The only advice I'm qualified to give is that you should go to your local Orthodox Church and talk with the Priest there. He'll be able to take you through the process.
Hopefully someone here can give more in depth advice, though.
I think we still do the catakumen thing. You go to your local orthodox church, talk to your priest. He'll talk to you about the orthodox faith and its nuances. Anything you don't accept, he'll try to explain to you. When you get to the point where you accept the entire orthodox faith, you'll have to confess your sins to him, then he'll Baptiste you, confirm you, and finally you'll attend mass, and have communion. That's the first 4 sacraments of the church in 1 day. It usually takes a few months.
As a convert to the faith, I recommend going through a whole liturgical calendar year and learn everything you can. I suggest the basics of the faith. This is not something to be taken lightly so you must understand every bit of the major sacraments to see if you even believe them. Ask yourself if you can handle the Orthodox Spiritual life, it is not easy. Often times it discourages converts because protestantism is so easy and fun, and Orthodoxy is very difficult and demanding, if taken seriously. If you are serious in learning, even if you do not convert, please feel free to contact me. PM me and I will give u my number and stuff. Fr. Peter is a good person to ask but he is very busy.
one of the things that worries protestants about the orthodox church is that joining the church is always personalised. what i mean is, if you go to a protestant church (for eg.) and ask to join, they'll hand you a leaflet about the church's beliefs, watch you say a 1 minute prayer and then tell you there is a baptism class on tuesday.
so it's usually clear and simple. so when a protestant person comes to an orthodox church and asks 'what do i have to do to be saved?' and the answer is 'ask abouna', it sounds to them a bit like they are joining some secret society where even the members don't understand the 'rules' or (worse) deliberately keep them secret. only abouna understands the 'secrets'! :o
the reason for this difference is that joining the orthodox church is about joining the church members in a lifelong spiritual journey. it is not a matter of memorising a few beliefs and signing on the dotted line. it is about regular church attendance, personal confession with the priest, and a daily, disciplined spiritual life. we orthodox Christians see salvation as a lifelong process, not one event in time. the priest is in the best position to assess the spiritual needs of a potential new member, and the church members want the best for the new member, so they refer him/her to abouna.
another difference is that words like 'salvation' (see above), 'baptism' and 'Holy Communion' are used with slightly different meanings in the orthodox and protestant churches. so it's not possible to understand fully without regular church attendance. we see the meanings of the words in action, and thus learn more than we could from a few chats on the internet.
in developed countries today, we learn that everything must be immediate. we have 'fast food' and 'instant messaging'. spiritual life was never meant to be 'fast'. even Jesus spend 40 days (more than a month!) in the wilderness before starting His public ministry.
i think this is why people here hesitate to answer the question in a few words.
i would, however, like to ask the orthodox Christians on this forum 'how does being a Christian affect your life?' this may help to answer the original posters questions. i have shared a lot about my experiences in other posts, would anyone else (including those who grew up in the church) like to share?
[quote author=mabsoota link=topic=10696.msg130537#msg130537 date=1297507733] one of the things that worries protestants about the orthodox church is that joining the church is always personalised. what i mean is, if you go to a protestant church (for eg.) and ask to join, they'll hand you a leaflet about the church's beliefs, watch you say a 1 minute prayer and then tell you there is a baptism class on tuesday.
so it's usually clear and simple. so when a protestant person comes to an orthodox church and asks 'what do i have to do to be saved?' and the answer is 'ask abouna', it sounds to them a bit like they are joining some secret society where even the members don't understand the 'rules' or (worse) deliberately keep them secret. only abouna understands the 'secrets'! :o
the reason for this difference is that joining the orthodox church is about joining the church members in a lifelong spiritual journey. it is not a matter of memorising a few beliefs and signing on the dotted line. it is about regular church attendance, personal confession with the priest, and a daily, disciplined spiritual life. we orthodox Christians see salvation as a lifelong process, not one event in time. the priest is in the best position to assess the spiritual needs of a potential new member, and the church members want the best for the new member, so they refer him/her to abouna.
another difference is that words like 'salvation' (see above), 'baptism' and 'Holy Communion' are used with slightly different meanings in the orthodox and protestant churches. so it's not possible to understand fully without regular church attendance. we see the meanings of the words in action, and thus learn more than we could from a few chats on the internet.
in developed countries today, we learn that everything must be immediate. we have 'fast food' and 'instant messaging'. spiritual life was never meant to be 'fast'. even Jesus spend 40 days (more than a month!) in the wilderness before starting His public ministry.
i think this is why people here hesitate to answer the question in a few words.
i would, however, like to ask the orthodox Christians on this forum 'how does being a Christian affect your life?' this may help to answer the original posters questions. i have shared a lot about my experiences in other posts, would anyone else (including those who grew up in the church) like to share?
