[Magdalen] Facing East (long)

[Jay Weigel]

Dear All,

As you all probably know, I have for the past year been attending a tiny
Old Rite Russian Orthodox church in Mt. Jackson, Virginia. I wandered in
one Sunday and had the immediate and very strong feeling that this was
where I was supposed to be. I had been "wandering in the wilderness" pretty
much ever since I got to this area. The only Episcopal church I felt even
remotely welcome in was really too far away to be practical for me to
attend with any regularity and was in what appeared to be a very long
interim at the time I went there. I went to the nearby big Lutheran church
for nearly three years and although I really liked the pastor, I never felt
like part of the congregation and there came a point where I just couldn't
"Lutheran" any more. I even tried the Anglican church, but though I loved
the people there, I couldn't quite deal with the theology, and frankly, the
music gave me a headache. I was pondering checking out the Russian Orthodox
Church in south Harrisonburg, which is ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church
Outside Russia) when I happened to drive by Sts. Joachim and Anna in Mt.
Jackson on my way back from the optometrist and decided to check it out the
following Sunday. I felt like I was where I should be.

My pull toward Orthodoxy started in my teens when I was introduced to the
music of the Russian Orthodox Church through my high school choir. The
first service I ever attended was a vespers service in the new/old Greek
Orthodox Church in Madison, WI, in which my dad sang in the choir. IIRC it
was the first service in that church as an Orthodox Church (it had been a
Methodist church for many years) and it was attended by bishops and whatnot
from Milwaukee and Chicago. I remember clouds of incense so thick you could
barely see the iconostasis. (The Greeks were kind of surprised that they
had to deal with all the other Orthodox in the area coming into their
church as they were the only Orthodox around for a number of years, but
they got used to it, I think.) Anyway, for a number of years I had little
contact with Orthodoxy other than reading, listening to music, and
attending Pacha service at the Greek church in Knoxville with my friend
Sheila. I was always more attracted to the Russian branch, primarily, I
think, because of the music but also there were aspects of the spirituality
that attracted me. All this is by way of explaining where my path has led
me.

I will be chrismated into the Orthodox Church on September 18. There is
some significance to the date we have chosen, as the following Tuesday is
the Synaxis (coming together) of Zacharias and Elizabeth, and we are
celebrating it on that Sunday. Elizabeth is my middle name, was my mother's
name, and is the name of a saint that in recent years I have felt close to.
Mary's older cousin has a motherly aspect that appeals to me and that I
also try to emulate.

It is not that I don't love the Episcopal Church that I was born and
brought up in and that I raised my family in. I do. It is more that I have
found what I need at this time in my life in Orthodoxy. I will continue to
worship in my old church whenever I go back to Tennessee. And I'm not
leaving here either. We have a number of folks of several religious stripes
(and even a few of none!) and nobody seems to mind.