I’m an Episcopalian, though my loyalty is more to my parish than to the national church. When I joined several years ago, I had simply chosen to pursue my spirituality through the most liberal church I could find – that is, a church open enough to take someone whose religious and political ideology was roughly on par with the Unitarian Universalist faith. That said, when I was baptized and confirmed, I committed myself to the Christian church wholly: even if I could not believe everything, I would subject myself to the order, the rule of life, that is Christianity. Because I was raised in a thoroughly modern sect (Oneness Pentecostalism), becoming a faithful Episcopalian meant discovering Christianity as though it were a new religion, and in retrospect gaining a more profound appreciation of western history. I never grasped the significance of the Church in European life until I began practicing liturgy. Over the years I have become more orthodox, increasingly relying on Catholic and East Orthodox teaching to inform my understanding and practice of Christianity. The integrity of the Catholic faith astounds me. Of course, my emotions are mixed: I feel I owe a certain loyalty to the Episcopal faith, for through it I was introduced to Christianity. In 2010, 2011, I could have never been enticed into a Catholic church. Now Catholicism is a significant influence on my worldview, though I don’t know if I could ever be accepted as a Catholic: I spent too many years as a rationalistic skeptic to be able to sincerely profess belief in many articles of faith, even though I wish I could believe them. My parish church is my home, and the Diocese of Alabama is a solid place to grow as a Christian. The devotion to ministry is solid:
Camp Sawyerville is one outstanding example. As much as I despair of its apparent practice of simply churchifying progressive politics, it’s…home.
