17: Orthodox Christianity

Beverly’s recommendation to me was first and foremost, not to give up on God, nor on my search for the place God had in store for me, or as I had always termed it, His True Church. She told me that for the foreseeable future, I should worship with a church that was like the RCC, for example, Lutheran or Orthodox.

I had tried the Lutheran Church before and had discounted it. I was not going to go backward. So I thought I would investigate her other suggestion, the Orthodox Christian Church.

I was completely miserable at this point in time; I had no idea what I was even looking for anymore. I was past the end of my rope. I wanted to worship God. I wanted to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. The Spirit I had no problem with. It was the Truth I could not seem to find.

I looked again to Facebook and came across an argument, though it was done with such respect it could barely be called more than a discussion, between someone of the Roman Catholic faith, and what appeared to be someone from the Orthodox Church. His profile picture was just a black square with a big silver cross in the middle of it. And his name was John Peck.

After reading his responses to the accusations levelled at him by the Catholic, I deduced that he knew what he was talking about. He was saying things like the original Christian Church did things this way, but the Roman Catholic Church changed the story over the years and now did things that way. I thought for a moment about the implications of that statement. Was he saying that there was actually a church that was older, or more precisely, of greater historical accuracy, than the Roman Catholic Church? Was it possible that the True Church that was established by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago had survived in its purest form, and was available to me today?

I took what I was determined would be my last step towards my goal of finding the True Church. I went to the profile of John A. Peck, and clicked on Message.

Hi, I am a Christian, but a very confused one at the moment, began my timid message. As best I could, I explained my religious background, and the search I had been on over the past two years, culminating in cold hard rejection from the Roman Catholic Church. I told him that my poor brain was so confused, I only wanted the answer to one question at the moment. Who is this Man, Jesus Christ?

He answered my message almost immediately. I was right, he said, to ask the question I did. Everything hinged on the answer to that. He told me that if I were to go to an Orthodox service, I would hear what they believe about Jesus Christ, and have believed and taught, without change, for 2000 years. This was verifiable fact. He told me that another verifiable fact, was that the Roman Catholic Church has made many changes to what it believes, what it teaches, and how it worships over the last 2000 years.

He advised me to go to Google, and type in “English Speaking Orthodox Church” in my city. He told me to go to a service and see for myself. And to go to the priest after the service and tell him what I had said in my message regarding my search.

And to write back and tell him how it all went.

With renewed strength, I went back one last time to dear dependable Google. I discovered that there was indeed an English speaking Orthodox Church in Brisbane, and it would not be more than a 40 minute drive away. I also discovered, to my delight, that it had a Facebook Page. That was surely a sign!

That Sunday morning I walked into the strangest room I had ever been in. Apart from the colourful pictures, the warm candles and the sweet-smelling incense, I noticed a few other things as well: first, there were actually men in this Church, leading it in the way men were supposed to lead. Secondly, the women all filed in wearing different coloured versions of my exact outfit: long sleeved shirts, long loose skirts, and head-coverings. Thirdly, I heard more of the Bible during that service than I had collectively heard at every Methodist service I had ever been in. And fourthly, it was obvious that every person in that building, was there for one reason: to worship God. This was no comfortable, entertaining rock concert. This was pure, reverent worship. No pretence.

Immediately after the service, one of the young men from the choir bounced over and introduced himself. His name was Tom, and he had recognised me from Facebook. I told him a bit about my Story So Far, and why I was there. To my amazement, he knew exactly who the man was who had sent me to that Church that Sunday – even though John, or Father John as I learned was his correct title, was in America. Tom answered a bunch of my questions, and although his answers contained more big words and information that I actually needed at the time, I began to feel very much like, once again, but differently this time, I was perhaps, finally, daring to believe that I might, after all, have found the True Faith.

Before I left Tom gave me a handful of papers to read about the Orthodox Church. One of them, which I decided to start with, was simply titled, Sola Scriptura.

Upon reading that article, I was brought face to face with the absurdity of the concept of Sola Scriptura, or as Pastor Adrian the Lutheran had termed it, Scripture Alone, one of the Four Alones that were the basis of the Reformation Theology. Those pages articulated exactly what was wrong with all the churches that I had been to and through: of course if you are going to base your entire belief system around the Bible, or more accurately, your own interpretation of the Bible, you are going to eventually butt heads with other people who are doing the same thing. If all you have is the text, and no authoritative guideline on how to interpret that text, then you can read anything you like into it, whether intentional or unintentional. It was the logical conclusion of Sola Scriptura that what we would end up with would be hundreds of denominations, each preaching an entirely different theology based on the same Text, screaming their heads off at each other that the others were all wrong and they were the only ones who knew the Truth.

And what was the Truth exactly? Was it to be found in Scripture? Or was it to be found in the Tradition of the original Church, founded by the Apostles, that consisted of both written and oral teaching, that the Bible is actually a part of? After all, how did we end up with the Bible exactly? Did Jesus write it? Did it fall from heaven exactly as it is today? Or was it put together over three hundred years by the early Church, the same Church that can be found today every Sunday in an Orthodox Christian liturgy?

After reading that document I needed no more convincing. I had found the Church. Now I just needed to learn what it actually meant.

Tom graciously invited me to fire any number of questions at him on his Facebook Wall, and his answers were soon supplemented by the Church’s Sub Deacon Andrew, and Priest, Father Alexander. These became my Three Wise Men and between them, within a relatively short time, all the questions that had plagued me for three years, or more accurately, for my entire life, began to be answered. Andrew’s wife Sarah became my friend, supporter and guide, and eventually, at the event of my Baptism and Chrismation on December 24^th 2011, my godmother.