Conversions to Orthodoxy

[Melista]

praise God! just pray as you come home to the Church.

Thank you! Will do. I’ve been trying to pray without ceasing.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Thank you! Will do. I’ve been trying to pray without ceasing.

no problem!

 

[Melista]

It was a beautiful day beyond words being Baptized and Chrismated into the Orthodox Church with my husband. I’m at a loss for words but want to thank everyone here who has helped me since early 2021 when I joined as Melily. I know that online interaction is no substitute for real life experience and relationships but I still feel this forum has been a great help and blessing on my journey to Orthodoxy so I wanted to express my gratitude.

 

[ArmyMatt]

It was a beautiful day beyond words being Baptized and Chrismated into the Orthodox Church with my husband. I’m at a loss for words but want to thank everyone here who has helped me since early 2021 when I joined as Melily. I know that online interaction is no substitute for real life experience and relationships but I still feel this forum has been a great help and blessing on my journey to Orthodoxy so I wanted to express my gratitude.

welcome home!

 

[Melista]

welcome home!

Thank you Father.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Thank you Father.

you’re welcome

 

[prodromos]

It was a beautiful day beyond words being Baptized and Chrismated into the Orthodox Church with my husband. I’m at a loss for words but want to thank everyone here who has helped me since early 2021 when I joined as Melily. I know that online interaction is no substitute for real life experience and relationships but I still feel this forum has been a great help and blessing on my journey to Orthodoxy so I wanted to express my gratitude.

I think this forum is pretty unique in terms of representing Orthodoxy on the Internet. There are a couple of "Orthodox only" forums that I would never recommend to inquirers.

 

[Lukaris]

It was a beautiful day beyond words being Baptized and Chrismated into the Orthodox Church with my husband. I’m at a loss for words but want to thank everyone here who has helped me since early 2021 when I joined as Melily. I know that online interaction is no substitute for real life experience and relationships but I still feel this forum has been a great help and blessing on my journey to Orthodoxy so I wanted to express my gratitude.

God grant you many years.

 

[Melista]

God grant you many years.

Thank you so much. I do feel more peace in my heart.

 

[Makrina]

I made a YouTube video about my conversion from Atheism to Catholicism and finally to Orthodoxy. Here it is if you want to watch it. Pardon the video quality, I have a cheap camera:

 

[BNR32FAN]

Most, if not all of us here are converts. It seems we are from different backgrounds, different regions, different countries. But our lives have all converged on one point: our being Orthodox Christians.

So, how did you get to be here?

My story's a little unusual, but I'll post mine later. First I want to hear stories from others. Come on, don't be shy.

(If The Powers That Be want to make this a sticky so that it'll be available for visitors' perusal, that's fine. )

Im not officially an Orthodox member but I do hold many of their doctrines and teachings in the highest regard. If I may be permitted I would like to share why I hold the EOC in such high regards.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I made a YouTube video about my conversion from Atheism to Catholicism and finally to Orthodoxy. Here it is if you want to watch it. Pardon the video quality, I have a cheap camera:

will give this a look, thanks!

 

[ArmyMatt]

Im not officially an Orthodox member but I do hold many of their doctrines and teachings in the highest regard. If I may be permitted I would like to share why I hold the EOC in such high regards.

sure, that might be something for the main forum though. just keeping with the rules.

 

[Melista]

I made a YouTube video about my conversion from Atheism to Catholicism and finally to Orthodoxy. Here it is if you want to watch it. Pardon the video quality, I have a cheap camera:

I really enjoyed listening to your story! Thank you.

 

[archer75]

Don't think anyone here needs to hear this, but here it is.

I got interested in Christianity during a time of great fear and misery. I read a lot of starter information online, mostly about the Anglican Communion, the RCC, and the Orthodox Church.

Everything seemed kind of inaccessible. To be Anglican you had to know what evensong was, to be Catholic you had know a bunch of stuff that seemed familiar but alien, and to be Orthodox you seemed to have to know a bunch of stuff that seemed very familiar and very alien. (I'm joking about the evensong, for the record, this is not a dig at anyone. I was attracted to the idea of an English church, but...as always, it seemed like there was a shocking amount to know. Just an effect of the Internet, I suppose.)

I bumbled around for a couple years. Went to Anglican services (still grateful to the clergy who served there to very small groups), went to a couple RC services. Finally made it to an EO service. Spoke to no one, but strangely, I remember feeling very at home.

Honestly, I think I was not that well catechized before being received, although I guess a lot of infants might say the same thing. Seriously, that was no one's fault but mine.

I'm still not good at it. I still hope to get better.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I'm still not good at it. I still hope to get better.

same here

 

[Uriah S]

I bumbled around for a couple years.

I'm still bumbling. But I think I know where I'll end up. Still not made Orthodoxy official, but every time I encounter it, it feels like home.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I'm still bumbling. But I think I know where I'll end up. Still not made Orthodoxy official, but every time I encounter it, it feels like home.

praise God! keep us in the loop!

 

[Uriah S]

keep us in the loop!

Update: I've known for a while I was headed into Orthodoxy. Back around Pascha, in discussion with the Fathers at Church, we decided it best to let my responsibilities to my local protestant church lapse naturally. Life got busy over the Summer and didn't let me make the 4-hour journey to Church. Now being free of those responsibilities, it spurred me to make the effort a few weeks ago and arrange a proper visit for last weekend, coincidentally there was a baptism. Once again the Spirit showed his hand has been all over my journey.

I thought I was enquiring about formally becoming a catuchemen. And I guess I am one now, but not for long. I'll be chrismated in the middle of next month! So this hasn't been a nice tidy Conversion story in one post, but it is a Conversion story.

It might take me a while to learn to write 30 paragraphs where 3 will do, but to summarize my journey - the Spirit kept leading me into Orthodox churches until one time I got to where I didn't have language barriers. Talking to the Fathers, I wasn't being told new things but having misconceptions corrected, and realizing the things I was uneasy about in protestant churches were things Orthodoxy has been getting right all along. My biggest obstacle was the status of Mary, but I'm sure I'm not the first with that. The bottom line for me is that in order to be truly free in Christ, I need to be grounded in Christ, which Orthodoxy (particularly the Liturgy) does for me. I said it somewhere here already, Orthodoxy is built on solid rock.

Thanks for reading.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Update: I've known for a while I was headed into Orthodoxy. Back around Pascha, in discussion with the Fathers at Church, we decided it best to let my responsibilities to my local protestant church lapse naturally. Life got busy over the Summer and didn't let me make the 4-hour journey to Church. Now being free of those responsibilities, it spurred me to make the effort a few weeks ago and arrange a proper visit for last weekend, coincidentally there was a baptism. Once again the Spirit showed his hand has been all over my journey.

I thought I was enquiring about formally becoming a catuchemen. And I guess I am one now, but not for long. I'll be chrismated in the middle of next month! So this hasn't been a nice tidy Conversion story in one post, but it is a Conversion story.

It might take me a while to learn to write 30 paragraphs where 3 will do, but to summarize my journey - the Spirit kept leading me into Orthodox churches until one time I got to where I didn't have language barriers. Talking to the Fathers, I wasn't being told new things but having misconceptions corrected, and realizing the things I was uneasy about in protestant churches were things Orthodoxy has been getting right all along. My biggest obstacle was the status of Mary, but I'm sure I'm not the first with that. The bottom line for me is that in order to be truly free in Christ, I need to be grounded in Christ, which Orthodoxy (particularly the Liturgy) does for me. I said it somewhere here already, Orthodoxy is built on solid rock.

Thanks for reading.

praise God!