A personal faith journey (a return to faith)

[Michael96]

For anyone who may be interested……….

I was baptised (Anglican, forty or so years ago). I went to Sunday school - Anglican, then Baptist, then Methodist (my parents weren’t what you may call “picky” about denominations).

As a teenager the Methodist Church (and it’s people) became an important social part of my life. We spent most weekends together having fun, and on Sunday we had an hour before Church and the evening to discuss topics relevant Christianity (and just to enjoy each other’s company).

My faith grew strongly around the age of 14 (and I won’t deny that “Jesus Of Nazareth” with Robert Powell on the BBC TV had a big effect on me at that time) and I was then confirmed a Methodist (at the age of 15).

My faith was strong for the next few years. As I went to University it was still strong, but began to dwindle. In part this was due to negligence on my part, but was also due to exposure to alternative beliefs and non-beliefs. Through karate I was exposed to Buddhism (and I am still very grateful for the lessons I learned from Buddhism, and still have some Zen Buddhist texts). Through yoga (trying to overcome my inbuilt inflexibility which severely limited my ability in karate; until I realised I did not have to go willingly and get beaten up twice a week from choice) I also became exposed to Hindu beliefs and values (though these, unlike Zen Buddhism, are not important to me now).

So my faith dwindled and withered, and I became agnostic.

Soon after I met a pretty young girl who was a Catholic. But even her prettiness did not tempt me back to church . We were soon married, but I remained steadfastly uncertain in my faith. We had two beautiful daughters and my wife (who has always been devout in her faith) brought them up as church going Catholics; still I remained agnostic, and hardened to atheist at times.

Twenty years after my faith had fallen away I went to spend some time with some other people at work. One of the people there was a young Muslim. He asked me whether I went to Church and I said “no, though I used to some time ago”. He then asked a few questions and then said “do you mind me talking about religion, because I like to”. I said “no, not at all”. And as we talked about various things I was struck by his certain belief in his faith (he wasn’t forceful in his opinions – just calm, gentle and confident). It also struck me that he said that Mohammed came for the Arabs because they still had not accepted the teachings of Moses and Jesus; while he believes that Mohammed’s teachings were better recorded than Jesus’s he was very accepting of the three Abrahamic faiths. After that, and for the first time in twenty years, I picked up a bible and began to read. A few weeks afterwards I went to Church for the first time (and the reading was………….…….the prodigal son; spooky!). I then visited both Catholic and CoE churches (I was drawn somehow to the higher Churches, perhaps because they were more familiar now after my wife talking about the Catholic church for 20+ years). I could have been happy in either I am sure (our local CoE is reasonably high, though I wouldn’t class it as Anglo-Catholic). But as my family went to the Catholic church I thought it made most sense to investigate that further (other things being equal, and acknowledging that I would benefit from sharing my faith worship with them) and so I went to see the priest – who was very welcoming and willing to discuss anything (I think we did all the “difficult” subjects) with an educated but relaxed frankness. I also read around the Catholic faith and decided that I felt very comfortable with it as it is today (the recent Catechism; I doubt very much that I would have been happy with the old Catechism).

So that led to where I am today – a new Catholic, baptised Anglican, educated Baptist, confirmed Methodist and inspired back to faith after a long break (involving Buddhism, agnosticism, and atheism) by a Muslim (and so I shall always have a very special place in my heard for the Muslims). My wife says that it is probably time to settle down…..and I think she may be right.

[McCulloch]

Hello Michael and welcome.

I have moved your post to General Chat.

Please take the time to read Debate Forum Intro and Rules. You had posted your comments in one of the forums for debate, but there was no question to debate.