Forgive me for the relative lateness of this post; our Internet service was interrupted for most of the weekend. Normally I’d be pretty mad about this, but Verizon DSL has been extremely reliable for us over the last several years (unlike ‘down twice-per-week’ Cox cable Internet), so I’ll give them a pass . . . this time.

Regardless, it’s been an amazing few days. The forty-day period of Lent, a solemn time of repentance and self-examination, culminated in the celebration of Holy Week. This period calls to mind the last days of Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry before his brutal crucifixion and, celebrated today on Easter, his resurrection from the dead. This week is one filled with absolute darkness—the murder of our Lord on the cross. It also ends with absolute joy—His triumph over death and sin on Easter.

For us, personally, this season took on special meaning this year. As I posted in my lengthy three-part series ‘Changing Religious Direction’ (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), Melissa and I have joined the Roman Catholic Church and, specifically, St. Veronica Catholic Church in Chantilly, Virginia.

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After looking at a fairly wide variety of religious groups with varying levels of seriousness, our cause—finding a faith community that met our requirements without any major deal-breakers—had begun to look hopeless. Churches that largely met our spiritual and moral requirements failed on practical concerns; churches that met our practical concerns failed on the spiritual and moral ones. Nothing had really ‘resonated’ and I hadn’t yet felt a clear call. It was time to go back to the drawing board.

I’ve long believed that you need to know where you’ve come from to figure out with any clarity where you should be going. That’s why I found research into Judaism so attractive and fascinating. Judaism is the earliest record we have of human interaction with the God of Abraham, and it is upon that solid foundation that Christianity was later built. Having determined that Judaism was not the right path for us, I set my sights upon the early history of the Christian church.

Upon the traditions of Judaism and the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Christian Church—which quickly organized as what we now call the Catholic Church—spread throughout the world essentially as one unified body for a millennium before the Great Schism, and then as two bodies (Catholic and Orthodox) for another half-millennium. It wasn’t until the 1500s that the Protestant Reformation began to split Christianity bit-by-bit into the many component denominations we know of today.

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Having decided to leave the United Methodist Church (see Part 1), a more difficult dilemma presented itself: where to go next. There are many thousands of faith communities in the world, many of which required a careful look and appropriate research. The groundwork for this process was laid by my own research into the Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—through reading their texts and studying their history.

My intent was to do a kind of a ‘religious reboot’ (though still within the Abrahamic context, since I firmly believe that the God of Abraham is the one true God). I wanted to make a decision without basing it on preconceived notions or biases and, most of all, I wanted to give the Holy Spirit every opportunity to lead me. Ultimately, many of my preconceived notions about various religions and denominations were reinforced in this journey. Others were completely obliterated.

First and foremost, we were able to discern some clear desires we had in a religious community:

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When I was in fifth grade, my family began attending services at Community of Faith United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia. Before long I was baptized in that church. A few years later, I was confirmed there and was an active participant in the church’s youth group.

When we moved to Bedford, Virginia, my family and I transferred membership to Main Street United Methodist Church. Up until then, I would say I was—at best—a nominal Christian. I didn’t have a particularly solid faith until I participated in a Harvest of Hope summer camp, which is a program of the Society of Saint Andrew hunger ministry (my father’s employer). It was there—seeing Christianity in action and making a positive difference in the world—that I really understood what faith was all about and slowly began to really, truly believe.

At Harvest I also made several friends from the town of Altavista, which is about 30 minutes away from Bedford by winding country roads. A few short weeks later, at the invitation of my new friends, I began active participation in the youth group at Lane Memorial United Methodist Church in Altavista. In the years to come, I also participated in the UMC’s Lynchburg District Youth Worship Team.

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