Why did I become an Orthodox Christian? (Testimonies)

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How to Become Orthodox

by Timothy Copple

 

I get asked frequently what are the steps to enter the Orthodox Church. Does one need to be baptized? What classes will I need to attend? And so on. So I decided it would be best to write an article on this subject, since there is so much interest in how we approach this.

First, it is important to realize the role of Tradition in the Church. Why, because what Tradition is, at its heart, is the

discipleship mode of communicating the faith that Jesus started when, instead of writing a book, he gathered around him twelve men who He poured out His life into. Notice I said not teachings. He didn't have classes, but he taught them how to live through the experiences as well as the teachings, most often in the parable form.

The reason I bring this up is because so often in our society when we think of becoming a part of something, we think in terms of maybe going through some classes, and then at the end some ceremony that makes one part of the Church. While there may be some format that resembles such a series of events, it is inaccurate to then think that there is then a step 1, a step 2, a step 3, and then you're in. In reality, coming into the Orthodox Church is a personal experience. No one conversion is like another. No one person needs exactly the same format. As Jesus tailored His message to the person, so Orthodoxy doesn't have a "one size fits all" approach to what is needed for each person to become Orthodox. Rather, it is a discipleship, a passing down of Tradition, of how the soul is healed in Christ, and the life that fosters that healing in the person.

It is also a misunderstanding that becoming Orthodox means you're "in," and so having checked off that box, you can focus on other things in your life. No, Orthodoxy is if anything, a way of life. It is a commitment to Christ Himself to follow Him.

Most of the Church Fathers put baptism and entering the Church as analogous to getting married to Christ. It is that much of a commitment. Even more if one compares it to today's standards of what it means to be married. It is the means whereby we become one with God, though Jesus, as he prayed we would be in John 17. We aren't just learning about God, we are growing into unity with Him.

With the above understanding, here are the general steps or stages one will go through in entering the Orthodox Church.

The first thing a person needs to do to enter the Orthodox Church is to find a parish and let a priest know of your interest and desire in this regard. What if there is no Orthodox Church in reasonable driving distance where you live? Then locate the closest ones, and contact the priest there. He will be able to give you guidance, maybe even make the trip to visit you. In any event, this requires personal contact. It can't be done without that one-on-one discipleship in the Tradition of the Church.

In most parishes, the priest will have what are called "catechumen classes." A catechumen is one who is a learner, seeking to enter the Church. The time period for these varied at different times in the history of the Church. In St. John Chrysostom day, they would start about a week before baptism, but the classes would continue well on past baptism, often for a good year or two. Back in those days, there were some things they didn't discuss until one had entered the Church, and the concept was also present that once in, there had to be a period of discipleship that guided the new Christian in learning the Christian life.

Today, the time period tends to be longer prior to baptism. In our culture where there are so many beliefs about Christianity, some good, some not, many inquirers need to work through those before they can say with confidence, "Yes, I want to be married to Christ as an Orthodox Christian." Just as one will first date a potential marriage partner,

and at some point you decide you want to get married, so there is a proposal, acceptance, and then another period of being "engaged," or what traditionally would have been a betrothal (some differences, but we won't get into that here), then after a period of time, the couple would get married. So too the inquirer, catechumen, and then entry into the Church correspond to those periods. Indeed, there are prayers many priest will pray to make one a catechumen. Like my wife and I, we were engaged to be married a year and a half before the event took place. It varies between couples. So these periods of inquirer and catechumen can vary in length as well, depending on the individual situation, where the person is coming from, what needs to be unlearned as well as learned, and so forth.

It should be clear that no one set of classes can substitute for this discipleship process by a priest. No Internet program, articles, or podcast can take the place of the one-on-one training of a priest or other Orthodox person blessed to help guide others into the faith. So the first step is to find that Orthodox community where one can gain that type of guidance and help in becoming Orthodox.

At a time agreed upon by the person and the parish priest, possibly with input from the bishop if needed, the person inquiring into Orthodox would become "betrothed" by becoming a catechumen. And again, when both you and the priest felt the time was right, you would enter the Orthodox Church fully, and continue to grow from there.

As one approaches entry into the Church, there are usually two people that are selected, either by the priest or with his help and approval. One will be the catechumen's sponsor or godparent. This is a person already in the Church who will do two things: vouch for you as you enter Orthodox by standing by your side and guiding you through the process, and continue to act as a mentor and helper as well as praying regularly for you. Again, this is part of the discipleship process. We have on our site a good article by Sub-deacon Thomas Wilson on the subject of being godparent.

