The preaching of Protestant evangelists and fundamentalists seemed always to emphasize hell fire, brimstone and damnation, frequently neglecting in their exhortations the premise that God is good and that man has full ability to choose good, left me unimpressed. Roman Catholicism?s authoritarianism of its hierarchy turned me away. Unitarianism appealed to me briefly, but didn?t fill the need for what I was seeking. Incidentally, atheism was never even an alternative in my considerations. I believe what I was really governed by was my own subjective reasoning; namely, since I am basically a good person, I convinced myself, isn?t that enough? I probably agreed with Socrates? statement that nothing bad can happen to a good person, either her or hereafter. Describing me as an agnostic would have been the most charitable thing one could have said about me.

In 1978 I experienced a terrible siege of depression that didn?t seem to be helped particularly by medical assistance. I took a long overdue vacation, cut back on my office hours and commenced reading the Bible lesson in The Daily Oklahoman (the lessons were great in those days). Along about 1980, I read the Old and New Testaments completely thorough, but my ?motor? still didn?t seem to be hitting on all four cylinders.

In 1983, I saw a picture of Bishop ANTOUN, Father Constantine Nasr and the co-chairman of St. Elijah?s council on the Saturday religious page. There was no article, but the caption attributed to Father the statement that the Eastern Church was the original Christian Church. If my thinking had not previously jelled, it did so then. What had been puzzling me was the question of how in the world had all the western sects or denominations gotten so far separated from what had happened during Christ?s time on earth and immediately thereafter when Christian worship became common practice.

I went to my Time-Life set of books on early civilizations and read about Byzantium. The biography contained therein led me to the public library where I obtained and read Nicholas Zernov?s Eastern Christianity. Mr. Zernov?s explanations and descriptions of a joyous religion revealed to me what I had been looking for. My conclusions were bolstered by the experience described below.

In early 1987, I found St. Elijah and Fr. Constantine?s names in the yellow pages. A call to Father resulted in a visit to his office and an invitation to attend the Divine Liturgy. My wife, Mary, and I attended Father?s catechumen classes during the spring of 1987. After that the combination of not only Father?s religiosity but that of many members of the parish, together with their gracious and kindly reception, made joining St. Elijah an obvious choice. Father baptized me in July of 1987 and Christianity as manifested by Orthodox teaching, Father Constantine and all the parishioners has been a growing and continuous joy to me ever since.