St. Elizabeth the New Martyr

 

[KATHXOYMENOC]

Hi,

I just started posting today, I found you guys yesterday. I was baptized Orthodox right before Lent of this year. My husband and I found Orthodoxy when I dragged him on a tour of a local Greek Orthodox church here in our small town during a Greek Festival right before Lent last year. I knew that the Church had symbolism in the building and I love that kind of thing, my husband thought he was going to get in a nice little nap, ha,ha,ha!!! He ended up being just as interested in what the priest had to say as I was and on the way home, we were both quiet for a little while. Then, he spoke up, saying what I was thinking, that the priest had said a lot of things that made a lot of sense to him. We came home and agreed to try to find an English language Orthodox Church so that we could understand what was being said in the liturgy and stand in on a service. We found an OCA church an hour's drive away, e-mailed that priest, and he agreed to watch out for us. Since we are both redheads, that was easy for him. We attended for a few months before he asked us if we wanted to become catecumens. We happily agreed and right after, we found out that a "retired" priest in our area (less than an hour away) was going to form a mission church for the Carpatho-Russian diocese. He knew our priest and we got a blessing to become catecumens at the new mission. I'm thankful we did because this priest, Father Nicholas, has made Orthodoxy easy for us. A few weeks before our baptism, Fr. was out of town and there was no substitute priest, so we attended the Greek Church we had done the tour of and we understood the liturgy in Greek. The priest there was very happy that his tour had made us converts, so now we try to attend services at both churches.

That's my conversion story. I hope it's not too long and drawn out and I hope to meet new people and make new friends here.

Blessings,

Elizabeth, my baptismal name after St. Elizabeth the New Martyr

Welcome!

What was your background prior to Orthodoxy and how easy was it to change your viewpoint to an Orthodox one (assuming your past religious beliefs were different from Orthodoxy)?

 

[Elizabethcynthia32]

Welcome!

What was your background prior to Orthodoxy and how easy was it to change your viewpoint to an Orthodox one (assuming your past religious beliefs were different from Orthodoxy)?

My background is Baptist and Methodist. I grew up Baptist, well, sort of. My parents were nominal Baptists and they "sent" us to church on a church bus, never attending with us. Most of the family, though, on both sides, are Southern Baptists and some attended church and we got "preached" at by my great-grandma and my grandma all the time about things. However, I have an uncle who married an Italian girl and converted to Catholicism. So I didn't blaze the trail, he did, so it made it somewhat easier for me. Anyway, when I married my first husband, he was Methodist so that's where we went. I divorced him and my now husband and I attended a Methodist church for a while before discovering the Orthodox church. He comes from a Pentecostal background but his parents rarely attended or took him, so I think it was somewhat easier for him than for me. I was touched by what the priest said, but during my catecumen stage, I sort of wavered back and forth, but now I can say I "get it". I didn't understand icons or the Theotokos at first, but they sort of "grew" on me and I understand them now. I also went back and read the histories of the churches I had come from and after studying Orthodoxy, I found that the origins and teachings seemed "weird" to me and Orthodoxy was my true home. I also had a really good priest who was easy to talk to and very intelligent. He made it easier for me and also pointed out that some of the stuff I was reading wasn't so good. I got upset one time about birth control, for example, and assumed that it wasn't allowed at all, period. I didn't attend church for two weeks and my priest showed up to find out if I was okay. He said that with my health problems (I have blood sugar problems), it was okay for me and to ask him from now on. I've been asking him ever since.

Blessings,

Cynthia (Elizabeth)

 

[DonVA]

May God grant you Many Years, Cynthia!
Thanks for sharing that with us!

Now, go ahead and make yourself comfortable. We hope you'll be hangin' out with us for a long time!

 

[Teke]

Wow, some great stories I've been reading in here.
Now I feel compelled to post mine.

I wasn't raised in a religious family, by that I mean we didnt atttend a church. We all believed in God, but didn't talk about it. I did have some extended family members in other states that when we visited we went to church.

But I always believed in God. And I thought about Him moreso when I had children. I would pray for Him to keep them safe.
No one had ever told me about Gods Son, except an elderly lady who gave me a bible which I put on a shelf and didn't read.

A few more years passed, my children were very young at the time. And one day I found a tract with a few cartoons and some scripture.
The Father revealed His Son to me in this. Since no one was speaking to me about this, I didn't know what to do next.

But I had a dream which was about water. So I prayed for God to direct me. I found an elder Baptist preacher near my home, who explained to me that I needed to be baptised and I was.

From that point on I went to church and raised my children in church. There were no Orthodox churchs where I lived at that time, so I'd never heard of Orthodoxy.

Years passed and my children grew up and I now have grandchildren. I had studied about different theologies and church history and just knew that the churchs I had been to were not His Church.

So after about three years of intense study in scripture and other writings, along with my calling out (more hollering) on Sundays to God to show me His church.

One Sunday the Holy Spirit was working in that mysterious way as I was calling out to God, asking where was His Church He promised would be here (even hell could not prevail against it). I could not bring myself to attend anymore Protestant churchs at this point, and it had been a few years since attending any church.

When I sat down at my computer to do my usual daily bible study. I was looking at some scriptures online. When I read the words from Luke 10 on the Samaritan who helped the man who had fell to theives and the priests who passed him by.

