Having grown up as a Protestant — first in the Lutheran tradition, then having my “born again” experience as a Baptist — I was largely ignorant of Eastern Orthodoxy all my life. As an apologist, former pastor, and theology nerd, I’m no stranger to the common Protestant cliché of “just wanting to do things like they did in the book of Acts.”
I challenged myself to do just that, so I went back to the beginning. Having already read through the entire Bible, I started reading the Church Fathers. I absolutely fell in love with the wealth of knowledge that’s been there for nearly 2000 years. I was also challenged quite a bit. My initial investigation convinced me that many of the beliefs I long held dear would have been entirely foreign to the Early Church, and if I was going to “go back” to the way they did things, I had to change a few things.
When I started this site, I was an aspiring catechumen. Today, I am an Orthodox Christian. I was received into the Holy Orthodox Church on October 7th (September 24th) on the feast day of St. Peter the Aleut, who intercedes on my behalf as my patron saint.
When one converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism, they’re often said to have “crossed the Tiber”. Much in the same way, though much less common, is the expression that one has “crossed the Bosphorus” as they convert to Eastern Orthodoxy. While I am now a member of the Orthodox Church, I know it will take me a lifetime, an eternity even, to grow into this faith and to grow in Christ. As such, no matter how deep I may wade into the waters, I will likely always feel like I have just begun to cross the Bosphorus, with merely a single toe touching the surface of the deep pool that is the Mystery of the Christian faith.