New to St. Andrew
Becoming an Orthodox Christian
The Path of Salvation
Becoming an Orthodox Christian is embarking on a path to salvation in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God calls to us through the Holy Spirit, making us aware that He loves us and created us in His Image to be in communion with Him. One of the ways this occurs is in realizing that we are sinners who are in many ways separate and distant from experiencing His love. Salvation (in Greek "sozo") means "healing" or "making whole"; it is the gift of God (grace) wherein we are brought into right relationship with Him. The path to salvation is us cooperating with God to be healed and made whole. Ultimately, we do not seek salvation to keep us from receiving eternal punishment for our sins but to be constantly and eternally present with God. God-willing, the path ends with union with God (divinization or theosis) in this earthly life or the life to come.
Conversion
The path to salvation begins with how we respond to what God is offering us. A conversion must take place. A conversion is a conscious decision to accept not only Who God is (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and what He has done, having created us and sent His Son to the Cross on our behalf, but also an act of our will to open the door to God's presence in our individual lives and a willingness to follow after Him. Even Orthodox Christians who were Baptized as infants must live out their baptism in converting their hearts to God.
The Life of Repentance
This life of conversion is the life of repentance. Repentance is not simply a sorrowful state of guilt but ultimately a joyful desire for our Good God who loves us more than we love ourselves. Repentance (metanoia in Greek) literally means "to think or go another way"; it is the turning from our human weakness, our self-focused and sin-ladened passions, to true humanity that is divinized through Jesus Christ. The path to salvation involves our efforts but it is through the Grace of God, who desires our healing. God does not force Himself on us; rather we can either accept the Grace given to us or reject it.
Salvific Actions in the Church
Specific saving actions in the life of the Church are referred to as "Holy Mysteries" (or "Sacraments"). Holy Mysteries are actions by which the Grace of God is given through physical and material elements combined with the prayers of the Church. The healing grace of salvation begins with the Mystery of Baptism. We are baptized into the death, burial, and resurrection of the true human being, Jesus Christ, Who being fully human is at the same time fully God. In Baptism, we put on Christ and are given a new life. Following Baptism, we receive anointing with Holy Chrism (oil) sealing our Baptism and gifting us the Holy Spirit to live out our salvation. Living out our salvation in the Church, the Body of Christ, is sustained by receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who offers Himself to us. As the saying goes, "you are what you eat".
The reception of the Body and Blood is only for Baptized and Chrismated Orthodox Christians because of the reality of what those Mysteries accomplishes in uniting ourselves to Christ the Bridegroom and being sealed by the Holy Spirit into His Bride, His family Community, the Church.
The Sacramental Life
Other Holy Mysteries for our salvation include Confession; Unction (anointing for spiritual and physical health); and Marriage. The Orthodox Church does not limit the grace of God to these Holy Mysteries, however, but rather embraces that all of our life as physical and spiritual beings created in God's image, and having been given this created and good material world, is meant to be lived in constantly receiving salvation through the good things provided by God. Food, nature, other people, and our work, properly understood according to the commandments of God, are provided for us as a way of communing with Him.
The Path of Salvation from Non-Orthodox to Reception into the Church
The path of salvation for non-Orthodox, whether a professing Christian from another understanding, or a complete non-believer to full reception and membership in the Body of Christ through Baptism and Chrismation, begins in 3 stages. In other words, a journey to arrive at and begin a new journey. These stages are: Seeker; Inquirer; and Catechumen. Just as the life of the Orthodox Christian is a process of the life of repentance and embracing of the sacramental life, a process exists to prepare people for the new life in Christ that they will become when they are received into the Church.
Typically, this process is at least one year of attending the Orthodox Church on a regular basis as well as getting to know and be known in the local parish community. Additionally, before entering on a life-long commitment, we are exposed to and gain familiarity with the calendar of the Church year. The calendar puts up "guard rails" to keep us on the path to salvation by bringing us into participation of the many glorious works of God celebrated in the Orthodox Church. Classes for Inquirers and then for Catechumens are a required part of this process in order to provide information and context for the future life in the Church.
