Looking into Orthodox Christianity?

God loves you. You are not alone. Come be with Him in His Church. Join the fellowship of believers.

I converted to Orthodox Christianity in 2002, at the age of 23. I grew up “non-denominationally” Protestant, and though I believed in God and the truth of Jesus, by the time I was a teenager, I thought that was enough. Near the end of high school, a friend whom I admired a lot convinced me in his own quiet way that finding a church was important, setting off quite the journey that spanned the next few years. However, once I walked into an Orthodox Church, I knew I was home.

I believe that the Orthodox Church is the church that Jesus established, and which continues on to this day. I believe that we, as Christians, need the Church not only because what it teaches is true, but we need to be partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ. I believe that we need to be part of the living community in the Church, and I believe that we also need to understand our place in the history of the Church and her Saints, that we are surrounded by a “cloud of witnesses” who stood for the Faith in their time in history, that at every time there have been those who have done this, and that in this time, we are called to stand as well.

Orthodox Christianity is not a virtual religion. It’s not a set of ideas that one can hold in one’s head and not allow it to transform one’s life. It is transformational; faith is essential, but it manifests itself as a way of life.

This page is a personal project and does not “officially” represent any Orthodox Church. My attempt is merely to bring together some quality resources for anyone interested in Orthodox Christianity. Please leave a comment, should you have any questions for me! :)

Getting started

Compared to 2001, when I started looking into Orthodox Christianity, there’s an incredible amount of good stuff to start thinking about. There’s also an awful lot of trash as well. At the beginning, things aren’t necessarily as clear as to which is which. If Orthodoxy seems intriguing, I encourage you to make real-life contact with a church either by visiting a parish and/or contacting an Orthodox priest.

Fr. Andrew Jarmus is an Orthodox priest who heads the Fellowship of St. Theophan, a resource for people who may be interested in Orthodoxy, but are not geographically near to a parish. https://linktr.ee/frajarmus

Abbot Tryphon is the head of a monastery on Vashon Island, near Seattle. He’s published a daily newsletter, The Morning Offering, for many years, which has branched out into other multimedia, such as video. https://abbottryphon.com/

Frederica Mathewes-Green’s 12 Things I Wish I’d Known (before entering an Orthodox Church) which is a list of things she wrote down to a friend about what looks “different” in an Orthodox Church.