How did you get here?

[Mary of Bethany]

I just read an interesting article in The New Republic entitled "Evangelicals Turn Toward . . . the Orthodox Church?" The subject, obviously is about evangelicals converting to Orthodoxy, but it brought up this question in my mind. I also know that many evangelicals (like myself) have turned to Rome and to Canterbury, and the reasons are usually very much the same as for those turning to Constantinople.

So what's your story? If you weren't "born into" an Apostolic Church, what led you to where you are now, and how many turns did it take to get here?

Let's not debate in this thread - just share our stories, please.



Mary

 

[Mary of Bethany]

I'll go ahead and share mine.

I was brought up Southern Baptist and remained an active and dedicated member until my late 30s. I really wasn't dissatisfied with the theology or anything (that I realized, yet) but I was getting very dissatisfied with the type of worship. I knew enough about other churches to know that there was beauty, and Liturgy, but I didn't know why we SBs didn't worship that way. So I started reading up on how all the different denominations worshipped, and what they believed. (It took me awhile to understand that our worship is actually formed by our theology - I didn't understand that at first.) I really thought I wanted to keep SB theology, but with better worship.

I picked up a book with an intriguing title of "Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail" by the late Dr. Robert Webber. This was about 1985, I think. I felt a real connection with what he was saying, and I knew I would love the liturgical worship he was describing, but I didn't fully understand what he was saying about sacraments, and why they were important, and real. A couple of years went by, and I read this book a few times, as well as some others, and finally the light bulb went on - I understood Sacraments - how God has always used created elements of this earth as means of His Grace, and that these Sacraments are for our growth in Him! Major turning point, of course! I knew I could no longer stay in the SBC, which denies all Sacraments. This took place in 1991.

So began my ten years of life as an Anglo-Catholic, soaking up the BCP, the prayers, the liturgy, the incense, the bells, the EUCHARIST! Oh my, I felt as though I'd been given a huge gift that had been withheld from me all those years. Learning the catholic faith was just an amazing eye opener. One of the biggest things was beginning to learn about the Ancient Church - realizing that there was no disconnect between the church today and the church of the NT was a big surprise after growing up in a church that taught that "real" Christianity just sort of skipped from the NT to after the Reformation.

So of course I couldn't read enough about the early church and I read books about English church history, western church history in general, and Roman Catholic specifically, and then eventually I came across Orthodoxy, which I had known next-to-nothing about. The more I read about Orthodoxy, and was exposed to it through some fellow Anglicans, the more I was drawn to it. The first time I attended an Orthodox service (it was a Vespers service), I knew I wouldn't be satisfied anywhere else. That was probably in 1997, and it took until Holy Saturday of 2001 to be Chrismated into the Church, but I never looked back once I got that first experience. "Taste and see that the Lord is good."

Mary

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

I was an Arminian dispensationalist born into a nondenominational family.

I met a high church LCMS pastor in my freshman year of college who taught my history of philosophy class. He basically used the class to explain why traditional forms of Christianity were philosophically tenable while evangelicalism wasn't. I really had to wrestle with things- were was a Protestant, fully devoted to biblical inerrancy and Sola Scriptura, arguing for what sounded like terrible, horrible Catholicism. It took me awhile to accept things, like, there is no 'blanket of grace' for people under an 'age of accountability' in Scripture, or that you can't really get around the real presence.

After becoming Lutheran, the following January I did an independent study with him on the incarnation of Christ and its implications for the goodness of physical matter. It was there we took the journey together into the works of Toumo Manermaa, who has worked tirelessly in showing that unity with the divine nature, theosis, is not only biblical but Lutheran position (he had previously been a member of the Reformed tradition).

Very inspiring man.

 

[Secundulus]

I posted this in the Anglican forum a few weeks ago. But for anyone who didn't see it there:

I was baptised into the Episcopal Church soon after I was born in 1959. After I was about five or so my family became inactive in the Church.

I knew I was Christian and believed in God, but really didn't know anything beyond that.

Until 1988 I went to Church occasionally, a couple of times a year.

Around 1988 because of my ignorance about Christianity, I fell in with the Mormons. I stayed with them about two years until what they were teaching me became too incredulous. I never really believed the Book of Mormon, but when they told me I was going to be a God I quit. Even with what little Christian knowledge I had, I knew that sounded wrong.

After that I began to actually read the Bible and for a few years became a fundamentalist. I went to General Protestant services in a Military Chapel. Later, I toyed with the idea of becoming a Roman Catholic and went to their adult classes for a few months. But for some reason that never really seemed right. Then I joined a Seventh Day Adventist Church in Panama.

Finally, in 1997 I moved where I am now and rejoined the Anglican Church in the Continuum using the 1928 prayer book I remembered from my earliest days. Since then, I experienced what might be described as The Dark Night of the Soul in 1994 and did everything I could to become a Pagan and then a Gnostic. Fortunately, God brought me to my senses and left me with no doubt as to his truth in Christ.

Since then I returned to my Anglican Church and am back to being a lay reader and have recently begun theological studies in the hopes of becoming a postulant next year.

 

[zhilan]

I was an Arminian dispensationalist born into a nondenominational family.

I met a high church LCMS pastor in my freshman year of college who taught my history of philosophy class. He basically used the class to explain why traditional forms of Christianity were philosophically tenable while evangelicalism wasn't. I really had to wrestle with things- were was a Protestant, fully devoted to biblical inerrancy and Sola Scriptura, arguing for what sounded like terrible, horrible Catholicism. It took me awhile to accept things, like, there is no 'blanket of grace' for people under an 'age of accountability' in Scripture, or that you can't really get around the real presence.

After becoming Lutheran, the following January I did an independent study with him on the incarnation of Christ and its implications for the goodness of physical matter. It was there we took the journey together into the works of Toumo Manermaa, who has worked tirelessly in showing that unity with the divine nature, theosis, is not only biblical but Lutheran position (he had previously been a member of the Reformed tradition).

Very inspiring man.

Hey that sounds like a really interesting class / professor. I'd love to hear more.

 

[No Swansong]

My story is simple. I was one of those super, uber Catholic converts as a teenager. I taught CCD, was on the RCIA team, made TEC about a dozen times, became a third order Salesian. Then as a high school student I left Roman Catholicism immediately for good. The reason is not important and I did not sue the Diocese as it would have implicated other victims that did not want to be exposed. I went into Fundamentalism and then eventually the Anglican Church. As I missed living a sacramental life. I am one of those few Fundamentalists that you will ever meet within Anglicanism. I did approach the Greek Orthodox in my city but they made it clear I was not really wanted, and I thought about returning to Rome but the Bishop at the time was more concerned that I was interested in suing the Diocese than he was interested in trying to help me heal. (The person responsible no longer acts as a priest and spent time in jail.) I never came forward and it was never my intention to. I only went to the Bishop to let him know of my pain and my desire to possibly reconcile with the Church. Imagine my surprise when he started speaking of non-disclosure statements etc. I politely left and never returned.

 

[searcher1]

In my case my Mother and my Father's Mother were both Catholic so I have always felt a connection to Catholicism. My parents were married in a Catholic church but lived far enough away that they ended up going to my Dads Lutheran church. I was baptized and confirmed Lutheran but I was also taught about Catholicism by my Mother even though she went to my Dads Lutheran Church. I guess as far back as I can remember I always felt something was missing in being Lutheran and as I got older I realized what was missing from Lutheranism is the fact that it was actually the Catholic faith modified to fit Luther.I believe that the Catholic faith has held firm to its foundation and does not give up its values.