Information about the beliefs and practices of the Orthodox Church is insufficient if it does not lead us to formation as Orthodox Christians. We do not know Orthodoxy simply in our intellect but we live Orthodoxy. We have this time of preparation to learn what we did not know and to begin new habits (formation). Habits such as having a regular prayer rule at home and attending services takes a force of will and commitment. We do not want to enter into the new life in the Church under the mistaken idea that we "accept" what the Orthodox Church teaches without not actually having tried and experienced what we think we are accepting.
One way of understanding the process of moving through the stages of Seeker, Inquirer, and Catechumen is by the analogy of a single person looking to be married. Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church is His Bride.
Seeker
A "seeker" is someone longing for what is Good and True and thus is seeking God, their Creator. This also includes persons who have just attended an Orthodox service for the first time regardless of their previous encounters with Christianity or their independent research into the Orthodox Church.
A seeker can be compared to someone who has a list of who they want to be in a marriage and the type of person they wish to marry, looking for certain characteristics, ideal or not, to bring into a marriage and for the person one would marry. A seeker is also someone who just has met a person they think has possibility. Excitement and expectations can abound but the prudent approach is to get to know a person and for the person to know you before committing to marriage.
Inquirer
Inquirers are those who begin attending services and participate in parish community life. They also attend Inquirer classes when offered. Classes will be posted at standrewpns.com on the calendar. If you would like to be notified that classes are beginning, please provide your name, email address and cell number to the Church office at standrewpensacola@gmail.com and request to be notified when classes are scheduled.
An Inquirer can be likened to a person who has spent some time with a person they think may be a good fit for a marriage partner. Spending time, learning about the other person and revealing oneself. For example, this includes learning personality traits and values. In addition, this includes social circles such as family background and meeting family members and friends to see if the things that you idealized as a seeker might actually work for a marital relationship.
Catechumen
A Catechumen is one who has shown faithfulness in attending services on a regular and habitual basis; begins a basic Prayer Rule at home; has attended the Inquirer classes and is attending Catechumen classes. Persons are not usually received as Catechumens until they have been attending regularly for 6 months.
Catechumens may be received into the church after a period of attending for one year, at the discretion of the priest.
Becoming a Catechumen is like becoming engaged. In an engagement, an official, recognized commitment by both the man and woman is involved. Based on what the couple has discovered so far, they agree to head into a marriage. Ideally, there would be pre-marital counseling to assess if both persons are aware of potential strengths and weaknesses that will affect the future marriage.
A Permanent Change of Life
The stages of reception recognize the reality of what is happening to a person when they begin to approach our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in the fullness of His Church. Being received into the Church means agreeing and submitting one's life to Christ in a previously unlived life. New attitudes, habits, understandings, and expectations are involved as well as entering in to a community of persons.
One has to have some experience in the life of the Church, its worship, its prayer life, its calendar and way of living. It means gaining an entry-level understanding that one's relationship with God comes in and through the life of the Church He established.
Reception into the Church means entering into a marriage between the Groom (Christ) and His Bride (the Church). It means becoming one flesh with the Body of Christ, the Church. At each stage of approaching reception into the Church (Seeker, Inquirer, Catechumen), the relationship may be broken off or put on hold. Before marriage between a man and a woman, it is obvious that breaking up prior to the marriage preferable than divorcing after.
The Role of the Priest
The role of the priest in this process is to shepherd and guide persons in this endeavor. Out of love, he is there to protect persons from making a decision that will put them into a worse place than when they first learned of the Orthodox Church. He welcomes and encourages but is also aware of many things that individuals new to the Orthodox Faith do not know and would not foresee.
He is there to offer prayer and support as well as correction and counsel so that they may leave the dimly lit path they have previously known and venture onto a new, illuminated path once they are received into the Church. And that new path is one that we struggle continually on in our life of repentance as we seek to grow in Christ.
Introductory Reading
Before, during or after taking Inquirer Classes, an excellent source for an overview of the Orthodox Faith can be found by clicking on the following link: https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith. This gives access to a 4 Volume set of Books by the V. Rev. Fr. Thomas Hopko.