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Mick116
Member
| Joined: | Wed Jun 6th, 2007 |
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| Posts: | 2 |
| First Name: | Michael | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Open "Plymouth" Brethren, Presbyterian, Eastern Orthodox "enquirer", Anglican Catholic |
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Posted: Thu Jun 7th, 2007 01:13 am |
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Here is my story, in brief.
I first found Christ (or, should I say, Christ found me) in 1994 at a youth group run by a local "Plymouth" brethren assembly. I was 12 or 13 at the time. 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 an atheist, and I was not really encouraged to attend church as a child). I started attending the Sunday services at this church in 1997, only because I was brought by my girlfriend. Over the next four or five years my foundation in the Christian religion 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).
(For those who don't know, the Plymouth brethren are a fellowship of independent, Bible-believing, evangelical congregations that seek to return to the simplicity and fervor of the New Testament Church - emphasized are weekly (symbolic) communion, believer's baptism, and, of course, exposition from Scripture. Worship is prayerful and open (and not usually "contemporary"), denominationalism is rejected (they are "Christians only", much like the Churches of Christ) and there is a hopeful expectation for the soon return of Christ).
My journey towards catholicism began near the end of 2001. I started questionning some assumptions I had been holding, especially my belief that the Bible was the "Word of God". I had used this phrase so many times in the past, but I realised that I did not know why I held to this belief.
I began investigating other religions and denominations, mostly to get a better picture of what others believed. I spoke with friends who were Calvinists, Pentecostals and even Mormons. I began questioning the validity of "sola scriptura". I wondered, "how can the Bible be the sole foundation of our religion, if nobody can agree on what the Bible says?". My studies in science forced me to rethink my "young-earth creationist" understanding of the world, and I soon doubted any claim that the Bible held any authority at all.
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. Upon arrival, I was confronted with a sizeable group of clergy in black robes, standing near the entrance of the building (I was later informed that this included the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Australia, who was paying his annual visit to the parish - I managed to pick an interesting evening for my first visit).
Entering the church, I was overwhelmed by the colourful icons, burning candles, fragrant incense, and the sung liturgy. Coming from a non-liturgical, iconoclastic, evangelical brethren assembly that did not even recognize an official pastor or feature a cross on the wall, this experience proved to be 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. 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 to Orthodoxy, 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, late in 2002, I met my wife, and she was not at all interested in exploring the Orthodox faith. 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've been involved with All Saints' Anglican and then Patmos House Community for about 4 and a half years. The parish is a part of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia and the international Traditional Anglican Communion, which is currently seeking reunion with the (Roman) Catholic Church. Theologically, there is little difference between our Communion and the Catholic Church; practically, the main difference is our allowance of married clergy. Pray that the reunion between our churches may be swift.
Peace and blessings,
Michael
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CajunRick
Network Helper
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Houma, Louisiana USA |
| Posts: | 5079 |
| First Name: | Rick (& Kermie) | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Lifetime Catholic, Latin Rite |
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Posted: Thu Jun 7th, 2007 08:37 am |
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Mick116 wrote: Here is my story, in brief.
We're happy to have you join us. Welcome to CHN and to the Catholic faith. We've been anxiously watching the steps at reunion between factions of the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church, and like you, we look forward to the day when full intercommunion is achieved. At that time, we will welcome home all of our former Anglican brothers and sisters who choose to "jump the Tiber".
One of our members, Fr. Gnyssa, is a former Episcopal priest who has been admitted to the Catholic priesthood as a married man under the Pastoral Provision. We have many other former clergy members as well.
Are you pursuing the Catholic faith on your own, or waiting for reunion?
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Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
Rick Luquette
Luquette Lane
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pamflute
Member
| Joined: | Thu Jan 18th, 2007 |
| Location: | Tampa, Florida USA |
| Posts: | 24 |
| First Name: | Pam | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Baptist to Presbyterian to United Methodist to Catholic |
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Posted: Thu Jun 7th, 2007 06:10 pm |
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Dear Michael:
Thank you for your interesting story. I was also interested in Orthodoxy at the beginning of this "journey" and still like to attend a Byzantine Catholic Church on occasion. I might attend it a lot more if it was closer! Anyway, I also remember the first (and only) time I attended an Antiochian Orthodox Church. It was truly an eye opener! It showed me that the early church was nothing like the one I was attending. There was something there that I can't explain - a fascination that I still have. However, I didn't finally "go Orthodox" because we had a hard time finding a congregation and there were many more Catholic churches in this area and it feels a little more like what I grew up with. My parish even sings some familiar hymns sometimes! God bless you on your journey.
Pam
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Mick116
Member
| Joined: | Wed Jun 6th, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 2 |
| First Name: | Michael | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Open "Plymouth" Brethren, Presbyterian, Eastern Orthodox "enquirer", Anglican Catholic |
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Posted: Fri Jun 8th, 2007 08:22 pm |
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"Are you pursuing the Catholic faith on your own, or waiting for reunion?"
I have considered converting to Catholicism on my own, and "crossing the Tiber" officially, so to speak. This consideration has been given more weight since moving away from our home parish in Brisbane, to a small-town Anglican church. This new church is decidedly less catholic than Patmos House Community, although still traditional in worship and evangelical in theology (in a good sense).
One thing holding me back from conversion is what I have discerned as a "call" to the priesthood - and being married will certainly limit that option in the Roman Catholic Church. Our bishop at home in Brisbane (who is also our parish priest) also feels that I should pursue ordained ministry at some point. In addition, we hope in the not-too-distant future to move back to Brisbane, and the worship and teaching of Patmos House Community is so wonderfully and beautifully Catholic, and so evangelically gospel-centred that I think conversion to something that we already have in spades seems superfluous. At this stage, I think I will wait for reuinion, but we'll see what happens... I might get tired of waiting.
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nonsumdignus
Member
| Joined: | Tue Nov 7th, 2006 |
| Location: | Phoenix, Arizona USA |
| Posts: | 33 |
| First Name: | Jay | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Ex-Southern Baptist, ex-agnostic, ex-atheist, "ex-static" to be Catholic! |
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Posted: Sun Jun 10th, 2007 01:13 pm |
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Dear Mick,
"The difficulty of explaining 'why I am Catholic' is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true." - G.K. Chesterton
This means, of course, that no other religion is totally true.
Peace be with you,
Jay
former Protestant, agnostic, atheist
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"All the waters of the Elbe would not yield me tears sufficient to weep for the miseries caused by the Reformation." Philip Melanchthon, Luther's cohort, Epistles, Book IV, Ep. 100
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