Coming Home to Orthodoxy

 (I’m beginning a series of blogs about my experience of leaving Protestantism and becoming Orthodox. Feel free to comment if you’ve had a similar experience or you’re curious about Orthodoxy.)

   I sat in my usual seat in the congregation (sometimes referred to as the ‘audience’) of my local PCA church with my husband. It was Communion Sunday, and even though I had sadly grown accustomed to the ‘purely symbolic’ exercise it had become amongst Protestants, I still looked forward to receiving the elements.

    But this Sunday was during Covid. No institution was immune from its rules and regulations. We must submit to the Government supplied fear and propaganda. And, therefore, when the elements came around they were in the form of a plastic sealed mini Dixie cup which included in one handy package, a thin round wafer and a few drops of grape juice. And that was the end.

    That marked the end of my delusion that we were actually partaking of the Body of Christ; that we were indeed receiving the food of immortality. I wanted to run out of the service and would have if my husband hadn’t chided me to stay put. Something was happening in my soul. I could not continue to settle for theatre when reality was available.

    We have six children and have always advocated for them to partake of the Lord’s Supper by virtue of the fact that they were born into a Covenant family and Christ had called them to partake. But that view was met with resistance from our church. An elder had argued that we keep our children from the Table because (get this)  ‘it’s so special’! Yes, it’s special, but only because Christ has given it to His Church and has called His people to meet Him there.  Once again, something so simple and straightforward has been made convoluted and restrictive by man’s additions to the plain words of Scripture.

    Christ says suffer the little children to come unto Him. He says our children are precious and they are His. Woe to those who hinder them or lead them astray. (Mat. 19:14) Christ has set the Table and all His children are welcome.

      Christ is not offering us plastic, crackers, and juice! He’s not calling us to think a minute about His sacrifice. He is calling us to live for Him and supplies our nourishment to do so. We live in Him. We live for Him. And His Body and Blood sustains us. We meet Him in our worship and we partake of Him in the Eucharist. Not symbolically, but actually!

     So in that moment, as I held this ridiculous plastic cup and listened to the crackling of wrappers coming off, I knew God was moving me out of Protestantism. Where was I going? I had no idea.

         -TO BE CONTINUED