That's understandable but too bad at the same time :) I began rethinking my own experiences when I started reading your blog post about your going to different churches.

"Just to sit and cry and not be bothered." [1st book]

Hope you're having that type!

Thank you for describing your visits and sharing them with us. They were such a hit because many of us have processed through similar thoughts and experiences. My husband and I read Searching for God in A Land of Shallow Wells (book) by Matthew Gallatin and we were done for. We started attending an Orthodox mission church the next week (this was all earlier this year). I hope you can take some of the wonder and joy and *history* of the church back to your congregation. That's what I missed as a Protestant -- I didn't know *anything* about church history beyond the New Testament and the fact of the reformation. We all need to know that there was 1500 years before the reformation where the church had God's had on it, was safe in His care, and grew. God bless you much.

So glad that your writing is spreading. I hope that all your new Orthodox fans will stick around when you return to Covenant. I've always wanted to attend an Orthodox service. It may not happen for a while now that I'm back on a church staff, but these glimpses have been wonderful. Enjoy your vacation!

It is very Orthodox of you to not want to become a spectacle. The reason I think so many of us have enjoyed your sabbatical discoveries, is because we remember that same kind of wonder. I have been Orthodox for just over a year now, and I am still in that stage. It is a bottomless treasure chest. I feel like a kid exploring my grandma's attic. My hope is that you will one day bring your entire congregation to the Original Faith as passed to us by the Apostles themselves, two thousand years of history, countless saintly exploits, and sacramental worship that has for its model--Jewish worship established by God Himself.

"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. He 12:22-24

Now that you've tasted of it, it will be difficult to stay away, but maybe you already know that.

You may really enjoy this blog site. It is where I first heard about the
Real Live Preacher
http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/belief-and-practice/

I do understand your decision, and I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. I do want to take a minute to let you know that I am really enjoying all your sabbatical posts, though, and try to put into words why that is.

I'm not a religious person, not in the way that condemns and ridicules someone else's faith, and not in a way that I actively disbelieve any doctrine. My parents weren't raised religious, and they didn't raise me religious. Further, I have a logical and sceptical mind and have trouble subscribing to anything intangible, things that require that "leap of faith" - I cannot make a choice to believe in something because it has meaning and power just to believe.

I realise that for a lot of people the spiritual connection is something tangible, that they feel, and rely upon - people who, when they talk about their experiences with their faith, have passion and conviction in their voice. And I have a keen curiousity about that. Not having felt that way myself (yet?), it's almost like I can feel it by proxy when someone else talk about a moving and enlightening experience. Not when they're trying to sell me their religion, but when they're just talking about something special to them. I want to understand and love to learn.

These posts you've been writing about the different houses of worship you're visiting allow me to visit them to, and from the perspective of someone for whom religion and faith is a passion. I see and understand things differently, because when I read your writing, I'm not walking in as myself - I like seeing how services work and what it means to the people, but I'd be timid, uninvolved, separate; I'd see the art and motions and steps. You let me see more deeply, be a part of the spirit and magic, feel the connection with the similarities between them, and feel the wonder of the things that are different. Your sharing your sabbatical experiences is letting me be a small part of an experience it seems unlikely I'd ever otherwise have on my own.

Thank you very much.

I just found this site, and quickly got into reading your experiences in the Orthodox Church.
As an Orthodox Christian with a Protestant background, it was very meaningful for me to hear your experience as an outsider coming in.
It is amazing to know that virtually every Orthodox Church in the country if not the world, will accept you in the same way, encouraging and hoping you will join them in worship.
I feel that your blog is an amazing tool. Your experiences are blog fodder - that's why you're writing them on a blog. I don't see that as a negative, but I see it as a powerful tool. Of course a medium this powerful requires great restraint on your part to not selfishly or proudly become a spectacle. But to become a "spectacle" simply because of the power of your experiences is an amazing indicator that what you're doing is powerful - and needed in the Protestant community.
Obviously we will all respect your decision - but I wanted to offer a different point of view. I just think that what you do here is an amazing tool.
I look forward to your future writing - whatever experience it is describing.

I completely understand your decision. May God bless you.

May God bless you...I have really enjoyed reading your experiences in the Orthodox Church (I recently converted myself).