OK, well, I'll have to think about this for a thorough answer, but here's what I can give you now:
Being an Orthodox christian means that because I love my God, I have committed myself to a lifelong journey to be with him. On this Journey, I have also committed myself to His really high standards, whether or not the people around me are following that or not. Each day I struggle to live at that standard for the ultimate goal of life with God. Each day, I talk to His, sit with Him, and grow in understanding about Him, and as I grow with Him, certain things in my life that I wanted before, I want less and less, and my desires move to be more God-focused.
A Chalcedonian Orthodox acquaintance of mine once put it like this, relating a story that he no doubt heard from someone else:
A Westerner and an Easterner each want to learn about a tree that they have growing in their yard. The Westerner, fascinated by the tree, wants to know it inside and out down to its molecular structure, so he takes samples of the tree's bark and core, puts them under a microscope, looks at the cells of the tree, and even cuts into the tree's trunk to read its "rings" in order to tell the age of the tree. By the time the Westerner is done, he knows all that anyone could ever know about the tree.
The Easterner, equally fascinated by the tree, spends a lot of time with it. He waters it, he spreads mulch around it, he observes its growth relative to the seasons and the cycles of rain and sunshine. For months and months, he lives with the tree. By the time the tree has reached maturity, he knows all that anyone could ever know about the tree, and without ever having done any violence to the tree.
Now, when my acquaintance told this story, it was in reference to the differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but I think it still applies to the topic in general, to show that there are different ways to approach the same thing, and that if you want to approach Orthodoxy you have to nurture an Orthodox mindset. It is not simply a matter of coming to the Church and saying "I want to convert". It is a matter of learning and growing and shedding your old self.
Or to put it another way (sorry, but the story reminded me of this), a Russian joke:
During the "Space Race" with the Soviet Union in the 1950s-1960s, each side used their strengths to help them beat the other side. The Americans, strong in their analytical mindset and certainly more developed economically and technologically, used all of these good points to plan for every part of a space mission, down to the last detail. They spent thousands upon thousands of dollars and hours building and testing a pen that allowed astronauts in space to write their reports in a zero-gravity environment, where flowing ink could have otherwise created quite a mess around the sensitive instrumentation of the control panels.
And what about the Russians? They used the pencil. ;D
Comments
Are you really interested in converting?
But it doesn't happen immediately, and you need to go and talk to a priest about joining the Church.
I'll leave it to those who have had experience in this journey to say more; I simply don't know enough about the details of the process.
Hopefully someone here can give more in depth advice, though.
Please pray for me as I'm facing temptations.
Please feel free to contact me.
Father Peter
so it's usually clear and simple. so when a protestant person comes to an orthodox church and asks 'what do i have to do to be saved?' and the answer is 'ask abouna', it sounds to them a bit like they are joining some secret society where even the members don't understand the 'rules' or (worse) deliberately keep them secret. only abouna understands the 'secrets'! :o
the reason for this difference is that joining the orthodox church is about joining the church members in a lifelong spiritual journey. it is not a matter of memorising a few beliefs and signing on the dotted line.
it is about regular church attendance, personal confession with the priest, and a daily, disciplined spiritual life.
we orthodox Christians see salvation as a lifelong process, not one event in time. the priest is in the best position to assess the spiritual needs of a potential new member, and the church members want the best for the new member, so they refer him/her to abouna.
another difference is that words like 'salvation' (see above), 'baptism' and 'Holy Communion' are used with slightly different meanings in the orthodox and protestant churches. so it's not possible to understand fully without regular church attendance. we see the meanings of the words in action, and thus learn more than we could from a few chats on the internet.
in developed countries today, we learn that everything must be immediate. we have 'fast food' and 'instant messaging'. spiritual life was never meant to be 'fast'. even Jesus spend 40 days (more than a month!) in the wilderness before starting His public ministry.
