The Orthodox Christian 'Welcome Home' Network
by R. Leo Olson In this excerpt from his memoir, Unlearning God, R. Leo Olson describes his conversion to Orthodoxy from a Protestant fundamentalism as a process of healing from his “spiritual head injuries” and unlearning a problematic understanding of God. Part of unlearning the conception of God that I had picked up in my [...]
Being a Protestant, I of course did not fish outside the Protestant pool. I became an Anglican, and thereafter, an Anglican priest.
The second Wednesday of Great Lent this year, March 14/27, will mark the 246th anniversary of the falling asleep in the Lord of the ever-memorable Colonel Philip Ludwell III, of Williamsburg, VA, the first documented convert to Orthodoxy in the Americas. Last year, the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence Hilarion, Metropolitan [...]
by Robert Stauffer As an admirer of C. S. Lewis, I enjoyed the article in the last issue of Orthodox America by Theodore Hadzi-Antich, describing how Lewis led him ultimately to a renewed and deeper appreciation of his Orthodox Faith. However, based on my own experience, I would have to disagree with his statement that [...]
Transition by Fr. John Whiteford As my doubts about Protestantism increased, I found myself in a very unpleasant situation. As an associate pastor, I had certain responsibilities, which included leading a small group on Sunday nights, and also occasionally preaching on Sunday morning. I continued to fulfill these duties, but was increasingly less convinced about [...]
by Fr. John Whiteford Around the time I began digging into Oden’s “Systematic Theology,” I received 2 books that Fr. Anthony Nelson had suggested I read if I wanted to understand more about the Orthodox Church: ”Orthodox Dogmatic Theology”, by Fr. Michael Pomazansky, and “Becoming Orthodox”, by Fr. Peter Gillquist. I was struck by many of [...]
by Fr. John Whiteford However, when I began to seriously study the writings of the Methodist theologian Thomas Oden, I realized that my new theological method wasn’t a new method at all – it was only new to me. Much of the material I was assigned to read while at SNU was a labor to [...]
Discovering Tradition by Fr. John Whiteford There were several things that I studied in depth that began to open my eyes to the fundamental flaws in Protestantism, and also to the importance of Tradition: Textual Criticism, Empiricism and its role in Protestant Biblical Scholarship, the question of the inspiration of Scripture, the works of Thomas [...]
The Dead End of Non-Denominationalism by Fr. John Whiteford In the summer of 1988 my wife and I were married in the Chinese Baptist Church that she had been attending in Houston. Due to the efforts of my very frugal wife, we were able to have a nice wedding, a reception, a honeymoon, and to [...]
by Fr. John Whiteford Back to Square One Eventually, it began to dawn on me that I was where I was because I had turned away from God, and so I began to repent. I finally began to again feel a peace and a joy that eventually overcame my depression, and got me out of [...]
English