One will usually decide on a patron saint as well. Many people already have names associated with saints of the Church. It is best if this is true, to pick one from them. But with the guidance of your priest, you can pick a different saint from your given birth name. But if your given name is the same as saints in the Church, it will simplify things to keep it the same. This is an area where your priest will be of help in your selection.

One of the big questions I receive from inquirers is on whether they're former baptism will suffice or will they need to be baptized when coming into the Church.

Without getting into the heated debates, let me say that this is an area of some contention in Orthodoxy. You will find some that claim everyone has to be baptized. In other places, they won't let you be baptized if you have a former baptism that meets their requirements. The bottom line is that what will be required depends upon the parish in which you chose to enter Orthodoxy through.

With that said, there is much agreement on the following. One, most agree that there are times and circumstances that would justify being brought into the Church using the catechumen's former baptism. Most of the disagreements revolve around when those circumstances would justify it, rather than the validity of being brought in that way, and in some cases, the theology behind it. There are some more "radical" groups who would say one can never be brought in without baptism, as there are on the other side saying that few, if any, should be brought in that way if they have had a "Christian" baptism.

It is not my purpose here to get into the theological debates about these, only to give you, the inquirer, a heads up that they are out there, and why the answer to this question depends a lot on which parish you enter into Orthodoxy by. That said, there is near universal agreement that if one is brought into the Church without a baptism, going through Christmation (being sealed with the Holy Spirit by oil sanctified and reserved for this purpose), that one is Orthodox and will be able to take the Eucharist in the various parishes in communion with each other, no matter the jurisdiction. Aside from some "radical" groups, one's Orthodoxy would not generally be questioned, even by those who may feel that you should have been brought in via baptism.

This would be a subject for further discussion with one's priest. He can guide you to an understanding of what is needed in your specific situation in conformity with the bishop's requirements in that regard, again, going back to what we've said before. The priest takes on the responsibility to guide you to the fullness of the faith. Allow him to do that.

At this point, the priest will set a date for your entry into the Church. There are plenty of text and resources you can find that will detail out the order of that service. It is a joyful time, as much if not more so than any marriage made on earth. For not only do we rejoice, the Scriptures tell us that the angels rejoice as well. This article is oriented to giving you a basic understanding of what needs to happen to arrive at this point. I pray that it has aided people in that goal.

 

Source: http://www.orthodoxconvert.info/Q-A.php?c=Piety-How%20To%20Become%20Orthodox

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Becoming Orthodox – From Good To Best

by The Hansen Family

 

The church has always been the center of the life that Carolyn and I have lived. We were both raised in nominally Christian homes but rejected the church in our teen years…

 

 

After flirting with godlessness, we both became Christian in our 20’s at one of Seattle’s growing mega-churches. We met at a single’s bible study, married a year later, had our first child a year after that and then headed out for Bible College.

We spent the next ten years headed toward and living on the mission field. I completed Bible College while Carolyn raised kids. I pastored a small church and then served on the staff of several large and growing churches. After five years of preparation and fund raising, we moved to Istanbul, Turkey where we learned the language and did further preparation for our final target—Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Tashkent is the key to Central Asia and the

capital city of the Uzbek people. As Tashkent went, so would go much of the 50 million unevangelized Muslims of Central Asia.

We arrived in Tashkent one year after the Berlin wall fell, just as the Soviet Union was breaking up. We were among the very first western missionaries to live in Tashkent in almost 100 years.

Carolyn’s health deteriorated in Tashkent and we eventually moved back to the States. Someone gave me a book to read on the long flight home—Becoming Orthodox by Peter Gillquist. On the face of it, the book seemed a crazy story. A bunch of Campus Crusade families had become Eastern Orthodox as a result of studying church history. Much of Gillquist’s persuasion left me cold, but one thing stuck.

 

Gillquist challenged his readers to read the accounts of the early church fathers and compare the church they found there with the church in which they

worshipped on Sunday morning. He said that an honest reader would find the church of the martyrs much more like an Eastern Orthodox Church and very much not like an American Evangelical church.

I took him up on the challenge.

Of course, Gillquist turned out to be right. During its first 300 years, the church turned out thousands of martyrs, conquered the Roman Empire from within and wrote extensively about her beliefs and practices. It is a church whose doctrines are confirmed by her history and made unassailable by her martyrs.

How can a comfortable twentieth century Christian tell a third century martyr that his way of doing church is wrong? And the way the Christians did church in the age of the martyrs was distinctly Eastern Orthodox. These Christians had authoritative, hierarchal church organizations.

They worshipped in a liturgical way and they were willing to give their lives for the real, sacramental presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.