i think this is why people here hesitate to answer the question in a few words.
i would, however, like to ask the orthodox Christians on this forum 'how does being a Christian affect your life?' this may help to answer the original posters questions. i have shared a lot about my experiences in other posts, would anyone else (including those who grew up in the church) like to share?
one of the things that worries protestants about the orthodox church is that joining the church is always personalised. what i mean is, if you go to a protestant church (for eg.) and ask to join, they'll hand you a leaflet about the church's beliefs, watch you say a 1 minute prayer and then tell you there is a baptism class on tuesday.
so it's usually clear and simple. so when a protestant person comes to an orthodox church and asks 'what do i have to do to be saved?' and the answer is 'ask abouna', it sounds to them a bit like they are joining some secret society where even the members don't understand the 'rules' or (worse) deliberately keep them secret. only abouna understands the 'secrets'! :o
the reason for this difference is that joining the orthodox church is about joining the church members in a lifelong spiritual journey. it is not a matter of memorising a few beliefs and signing on the dotted line.
it is about regular church attendance, personal confession with the priest, and a daily, disciplined spiritual life.
we orthodox Christians see salvation as a lifelong process, not one event in time. the priest is in the best position to assess the spiritual needs of a potential new member, and the church members want the best for the new member, so they refer him/her to abouna.
another difference is that words like 'salvation' (see above), 'baptism' and 'Holy Communion' are used with slightly different meanings in the orthodox and protestant churches. so it's not possible to understand fully without regular church attendance. we see the meanings of the words in action, and thus learn more than we could from a few chats on the internet.
in developed countries today, we learn that everything must be immediate. we have 'fast food' and 'instant messaging'. spiritual life was never meant to be 'fast'. even Jesus spend 40 days (more than a month!) in the wilderness before starting His public ministry.
i think this is why people here hesitate to answer the question in a few words.
i would, however, like to ask the orthodox Christians on this forum 'how does being a Christian affect your life?' this may help to answer the original posters questions. i have shared a lot about my experiences in other posts, would anyone else (including those who grew up in the church) like to share?
OK, well, I'll have to think about this for a thorough answer, but here's what I can give you now:
Being an Orthodox christian means that because I love my God, I have committed myself to a lifelong journey to be with him. On this Journey, I have also committed myself to His really high standards, whether or not the people around me are following that or not. Each day I struggle to live at that standard for the ultimate goal of life with God. Each day, I talk to His, sit with Him, and grow in understanding about Him, and as I grow with Him, certain things in my life that I wanted before, I want less and less, and my desires move to be more God-focused.
A Westerner and an Easterner each want to learn about a tree that they have growing in their yard. The Westerner, fascinated by the tree, wants to know it inside and out down to its molecular structure, so he takes samples of the tree's bark and core, puts them under a microscope, looks at the cells of the tree, and even cuts into the tree's trunk to read its "rings" in order to tell the age of the tree. By the time the Westerner is done, he knows all that anyone could ever know about the tree.
The Easterner, equally fascinated by the tree, spends a lot of time with it. He waters it, he spreads mulch around it, he observes its growth relative to the seasons and the cycles of rain and sunshine. For months and months, he lives with the tree. By the time the tree has reached maturity, he knows all that anyone could ever know about the tree, and without ever having done any violence to the tree.
Now, when my acquaintance told this story, it was in reference to the differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but I think it still applies to the topic in general, to show that there are different ways to approach the same thing, and that if you want to approach Orthodoxy you have to nurture an Orthodox mindset. It is not simply a matter of coming to the Church and saying "I want to convert". It is a matter of learning and growing and shedding your old self.
Or to put it another way (sorry, but the story reminded me of this), a Russian joke:
During the "Space Race" with the Soviet Union in the 1950s-1960s, each side used their strengths to help them beat the other side. The Americans, strong in their analytical mindset and certainly more developed economically and technologically, used all of these good points to plan for every part of a space mission, down to the last detail. They spent thousands upon thousands of dollars and hours building and testing a pen that allowed astronauts in space to write their reports in a zero-gravity environment, where flowing ink could have otherwise created quite a mess around the sensitive instrumentation of the control panels.
And what about the Russians? They used the pencil. ;D