The verses spoke volumes to me. I felt like that wounded man.

When I looked at the website, it was an Orthodox site. And I said to myself and the Holy Spirit, but there are no Orthodox churchs here. I wanted to be wrong, so I looked in the phone book, and lo and behold there was a small Orthodox church in my area.

I knew it was the end of my searching before I ever stepped into the church itself. If a wall of fire had been there for me to walk thru to get in, I would have went thru the fire without batting an eye.

I was chirsmated a couple years ago at Pascha, and have been completely fulfilled in the Lord since. It is a small church. But I thank God daily it is there and I found it.

I recall as others have mentioned, the smell of incense and the chanting of prayers and hymns in my mind all week long until the next divine liturgy. From my Protestant background of scripture study, it is as if the scriptures are alive and in action in Orthodoxy and their liturgy.

My bishop is a wonderful man
and I thank God daily for all the Orthodox who have kept the Lords Church in all its fullness.

 

[DonVA]

...and we thank God that you found it. Welcome home!
May God grant you many years!

 

[ClementofRome]

Thank you for sharing that Teke. My journey continues...

 

[TheGoodThief]

I discovered the Orthodox Church from the back side of a newpaper artical. Here is my families story. I was raised a Methodist and my wife was raised a Roman Catholic. We had attented both churches through out our marriage cuz, hey, I believe in God and it's all good, right?? We moved from Chicago to Northeast Ohio in 98. We settled with a UCC church that was convinced that all their problems were solved by fireing the pastor and choir director. I witnessed some nasty things in that building. I call it a building for obvious reasons. Oh, I forgot to mention that my home town Methodist church kicked me out while I was a student at the University of Iowa-(Go Hawks!)-because I stopped sending money. Silly college students! Once in college I never went to church anymore because my six-foot bong and Mr. Cuervo took that time slot. Um, that was an other life ago by the way. Anyhoo, my wife and I were looking for a Christian grade school as our kids were 6 and 5 at the time. My wife was givin an artical about a business she was in by a friend. Call it Devine Intervention, some how she looked at the back side of the artical, the title was about a brand new Christian school called Saint Nicholas Orthodox School. I could have cared less about it as long as it was Christian and not public. We enrolled the kids in fall of 2002. My wife told me about how she talked to the Priest and found the Orthodox Church "kinda interesting". I was the one that took the kids to school as it was just down the street from my office. The Headmaster invited me to come up to Hours after I had bombarded him with questions about the worship. My first impression when I walked into the sanctuary was, "what is up with all the dead people paintings and did I just see a grown man kiss one of the them?????" Strang days indeed. Hold on I'm outta room.

 

[TheGoodThief]

O.K. When I drilled the Priest again with question after question--Mary, Incense, yada yada,- I always came away with, "well that is what I have always thought too" Soon, I found that going toHours everyday was something of beauty not fully explained in this world. We were intvited down to a Parish in Canton Ohio called Holy Assumption for Vespers by one of the teachers. (who is now going to go to semenary and is my God Father) I told one of the other parents about it(she was also Protestant at the time), and her answer was, "is that the Parish that does not have any pues?" (sp) In my head I said, "what??" We got there and sure enough, not seats!!! Well a few on the sides. But guess what. It was Feb. 2004 at 6pm which means it,s dark outside. All the candles were lit and the Deacon was going around with the insence. Was I in heaven?? Ah...ya. Most beautiful thing I had seen in my life..Powerfull, Energy, Grace, Salvation!!! It took me about 2 minutes to understand that this was going to be the way I worshiped for the rest of my life. Ya my feet hurt, so did Christs at Calvary. I think I could deal with it. Hold on.

 

[gzt]

though i do sort of have a dwelling in IC these days, i must inform you that the proper phrase is, "go cyclones". hope that helps.

 

[TheGoodThief]

GZT, We'll C U in Sept at Kinnick. RIP Clones!!! I was recieved into the church as Dismas(the Thief who stole paradise) on Lazarus Saturday 2005 woth the rest of my family. I really went around about which name to choose. All the other Saints I could not relate to but because of my past, I could certainly relate to Dismas. Here is a guy that was the worst of the worst and who is symbolized by God's compassion and mercy!!! The heart of the Gospel I do declare. I always thought going through Catacuman class, If I were to die tomorrow what could I possilby say??? Check out Luke 23:42 for my answer. It wasn't until after Chrismation that I realized that it is in our Liturgy!!! OOppppss. The best gift of the Ancient Way for me is Hesychism. Without a doubt it is -bar none- the most difficult act I have ever attempted. When you come to know God in his Energy the evil one does not take to kindly to it. Watch and Prey my good bretheren. Watch and Prey. I came to this forum by a dear friend of mine--Reader Eusebius one of the forums moderators. The guy needs a serious hair cut but he can do a mean chant of Creation at Vespers!!! Sorry Don. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Dismas

 

[TheGoodThief]

though i do sort of have a dwelling in IC these days, i must inform you that the proper phrase is, "go cyclones". hope that helps.

hey gzt is there still an Orthodox Parish in I C?? I think it is on Iowa Ave??

 

[gzt]

yes, it's still there. they've been growing and want to move into a bigger place, but they're still in a basement on iowa ave. they're getting another priest soon, should be good.