How to Become Orthodox
Before Jesus ascended, He left the command to His disciples “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). At St. Basil Orthodox Church we take this command seriously and are happy to do our part in making disciples of Christ and initiating them into His Church.
We understand that making disciples means taking the time to cultivate a true and sincere initiation. In the same way that before a wedding, we spend months or years getting to know someone before making the commitment, Orthodox catechumens are expected to spend time in the Church getting to know the people and the practices of the faith before making a commitment to the Orthodox Church. In the early Church, this process could take up to three years. Today it is often much shorter, but should still not be rushed. A wholehearted commitment requires time to absorb the faith and the well-being of our souls and relationship with God are worth every second of it!
Generally, the journey to Orthodoxy happens in the following steps:
The first is connecting to a local Orthodox community and participating in the life of a church. Here at St. Basil we offer a very warm and welcoming community where you will have plenty of opportunities to make friendships and participate in Church life. For visitor information, please see this page. Participating in Church services, the festival, ministries, classes and other Church events are great ways to plug into the community.
The second step is to meet with the parish priest and establish a relationship with him. The priest is there to answer all questions and concerns that you may have regarding the Orthodox faith and can help remove roadblocks and make a more definitive plan for your initiation. To set up a meeting with Fr. Pete, please call or write the office using our Contact page here.
The third step is to attend our annual catechism class. This starts usually in the Spring and goes throughout Lent, leading to Pascha when baptisms and chrismations traditionally happen. To learn when the next catechism class begins, please sign up for our email list and check for upcoming catechism announcements. You may sign up for the email list on our contact page here.
Finally, the sacraments of initiation are administered. For some catechumens, that includes baptism and chrismation and for others, it includes only chrismation. The decision between one or both sacraments is made carefully with the investigation of the priest and bishop and will be worked out on a one-on-one basis with the catechumen. Once the catechumen is initiated, he or she can participate in the fullness of the Church partaking of other sacraments such as confession and communion perusing the life-long journey of faith working through love and unity with God.
This is just a brief overview. For more details, we encourage you to visit us and set up a meeting with our priest. In the meantime, feel free to see our Welcome to the Orthodox Faith page and Orthodoxintro.org where there is much information about the Orthodox faith available online.
We hope to meet you soon!
