I was raised Protestant and later joined the Catholic Church, of which I’ve been a member for twenty-five years. Recently I’ve been visiting a local Orthodox church. I’ve read some of your articles with interest, and I noticed some beautiful Orthodox icons on your website (the Crucifixion, and Rublev’s Three Angels). Obviously you sense a connection with Christians from every period of history and from many countries.

As I understand it, the Western (Roman Catholic) church introduced some innovations in the centuries after 1000 A.D. which later led to the Anglican and Protestant sects arising. For example, the doctrines of purgatory and indulgences, and the insistence on priestly celibacy. Perhaps the Anglicans and Protestants were trying to recover the orthodoxy that the western church had partly lost.

OK, I’ll step out on a limb and express the opinion that it is wrong to reject the Orthodox church on the grounds that “I am a Western Christian.” The Orthodox church is for all nations and all people. There are Orthodox Japanese and Africans, South Americans and many in the United States. And surely the universal “catholic” church is intended to be for all people everywhere.

I’ll go a step further and say, it is wrong to reject the Orthodox church out of fondness for the writings of Aquinas or Barth (for example). If Aquinas or Barth had the light that you now have, perphaps they would have become Orthodox too; and perhaps, the best and most loving thing you can do for your friends is to point the way. That’s not abandonment, is it? Who knows… maybe they and their children will follow.

Well these are just some thoughts. I enjoyed your website. May you be blessed.