I want to become Orthodox, but I don't know where to start
I want to become Orthodox, but I don't know where to start
Hi everyone. So, I've been seriously considering becoming Orthodox, but I'm kind of lost and wanted to hear other people's experiences.
I'm from Brazil, and there aren't many Orthodox churches here, especially outside the major cities. I live in the countryside, and there isn't an Orthodox parish anywhere near me. And there's another thing: I've never been Catholic and I've never been baptized in any church.
My family has always been kind of divided when it comes to religion. I was raised Evangelical by my mother, and pretty much my entire mother's side of the family is Evangelical. I was always much closer to that side of the family. On my father's side, though, pretty much everyone is Catholic. My father, on the other hand, never seemed to care much about religion and was basically a non-practicing Catholic.
When I was a child, my father's family actually tried to take me to the Catholic Church a few times. The problem was that I had already learned a lot of anti-Catholic prejudices from my Evangelical family. I remember that when I was around 3–5 years old, my uncles even taught me that the Catholic Church was “Babylon” lol, along with a bunch of negative things about saints and other Catholic practices.
Obviously, I don't believe the whole “Babylon” thing anymore. There are still quite a few Catholic doctrines I disagree with, but at the same time, I find that I agree with the Orthodox theological perspective on many of these issues. In general, I seem to agree with Orthodoxy more than I disagree with it.
So it's kind of funny because I have a Catholic family on my father's side, but my actual religious upbringing ended up being completely Evangelical.
I grew up in the Assemblies of God, but I never really felt comfortable there. I always felt kind of like an outsider. Especially because of speaking in tongues. I could never really believe in it or identify with that experience.
I still have a lot of sympathy for traditional Protestantism today, especially Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists. But lately I've been learning more about Orthodoxy, and I've become really drawn to the liturgy, the sacraments, icons, and the whole ancient Christian spirituality.
The problem is that then I discovered there are actually several different Orthodox traditions, and now I'm even more confused lol.
I'm very interested in Byzantine Orthodoxy, but I've also become really fascinated by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, especially the Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopian, and Armenian traditions.
And I know they're not simply “the same thing with different liturgies” — there are important historical and theological differences between them. So I want to understand those differences better before simply deciding that I like one or the other.
Since I've never been baptized, I also have no idea what the process would look like for someone in my situation. And since there aren't many Orthodox parishes in Brazil, and none near me, I don't even know if it's possible to start studying/catechizing remotely and then travel to a church later.
So I mainly wanted to ask people who have been through something similar: did anyone here come from a Protestant background and become Orthodox? Or did anyone enter the Church without ever having been baptized?
And for those who know these traditions well, how would you recommend that I start learning about the differences between Byzantine Orthodoxy and the Oriental Orthodox Churches?
Any advice or personal experiences would be really appreciated. ❤️