The Eastern Orthodox Church claimed to be that same church of the martyrs, only grown and matured by the passage of time. In the same way that I am my parents’ baby boy grown to manhood, the Eastern Church claimed to be the church born of the Apostles, nurtured by the martyrs, trained by the ecumenical councils and grown to maturity by years of perseverance.

I was fascinated and horrified both. If I really had stumbled onto the church as given to us by the Apostles, that would be an amazing gift from a merciful God. On the other hand, if the Orthodox Church was what it claimed to be, that would mean a tectonic shift in our life and family. I loved being a missionary. The church was the center of our family—it was the rock upon which our marriage was built.

If the Orthodox were right, we would have to change everything that mattered in our lives: faith, church, marriage, family, friendships and career.

The summary is that through a yearlong struggle, we managed to do just that. At times, Carolyn was sure that our marriage and family were going to break up. At times, we were all put off by the sheer Catholic-ness of the Orthodox Church. (If there is a foundational principal of popular Evangelical theology, it is that all things Catholic are wrong.) We had a tough time coming to grips with Mary. It took us a long time to appreciate the liturgy. Confession was terrifying and exhilarating. In addition to questions of faith and family, I had to find a new line of work.

Ten years after the fact, our family is solidly Orthodox. The kids were part of the journey and choosing to become Orthodox is a significant chapter in their growth from childhood to adolescence. Carolyn and I are growing in the love of our youth. Carolyn is missing a lobe of her lung—the sickness that brought us back from Tashkent turned out to be lung cancer—but the doctors say all the cancer is removed. As it has been for our entire married life, the church is very much the center of our life.

One last thing needs to be said. Many of our old Evangelical friends have great difficulty understanding our move to the Orthodox Church. They see the change as a rejection of the church that sent us to Tashkent and the friendships and prayers that sustained us there. That reaction is understandable but it is very different from our own view. We think of ourselves as having been given a chance to move from good to better. The Evangelical church is certainly a means of God’s grace.

But our conclusion is that the Orthodox Church is more so. We do not think of ourselves as having moved away from the church so much as having moved to her core. If the cross of Christ is surrounded by concentric circles, then we have moved from a good circle to a better, and even closer circle. It makes sense that our change is hard to understand, but we very much appreciate the many Evangelical Christians that nurtured and prayed for us for many years.

To all of you we say “Thank You” and invite you to take a closer look at historical Christianity in the Eastern Orthodox tradition.

 

Source: http://journeytoorthodoxy.com/2010/06/25/becoming-orthodox-a-journey-from-good-to-best/

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Robert, Karim, Natalya, Ekatarina

 

 

ROBERT MORSE

Robert Morse was baptized as an infant in the Episcopal Church. He appreciated the beauty of the ritual, but felt the biblical and theological dimension was lacking. As a youth, he joined the Baptist religion. There, he appreciated the emphasis on the bible, but missed the depth and beauty of liturgical ritual. He was also frustrated by what he felt was a lack of appreciation for the importance of the Trinity and what he felt was a rather narrow or shallow understanding of the bible. He was looking for a living faith that was grounded in the bible.

He became interested in Orthodoxy after he met his future wife, Natalya. She was born and raised Russian Orthodox. They wanted to worship together as a family, so they looked for an English speaking Orthodox Church and found St Herman's. He feels that he has found in the Orthodox Church a Church that puts the liturgical ritual and the bible together. He appreciates the theological depth of Orthodoxy, the emphasis on the Holy Trinity, and the fact that in the Orthodox Church, things are done for a theological reason. He is finding in Orthodoxy a deeper understanding of the bible.

 

Robert was received into the Orthodox Church through confession of faith and Holy Chrismation on Palm Sunday, April 20, 2008. Robert took the name, Joseph.

 

 

 

 

Matthew and Becca, center, with their sponsors Mary Kaye and Brad

 

Matthew and Becca Axvig

Matthew and Becca Axvig were baptized and raised in the First Evangelical Free Church in Bismarck, North Dakota. They were introduced to Orthodoxy during their two years with the Peace Corps in Moldova. When they moved to South Minneapolis, they wanted to find a church in the neighborhood where they could worship. They visited different churches, and then came to St Herman's. They were moved by the reverence and rich beauty of the worship. Matthew called it "sublime". They were taken by the sense of being surrounded by the heavenly Presence of a Something larger than themselves. In their religious journey, they were seeking a more sacramental understanding of worship, and especially of the Eucharist. They are drawn to the joy of the Eucharist in Orthodox worship, when the faithful do more than talk about Christ; they actually partake of Christ. They feel that they have found in the Orthodox Church the Great Physician whose medicine, given in the sacramental worship, the dogmas and ascetic disciplines of the Church, can nurse us back to our full humanity.

