Orthodoxy is for Everybody!
Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!
I am really excited because our good friends, the Zahariades’ along with my Dad and Step Mom, are taking steps toward Orthodox Christianity. Please take a few minutes to check out their blogs:
Mark Feliciano
Barbara Feliciano
Jason Zahariades
Debbie Zahariades
Their experiences are causing me to think more deeply about the possibility of other friends and family taking similar steps. Let me explain…
When I began looking into Orthodoxy myself, I was surprised to find out that my fellow Evangelical/Protestant friends and family weren’t upset by it. I thought to myself, I am coming to the point where I will need to reject the Christian tradition I was raised under (to see it as deficient) and embrace something that seemed very foreign, if not opposed, to my former faith tradition. But it seemed that friends and family did not make this connection. Let me explain…
When my best friend Rico told me that he was going to “convert” to Eastern Orthodoxy, I was offended. I was offended that he thought he could convert without upsetting all his Protestant friends and family. Because if he felt he needed to convert, then he must have felt that we needed to do the same (at least that’s what I thought). Rico’s response was very gracious as he simply tried to communicate why he believed God was calling him to take this step. I still took Rico’s decision very seriously and of course Nicole and I eventually followed Rico in conversion.
As I told friends and family about our own decision to convert they did not react the same way. And even though this surprised me a bit I began to feel that Orthodoxy may not be for everyone. That is, maybe they just weren’t dissatisfied with their Christian tradition like I was. Maybe Orthodoxy is just too foreign for some people. So this leads me to my reason for writing this post…
What if my initial reaction to Rico’s conversion was right? Maybe it was something that should have been offensive to me as a Protestant Christian and maybe his conversion (or any Orthodox conversion) should be interpreted as a call for others to do the same. I don’t want to go too long with this post, but I’d like it to be a spring board for more posts to come. The point of all of this is to say that I have experienced such joy in Orthodox Christianity, in a way I am not able to explain, and now my family and friends are experiencing that same joy (and blogging about it!). My own experiences and beliefs about this living and ancient faith/tradition is that it IS for everybody. It is only foreign in the sense that it is radically Christian and holy, and I believe that it truly is the fullness of the gospel (i.e., the fullness of Jesus’ message and tradition).
That’s all I have for now. I will follow up on this soon.
Hi David,
I have to tell you this, I was slightly offended I guess. It kinda felt like you were defecting to join another country in a way. But, I didn’t feel like I had any right to question you about it. You are a smart guy and who am I to say you can’t make your own decision about which church you are going to worship God at. Right?
Then we went to your Chrismation service. I was not prepared for that at all. The incense, the chanting, the Priest in ornate robes… all very different than the churches I went to… and then the “Anathema” vows(?) you made. Ouch! I think I was included in some of that anathema stuff. But hey, I figured that you and Nicole had done your research. I could deserve the anathema for believing the wrong things and not believing the true things.
I have recently been emailing with a priest’s wife from out of state and she had a really good definition of what coming to Orthodoxy is like for converts from Christian denominations. I will get her permission to quote her and I will come back to comment again.
Talk to ya later.
Debbie Z
CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!
[...] David Feliciano and “Orthodoxy Is For Everyone 2 05 2008 My friend, David, who has been very instrumental in my family’s progress into Orthodoxy, has a post worth reading called, “Orthodoxy Is For Everyone.” [...]
Thanks for sharing. I would have loved to hear your thoughts at the time. I guess because I knew that some people may have felt that way (esp about the anathemas). I would have loved to tell you how I had processed through it all and how we finally came to the point where it was what we HAD to do and how it was one of the greatest days of our lives. I’m so happy we’re able to do this now. I look forward to reading your friend’s thoughts.
Hi again David,
Regarding having to reject your former faith tradition to convert to Orthodoxy, here is the quote from a priest’s wife that I have been emailing with.
I said <>
AND SHE SAID, “I think that is the best possible way to come along together in this great adventure of finding out about our full Christian inheritance – because that is what I think the Orthodox church is. Some of what you know from your past is God-given and you keep it. Some of what you know from the past is probably just wrong, and you leave it behind. But mostly, I think, Orthodoxy fills up the empty spaces and makes a whole fabric out of what used to be patches.”
That makes so much more sense to me than just reject what we have learned, completely. We are actually finishing a big quilt or puzzle that has had some missing pieces. Some of the pieces that we did have in, are not quite right and need to be replaced but some of the pieces are just as rich as the new ones we are receiving. Does that make sense to you? I like to talk in picture form. It helps my mind grasp concepts. I just love the way that she put it.
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