As many friends will know, I am about to start a new teaching role at a Church of England secondary school.
I suppose it’s not surprising that, having been given the role, one of my new colleagues asked me why it was that I had converted to Orthodox Christianity. My answer was brief, something about how a study of church history revealed to me that Orthodoxy is where the Apostolic tradition has been retained.
It was this question which prompted me towards further reading, largely because I like to ensure that I have answers when I am asked a question related to my own faith. On my reading list over the past few days has been the very-readable book, “Becoming Orthodox” by Peter Gillquist. This post is a response to that book and a reflection upon how it relates to my own journey.
Becoming Orthodox
The official synopsis for Gillquist’s book reads:
The story of a network of independent Evangelical Protestant congregations in the U.S. who, in the 1970’s, discovered ancient Orthodox writings and were drawn into communion with the modern-day Orthodox Church. A compelling story of a significant theological and spiritual journey.
That doesn’t really do the book enough justice. It’s so much more compelling and useful.
The book is divided into three sections. In the first, the story focuses on how the group moved from a strongly Evangelical Protestant background towards a search for the original Apostolic Church; secondly the book addresses some specific theological issues that arose for them as Protestants contemplating a return to Orthodoxy; finally, the book tells the tale of their final journey back to the Church.
Motivated by a desire to provide a place for new converts, a great many people who had been “won for Christ” by the author’s involvement in Campus Crusade for Christ, the group was seeking to restore what they viewed to be the lost original Apostolic Church that Jesus of Nazareth founded. Buying into the belief that, somehow, the Church had become corrupted and polluted so that it no longer resembled 1st Century Christianity, they began a journey of rigorous research.
What they discovered was shocking to them and overturned much of what their Protestant teachers had taught them:
- Worship was liturgical from the beginning
- Communion was more than “mere symbol” – a sacrament
- Bishops were present in the 1st Century
- Church polity was episcopal
- Apostolic teachings were confirmed through 7 ecumenical councils (325CE – 787CE)
- They gained a greater understanding of the Incarnation of Christ
In the end, although many of the group had never even heard of the Orthodox Church, they came to realise that original Christianity was maintained within the churches of Orthodoxy. Changing was the hard part.
…for us, embracing certain of these realities – liturgy, sacrament, episcopal government – did not necessarily come easily. With liturgy and sacrament especially, some of us were”swinging from the floor”. That they were true and everywhere in the ancient Church was for us regrettably obvious. We had no argument there. The tough thing about early Christianity for us came in doing it.
Reflecting…
How does this connect to my own journey? Why would it be relevant to yours?
Two things can be said in relation to my own journey: firstly, although less dramatic, I have followed a similar search for the Apostolic tradition; secondly, I’ve faced many of the same doctrinal and practical challenges that Gillquist describes.
As a Christian disillusioned with the incoherence of modern Protestantism, I was searching for the Church that Jesus founded. As I’ve recounted before, I didn’t know more than the fact that Orthodoxy existed until I paid a visit to an Orthodox Church. Yet, despite my deep experience in that place, it took me around 2 years of careful research and consideration before I could ask Father Gregory if the Church would receive me. Gillquist’s book is a very useful read for anyone else searching for the Apostolic faith.
If you, like me, are used to believing that all of Christianity is essentially equivalent then this matters to you too. The truth is that, simply put, all Christianity is not equal: there is Orthodoxy and there is Heterodoxy.
I have no doubt that those of us who live under the teachings of Protestant greats, under the wings of the Roman Church, or within the bounds of other claims to follow Jesus’ teachings, receive great blessing from a merciful God.
Jesus himself taught his disciples not to interfere in the teachings and practices of those separate from his own group (Mark 9: 38-41; Luke 9: 50), and even my own non-Orthodox but very much Trinitarian baptism was acceptable to Holy Orthodoxy. This signals, at least to me, that there is a mystery to be revealed about the efficacy of heterodox teachings. Thus, we heed Jesus’ injuction: “Do not judge in order not to be judged.” (Matthew 7: 1).
That said, there is a place in which the full measure of the Apostolic Tradition has been retained. This is the Church that Jesus founded and with which Peter was entrusted. The gates of Hades have never prevailed against it, despite the blood of countless martyrs spilt in its defence.
It has been really encouraging to read how Gillquist’s group found their way home. If you too are lost, Jesus beckons you home.
” In my Father’s house are many mansions. If if were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you… You know where I am going, and you know the way.” (John 14: 2, 4)
Amen.