 

 

Mathhew and Becca were received into the Orthodox Church through confession of faith and Holy Chrismation on Lazarus Saturday, April 19, 2008. Matthew took the name Bartholomew. Becca took the name Martha.

 

 

Darren (right) with his sponsor, Tony

 

Darren and Jessica Lukensow

Darren was baptized when he was 12. He was raised in South Carolina. His family life was religious, shaped by the Protestant religion. Darren was in spiritual need when he found the Orthodox Christian Faith on the web. He found St Herman’s and came to the Divine Liturgy on a Sunday morning. He felt awe and reverence; that he was in a very holy place. For the first time, he felt a deep healing and that the Holy Spirit was touching him and drawing him into the Presence at the center of the divine worship. He didn’t want the Divine Liturgy to end; he felt it could have gone on forever. He loves the ascetic discipline of the Church and how she teaches you on discipleship. Her doctrinal teaching has the feel of undiluted, unperverted truth in its fullness and simplicity.

 

[Darren was received into the Holy Orthodox Church on Sunday, March 30, 2008, the Third Sunday of Great Lent (Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross) through the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Chrismation.]

 

 

 

Jessica and Darren

 

Jessica, Darren’s wife, was received into the catechumenate two weeks after Darren was received. Jessica was baptized as an infant in the Baptist religion. Her father was religious; but her parents divorced when she was 7. Her mother remarried a man who was “atheist”. From the age of 7 to adult age, she was raised in an atheistic environment. Periodic visits to her father’s home may have planted the seeds of religious awareness in her soul – but, she also does not discount the seed of the Holy Spirit planted in her soul at her baptism. Even in the atheistic environment of her childhood home, she had an intuitive sense that there was something larger than herself. She became serious about religion when she and Darren married. They had many discussions on the bible. Jessica loves to sing. She prays through singing – and so, of course, she was drawn to Orthodoxy because the divine worship of the Church is always singing as it prays; and, at St Herman’s everyone sings, so Jessica felt that she was really entering into the worship and participating in it, not just ‘spectating’. But even more than the singing, she was struck by the humility of the worship. Her first Sunday was the Sunday of the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross. She was moved by the faithful prostrating in humility before the Cross of Christ. To her, it all felt right.

 

 

Darren was received into the Orthodox Church through Holy Baptism and Holy Chrismation on the Sunday of the Cross, the Third Sunday of Great Lent, March 30, 2008.

Jessica was received through confession of faith and Holy Chrismation on the same day.

Darren took the name, Theophan. Jessica took the name, Theodora.

 

 

Phyllis (left) with her sponsor, Rachel

 

Phyllis Melgaard

Phyllis was introduced to Orthodoxy many years ago, but did not have the chance to pursue it until recently. She first visited St George Antiochian Orthodox Church in West St Paul. When the pastor there, Fr Tom, learned where Phyllis lived, he recommended St Herman's to her because it was much closer.

 

Phyllis always had the conviction that worship should be reverent and beautiful and sacred. When she encountered Orthodox worship, she was convinced that this is how worship should be. She loves the beauty, the richness and the fullness of Orthodox worship and the fullness and substantial quality of Orthodox doctrine. In the Orthodox worship, she feels complete, that there is nothing missing.

 

Phyllis was received into the Orthodox Church through confession of faith and Holy Chrismation on Palm Sunday, April 20, 2008. She took the name, Marina

 

 

Jonathan Peasley

 

Jonathan Peasley

Jonathan graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in St Peter, MN, with a major in philosophy.  What has resonated most with Jonathan is the wisdom of Orthodoxy. Her teaching has the feel of the holy; it is not the product of human opinion and it is therefore something to which one can submit with confidence and in humility. One doesn't have to figure things out, as it were. One just listens and absorbs.

As far as we know, this picture of Jonathan, taken at Holy Dormition Monastery, is as close as Jonathan comes to playing golf. He's too busy reading Florovsky to have any free time. (And, that's not a golf club anyway; it's a water hose. Jonathan actually is not playing anything. He's getting ready to work on the monastery grounds. Good man, Jonathan!)

Jonathan was received into the Orthodox Church through confession of faith and Holy Chrismation on Lazarus Saturday, April 19, 2008. He took the name, John the Righteous. (You don't know who John the Righteous is? Jonathan has read all of Georges Florovsky (well, a lot of Georges Florovsky) - so ask him. He's smart now!)

 

Source: http://www.sthermanmpls.org/catechumenate.html