Religious Backgrounds...

[svdbygrace]

What is your Religious background, if you have not always been Anglican?

(I was a Free Will Baptist, then a Non-denominational Christian...)

Christ's Peace! :crossrc:

[SeenAndUnseen]

I voted Anglican, but that's because my Anglican faith was the first faith I freely chose for myself, or was led to by God in a deeply personal way. My grandfather was a Baptist minister, but I didn't attend a Baptist church as a child and neither did my parents. My mother and father attended a Presbyterian church on and off throughout my young life, and I remember going there sometimes but I wasn't baptized until I was 20 years old -- in the Roman Catholic church after RCIA so that I could marry my Roman Catholic fiancee. I was given the tripple whammy: Baptism, Confirmation, and first Communion, all at once. RCIA with the nuns who travelled in to teach us was pretty weak; it didn't make the RC church seem any different than any other church, except in terms of a general superiority by virtue of its ability to trace its very foundations back to when Christ walked among us.
It was only later I started to learn what the differences in Roman Catholicism and other Christian beliefs were, actually. My husband confessed to being agnostic and quite attending Mass, but I half-heartedly continued going alone until shortly before my marriage ended -- and afterward I absolutely could not be dragged there. I understood that I had not really gone of my own free will, because I never would have gone had it not been for the marriage. I had made a very important choice for a wrong reason, and now that reason was no longer a part of my life, and Roman Catholicism was a cold thing I didn't really know.

A few years later, I was walking alone one evening in my neighborhood. I often walked this same route, passing this small but architecturally beautiful church numerous times without really paying it any attention, but this time it jumped out at me. I went around back into the garden and had a talk with God. Eventually I wandered inside for Sunday service, and I kept going, and kept going, and had my young son baptized there. It was an Episcopal church, and I fell in love. The faith was one I could fully embrace and experience in a way no others had for me. I was received in 1995 and I still belong to the same parish.

So that's a little more information than maybe you were asking for, but that's my background.

[masuwerte]

Cradle Episcopalian, here. :)

[UberLutheran]

Baptist (the Calvinist strain of it) and Church of Christ...

...and then I guess God intervened -- and look what happened! :D

[Arikereba]

I notice there's not an option for 'no religion'--I was raised agnostic.

[Fish and Bread]

I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition.

John

[alban]

Cradle Episcopalian, here. :)

Me too. :wave:

[Fish and Bread]

Why is it my display is currently showing percentage totals for the vote that add up to 120%? Do Christian Forum polls operate on the principles of the Yogi Berra school of applied mathematics? ;)

John

[Wigglesworth]

Why is it my display is currently showing percentage totals for the vote that add up to 120%? Do Christian Forum polls operate on the principles of the Yogi Berra school of applied mathematics? ;)

John

It's because each person can vote for more than one choice. The percentages listed are the percentage of voters choosing that particular denomination. To sum them would count some voters more than once.

[PaladinValer]

I was always influenced by orthodox, apostolic Christianity.

As I often say, I was Anglican even before I knew the church existed :)

[Bonifatius]

I was a Methodist (UMC)

[LiberatedChick]

My parents are atheists and I was raised with no religion. I started attending a Christian fellowship group at school because my friend wanted me to go along with her. I became a non-denominational Christian but strayed away into paganism a couple years later. During my time as a pagan I felt a constant tug back towards Christianity...eventually, I stopped ignoring that pull and came back.

[benedictine]

a mix of Baptist/ Methodist/Anglican.

[Zacharias]

From birth to 6 years of age I was Charismatic. From 6 to 17 years of age I was Charismatic Episcopal. Now I'm going to a Charismatic church, however I want to join an Apostolic Church again. :)

[Inside Edge]

Started out Roman Catholic, on to Baptist and Pentecostal, then Anglican.

[cenimo]

RCC, then an almost 20 year void...then a little of this, a little of that, then 7 years in a Methodist church, now about 5 in an Anglican one.

