Orthodixie

I have been receiving questions from folks (Episcopalians & others, here & abroad) about possible conversions to Orthodoxy. Glory to God for all things! That being said, you can’t get there from here. By that I mean, forget the Internet and get thee to church. An Orthodox Church.

Several have asked, “Should I join the OCA or the Antiochian Archdiocese?” Good question. I was a recently ordained Episcopal priest when I wrote the same handwritten note to the OCA Metropolitan and the AA Metropolitan. After the introduction, it said something like: “I’m about the burst. I have to become Orthodox. I also believe there’s a need for an English speaking Orthodox mission here in the Asheville area. What should I do?”

The Antiochians replied in 4 days. I’ve yet to hear from the OCA. However, OCA clergy were most helpful in our establishing that Mission … Archimandrite Damian of Ascension Monastery [then OCA], Fr Peter Smith [then] of Holy Apostles & [then] Deacon Thomas Moore, Fr John Townsend [then] of St Mary of Egypt (OCA), Fr David Tillman up in Ohio, [then] Subdeacon Michael Bock, [then] Reader Mark Mancuso and many others. It was a cooperative era. It was a time of great excitement. We all worked together. I have a picture from a bishop’s visit to our store front mission back in 1995 which includes a host of clergy and future clergy (OCA, AA, ROCOR, JP). But at that moment, that night, we were all working together. I even have a picture of a visit from [the then AA] Fr Seraphim Stephens and his Subdeacon Onouphry Keith. [Fr Onouphry is now the ROCOR priest of the mission I started.] I hope to soon write a piece titled, “Back When Orthodoxy Was Fun”.

With an outro like that, one seeking Orthodoxy might be discouraged. Don’t be. Your experience will be different. And, all in all, it is always glorious. Faithfulness, obedience, perseverance, and repentance bears good fruit. Regardless of the hurdles, your sins, the attacks of the enemy … If you are seeking Salvation, the True Faith, the Church … it is here.

Come and see.

An Episcopal priest who, with his wife, faced discipline from the church after the couple’s leadership of local Druids became public has resigned from his Downingtown church. The full article will be available on the Web for a limited time.

(c) 2004 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

Thanks to alert reader, Mary, for the FWD.

Despite the almost endless lists of sects that fill fat telephone directories, the options for contemporary Protestants in North America boil down to essentially two. One may either attend a theologically conservative church where members have some knowledge of the Bible and attempt to apply biblical principles in their daily lives but whose Sunday worship will be disjointed, informal, even painfully irreverent; or join a mainline congregation that may have reverent, formal, even traditional worship but also (and here’s the rub) members and a pastor who are utterly clueless theologically, if not actually opposed to orthodox Christianity.

— From the latest issue of Touchstone [Nov.2004]; a book review by Gillis J. Harp on A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of Christ-Centered Worship by Michael Horton.

Lord Jesus, I beseech Thy forgiveness for the unworthy way in which I have so often dared to offer Thy Sacrifice at Thy holy Altar. I have served at Thine Altar with distractions, with a lack of conviction, with guilty thoughts, and with a divided will. I have deserved, indeed I shall always deserve, to be struck down on the spot by fire from heaven. Send that fire, Lord; for I willingly accept even that it destroy me, if beforehand it can kindle and purify my heart. I have no other refuge than the Chalice which holds Thy holy and precious Blood. I presume to drink from that Chalice. Consume me, O Lord. Let nothing of the old, sinful man remain within me. If I am concerned with myself alone, I drink to mine own judgment and condemnation. If it is Thou whom I contemplate — Thou upon the Cross — then I receive, trembling, yet with hope, the holy and precious Blood which flows from Thy saving wounds. And Lord, however unworthy I may be, I beseech Thee to accept those who receive from my hands Thy holy, precious, and immaculate Body and Blood. Receive them unto Thyself for their salvation, O Lord, and grant that they may carry within themselves, far beyond our parish and community, and to all those whose lives they touch, the fruits of peace and love that flow forth from Thy Eucharistic side. O my Redeemer, forgive and sanctify me. Amen.