Mick116
21st September 2005, 08:24 PM
I have already posted this in response to a specific question on the Baptist/Anabaptist board, but I thought some here might be interested too.
Here is my story, in brief (well, kind of brief). I first found Christ (or, should I say, Christ found me) in the context of a teenage youth group at a local brethren assembly. Up until that point, while I would have considered myself a Christian, I had had very minimal contact with any church of any persuasion (although my mother is a Christian, my father is almost an atheist, and I was not really encouraged to attend church as a child). How I started attending church in 1997 as a teenager was the common, but not exactly profound, "because I was brought by my girlfriend". Over the next four or five years my foundation in the Christian faith was established, and I am thankful to this day that this occurred in the context of such a committed, Christ-centred community (which I probably value more now, than I even did at the time).
My journey towards orthodoxy began near the end of 2001. A number of personal events coincided, forcing me to question certain assumptions I had been holding in regard to my faith. First and foremost of these was my belief that the Bible was the "word of God". I had used this phrase so many times in the past, but I began to realise that I did not exactly know why I held to this belief.
I began looking into a few other religions and denominations, mostly to get a better picture of what others believed. I soon realised that there were about as many seemingly "valid" interpretations of the scriptures among Bible-believing Protestants as there were Protestants. This discouraged me, and I began questioning the validity of "sola scriptura". How can the Bible be the sole foundation of our faith, if nobody can agree on what the Bible says? I had also reached a critical point in my university studies in science, sufficient that I began doubting the authority and reliability of the scriptures.
It was at this point that I "discovered" Eastern Orthodoxy. I can't remember the website, but I remember reading a very good Orthodox interpretation of the early Church, including the context in which the scriptures were written and chosen, and the importance of tradition in the life of early Christians. I also began reading the early Church fathers, and started a dialogue with the university chaplain, who is a devout Roman Catholic convert from Anglicanism.
I remember my first visit to an Orthodox church clearly. It was a Greek Orthodox parish, which held English services on Saturday night, and the first thing I was confronted with was a group of clergy in black robes, standing near the entrance of the building (I was later informed that this included the GO Archbishop of Australia, who was paying his annual visit to the parish - I managed to pick an interesting evening for my first visit).
Upon entering the church, I was overwhelmed by the colourful icons, burning candles, fragrant incense, and the sung liturgy. Coming from a non-liturgical, non-ritualistic, iconoclastic evangelical brethren assembly that did not even recognize an official pastor or feature a cross on the wall, this experience was a sharp learning curve. In time I would begin to understand that worship of God need not only involve the mind, but can include the emotions and all the senses - sight, sound, smell... in other words, that worship can be beautiful.
I began dialogue with two people from this parish, including an Orthodox monk, and a recent convert from a non-Christian home (his very red hair stood in stark contrast to the predominantly Greek congregation). At this point I was not quite ready for conversion to Orthodoxy, for two reasons: 1. The seemingly exclusive position of the Orthodox Church (that theirs is the true Christian Church, all other denominations are lacking), and 2. my quite heavy involvement with the evangelical, interdenominational Campus Crusade for Christ (called Student Life here in Australia).
After a year of visiting this GO parish, reading the testimonies of converts who had been asking the same questions as I had been, studying the Church fathers, and realising that the church is built upon more than what the apostles wrote down, as well as seeking clarity on some of the doctrines that still troubled me (including the prominence of Mary and the "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist), I thought I was alomst ready to convert to Orthodoxy.
At this time, early 2003, I met my wife, and she was not at all interested in Orthodoxy. For the sake of our relationship, and the desire to worship together, we compromised. She had an Anglican upbringing, and I was not at all opposed to attending an orthodox Anglo-Catholic parish, and so we began attending an Anglican church of the conservative catholic variety. We are both very happy with this choice, and I am currently studying theology, with the possibility of ordination as a deacon afterwards.
Blessings,
Michael
Here is my story, in brief (well, kind of brief). I first found Christ (or, should I say, Christ found me) in the context of a teenage youth group at a local brethren assembly. Up until that point, while I would have considered myself a Christian, I had had very minimal contact with any church of any persuasion (although my mother is a Christian, my father is almost an atheist, and I was not really encouraged to attend church as a child). How I started attending church in 1997 as a teenager was the common, but not exactly profound, "because I was brought by my girlfriend". Over the next four or five years my foundation in the Christian faith was established, and I am thankful to this day that this occurred in the context of such a committed, Christ-centred community (which I probably value more now, than I even did at the time).
My journey towards orthodoxy began near the end of 2001. A number of personal events coincided, forcing me to question certain assumptions I had been holding in regard to my faith. First and foremost of these was my belief that the Bible was the "word of God". I had used this phrase so many times in the past, but I began to realise that I did not exactly know why I held to this belief.
I began looking into a few other religions and denominations, mostly to get a better picture of what others believed. I soon realised that there were about as many seemingly "valid" interpretations of the scriptures among Bible-believing Protestants as there were Protestants. This discouraged me, and I began questioning the validity of "sola scriptura". How can the Bible be the sole foundation of our faith, if nobody can agree on what the Bible says? I had also reached a critical point in my university studies in science, sufficient that I began doubting the authority and reliability of the scriptures.
It was at this point that I "discovered" Eastern Orthodoxy. I can't remember the website, but I remember reading a very good Orthodox interpretation of the early Church, including the context in which the scriptures were written and chosen, and the importance of tradition in the life of early Christians. I also began reading the early Church fathers, and started a dialogue with the university chaplain, who is a devout Roman Catholic convert from Anglicanism.
I remember my first visit to an Orthodox church clearly. It was a Greek Orthodox parish, which held English services on Saturday night, and the first thing I was confronted with was a group of clergy in black robes, standing near the entrance of the building (I was later informed that this included the GO Archbishop of Australia, who was paying his annual visit to the parish - I managed to pick an interesting evening for my first visit).
Upon entering the church, I was overwhelmed by the colourful icons, burning candles, fragrant incense, and the sung liturgy. Coming from a non-liturgical, non-ritualistic, iconoclastic evangelical brethren assembly that did not even recognize an official pastor or feature a cross on the wall, this experience was a sharp learning curve. In time I would begin to understand that worship of God need not only involve the mind, but can include the emotions and all the senses - sight, sound, smell... in other words, that worship can be beautiful.
I began dialogue with two people from this parish, including an Orthodox monk, and a recent convert from a non-Christian home (his very red hair stood in stark contrast to the predominantly Greek congregation). At this point I was not quite ready for conversion to Orthodoxy, for two reasons: 1. The seemingly exclusive position of the Orthodox Church (that theirs is the true Christian Church, all other denominations are lacking), and 2. my quite heavy involvement with the evangelical, interdenominational Campus Crusade for Christ (called Student Life here in Australia).
After a year of visiting this GO parish, reading the testimonies of converts who had been asking the same questions as I had been, studying the Church fathers, and realising that the church is built upon more than what the apostles wrote down, as well as seeking clarity on some of the doctrines that still troubled me (including the prominence of Mary and the "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist), I thought I was alomst ready to convert to Orthodoxy.
At this time, early 2003, I met my wife, and she was not at all interested in Orthodoxy. For the sake of our relationship, and the desire to worship together, we compromised. She had an Anglican upbringing, and I was not at all opposed to attending an orthodox Anglo-Catholic parish, and so we began attending an Anglican church of the conservative catholic variety. We are both very happy with this choice, and I am currently studying theology, with the possibility of ordination as a deacon afterwards.
Blessings,
Michael