[Rev. Smith]

Like Seen and Unseen I choose "Other Catholic" (Old Catholic) because it is the one that I choose - I have been Catholic since boyhood (my first ordination, to Deacon was in the Roman Church) - but infalability and some other issues made it impossable to remain. So now I am at home and serving ina minstry that I never have to apologise for (except for the occasional bad sermon, but that's me - not the Union)

[thejesusfish90]

Started off anglican--that is i was raised in an anglican church, then for a year I went to the local Uniting (presbetyrian/methodist) Church, due to some difficulties i was having at my church, I did however return, and here I am today back at the church I began with... :)

[Mysterium_Fidei]

Mm.

I was baptized and raised Anglican by my mother who was recovering from Roman Catholicism after a divorce with my agnostic father. I have really always loved the Episcopal Church.

We drifted away for a few years, but always remained Episcopal. Then started to attend a Presbyterian Church with my grandparents. I first committed myself to Christianity there. Off an on I investigated Roman Catholicism, but was semi-fundamentalist after the Presbyterian thing so it turned me off. I -finally- did go through RCIA and was confirmed.

The Lord led me back to my old church where I am so, so, so, so happy to be a member.

The longest way round is the shortest way home.

[RedneckAnglican]

I was raised in the "Lutheran Church in America"...one of the bodies which later became the "Evangelical Lutheran Church in America"...I went to Bible Churches...then I was a United Methodist...Presbytarian...Southern Baptist...Episcopalian (although I considered myself a misplaced Anglican)...and now back where I started...ELCA...

[Colabomb]

Various Fundementalist Churches. I flirted with Modalism for a while (UPC), went to a charasmatic Church, found Anglicanism.

[AngCath]

i was raised and confirmed a Lutheran (Missouri Synod) before becoming an Episcopalian in High School

[Filia Mariae]

Mm.

I was baptized and raised Anglican by my mother who was recovering from Roman Catholicism after a divorce with my agnostic father. I have really always loved the Episcopal Church.


:sigh: Charming.

[CFoxDWH]

:sigh: Charming.

Don't be offended, that's just how a lot of Anglican converts feel.

I'm a recovering Baptist, by the way.

[svdbygrace]

Don't be offended, that's just how a lot of Anglican converts feel.

I'm a recovering Baptist, by the way.

Recovering Baptist? This description would also fit me (Lel, too!), however, we're not recovering, we're "growing" and learning! :)

[CFoxDWH]

Recovering Baptist? This description would also fit me (Lel, too!), however, we're not recovering, we're "growing" and learning! :)
Well, if you want to be all polite about it. :P

[pmcleanj]

Don't be offended, that's just how a lot of Anglican converts feel.

I'm a recovering Baptist, by the way.
Never mind the converts! I'm a recovering Anglican! I just decided to do my recovering in situ.

Okay, maybe "decided" is too strong. I just recognized that Anglicanism is like malaria -- once it's in your blood, the best you can hope for is a remission of symptoms. ;) That being the case, there didn't seem to be much point in trying to become something else -- especially since the symptoms were the part I liked!

Though as for that, we're all converts, really. No-one is born Christian. I didn't know what to put on poll, so I didn't vote: there wasn't a slot for raised secular Atheist. But even so I've been Anglican long enough to think of that as my "background", far more than the non-religion of my childhood.

[Paladin_Mark]

Anglican - My Dads an Anglican Team Rector :P

[svdbygrace]

Well, if you want to be all polite about it. :P

It's nice to be polite (i'm still trying to recover btw! ;) )

[Inge87]

Anglican, then two years of Church of Christ, now Anglican again!

[Mysterium_Fidei]

Never mind the converts! I'm a recovering Anglican! I just decided to do my recovering in situ.

Okay, maybe "decided" is too strong. I just recognized that Anglicanism is like malaria -- once it's in your blood, the best you can hope for is a remission of symptoms. ;) That being the case, there didn't seem to be much point in trying to become something else -- especially since the symptoms were the part I liked!

Though as for that, we're all converts, really. No-one is born Christian. I didn't know what to put on poll, so I didn't vote: there wasn't a slot for raised secular Atheist. But even so I've been Anglican long enough to think of that as my "background", far more than the non-religion of my childhood.



:thumbsup:

[oakraven65]

Coming from Evangelical Pentecostal church, after some years of recovering in a baptist church I have found my way in Episcopal church.