Introduction

Hello all. My name is Lawrence.  I currently am 47 years old, male, and a recent convert to Orthodox Christianity.  Like so many American converts, my choice was not easy.  I was baptized and otherwise brought up in the Roman Catholic tradition, by what I would call "lapsed Catholics".  I went to church, thanks to a family that lived up on the hill behind me growing up, but I suppose I never had a very good teaching of the faith or of the history of the church.
I recall never feeling fully at home in the Roman Catholic church, even when I was an altar boy.  Don't get me wrong; I do not hate the Roman Catholic Church, and I actually find myself defending it against many influences today, including, but not limited to, secularism, Bible Fundamentalists, atheism, and bigotry.  That the church has shot itself in the foot in recent years is more tragic than anything, especially considering the wolves that already smelled blood before such shooting.  However, none of the recent scandals had anything to do with why I never felt at home.  If anything, one of the priests I had, Father Thomas Guyder from St Joseph's Church in Camillus, NY, was one of the most magnificent blessings I had in a certainly troubled childhood.  Rather, I think the reason for my lack of comfort dates back to over 900 years before I was born.
To one who knows the history of the church, even vaguely, it can be reasoned that I speak of the Schism between East and West in 1054.  There were many reasons for the split; some political, some theological, but regardless of which path one chose from it, the result can not be denied; disunity and a loss of grace.  We can see through the hindsight of history what has happened since; Martin Luther, John Calvin, Joseph Smith, Ellen G White, and countless others have split the faith into much more than it is supposed to be, and not all of it can be considered good.
We are supposed to be united by our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of our souls.  Rather, since 1054, it appears that we have descended into a legalism, a judiciary, and a practice perhaps not anticipated by those who took part in the events of 1054.  Instead of looking for the commonality of unification, we seem to be looking to justify ourselves through legal interpretations of scripture. It is almost as if we are forgetting Matthew, Chapter Six, where Jesus instructed us not to be like the hypocrites that prayed for the sole purpose of being seen by other men.  We forget that they have their reward; they were seen and praised by their peers.  Rather, we should not worry whether we are seen or unseen, heard or unheard by others around us.  We should be praying for such things as are pleasing to God and beneficial to mankind.  We should be hoping against hope that, in today's world, what is more important is what we are truly praying for and not to be seen as inerrant.
There are those who will never accept Jesus, and certainly there are those who would much like us to go away and not be seen nor heard.  I think this is a time we should be heard more clearly if indeed we are to stay unseen, and for this, unity is essential.
In the future, I will be talking more about my failings along the path of Orthodoxy than I will about any theological profundity, and I hope that in all humility, I can learn something about myself, about anyone who reads this, and about what God wants from me.  For now, one thing I know I need too do is get my prayer life back to the way it was when I was but a catechumen, and I can not pray for that unity while typing a blog.
God Bless.