Ron and Judy Alsop
Ron & Judy Alsop (Barnabas & Judith)
“Culture shock” probably best describes our first visit to St. Andrew Orthodox Church in Riverside, CA. In August, 2006, our “kids,” Kentigern & Theodosia Sammons (Kent & Jayna to us) invited us to attend Divine Liturgy at St. Andrew. Fr. Josiah Trenham, the priest at this parish and one of Kent’s professors at California Baptist University (CBU), had asked Kent and Jayna to come to a service, and they invited us to join them. Both of our families had always been active members of evangelical Protestant churches, so this promised to be quite an adventure for us.
Driving from Orange County to Riverside, I carefully read out loud Fredricka Matthews-Green’s “Twelve Things I Wish I’d Known Before My First Visit to An Orthodox Church.” The informative, downright humorous article certainly helped, but was not enough. We were completely overcome with the “sights and sounds” of Orthodoxy! Not entirely a bad thing. But not entirely good either. As “modern” Christians, we were just not prepared for a firsthand experience of the ancient church.
We were deeply impacted by the spirituality, the worship, and the almost palpable presence of God. We were particularly struck with potent, repeated phrases like, “Christ our God,” “Lover of mankind,” “Father Son and Holy Spirit,” “the Trinity, one in essence and undivided.” That was more theology than we had ever heard in a Protestant worship service! But what to do with all those icons, elaborate vestments, censing, bowing, and crossing?
Most disconcerting – but strangely beautiful and compelling to us – was watching parishioners approach a chalice to partake of what they believed to be the very body and blood of the Lord. And, inexplicably, both our hearts were touched watching small children, arms folded across their chests, also approaching to receive “the gifts.” We didn’t believe in this! How could our hearts be so moved?
We left the church in disarray. Oh, yes, the people were wonderful, warm and friendly. Fr. Josiah was kind and took time to chat with us. But, our Christian lives had been turned upside down – so many, many questions, “what ifs” and arguments began piling up in our minds. And that was just the beginning. That Sunday in August set us on an eight year arduous journey down the majestic, mysterious pathway of the all-encompassing truth of Orthodoxy, “the true faith.” The journey began with a spiritual jolt and still continues today.
Ron and I spent two years in catechism classes under the masterful teaching of Fr. Josiah. But we still had questions and weren’t quite ready to “jump in” when our Sammons family joined St. Andrew on Pascha, 2008. After all, we were
in our 60’s; it truly is “hard to teach an old dog new tricks”!
It was also difficult for us to make it to all the services and activities at St. Andrew, since we worked full time and had to drive in from Orange County. We decided to attend St. Barnabas Orthodox Church in Costa Mesa and soon became catechumens again, under the tutelage of Fr. Wayne Wilson and Fr. Michael Reagan.
After three years of catechism classes – two at St. Andrew and one at St. Barnabas in Orange County – three years of tumultuous inner struggle, feverish reading of Orthodox books, and arguing constantly with each other and any kind, compassionate Orthodox believer who had the patience to deal with us, we decided to just “do it.” We were chrismated along with twenty other catechumens at St. Barnabas and came into the Church on Lazarus Saturday, 2009.
We felt we had truly “come home”! Not that our journey was ended, oh no, it had just begun. We are still reading, still “discussing” (more than arguing), and we still have inner struggles. But we wouldn’t trade the joy, the peace, that feeling of finally finding the “pearl of great price,” for anything. We love the Church. We are so glad she waited for us, looked for us, found us, and gently and uncondemningly welcomed us into her fold.
St. Andrew was our first Orthodox home. It continues to claim a large piece of our hearts. Our amazing, lovable sponsors, Saba and Shirley Saba are members, along with dozens of other friends and family we hold dear. But we live only ten minutes away from St. Barnabas and decided to make it our church home. We return to the St. Andrew parish whenever we can, and we love our friends and “God families” at both parishes. God is good
Dear Fr. Josiah, Fr. Wayne, Fr. Michael, and our precious brothers and sisters at both St. Andrew and St. Barnabas, thank you for showing us the path of Orthodoxy. You will ever be in our hearts and a vital part of our lives, and we love making this journey with you!