The Pilgrim's Page
Welcome to our pilgrim's page. A pilgrim, like Abraham, is one on a religious journey. We have set up this page to give some insight into our religious journeys, both individually and together, and some of the touchstones along the way. For us, much of that has been through Christian churches we have experienced and by which we have been influenced. So you will find miscellaneous links to information on the various churches and denominations we have encountered and of which we have been members. Because this is our journey, you will not find everything here--only those things that have impinged on our lives.
Though we have tried to be complete, there is no way we could have listed every influence and group of which we have been a part. So we have stuck to the most formative influences, the ones which have shaped and molded us and continue to do so in different ways. We try to offer some brief introductions and explanations to the links you'll find below. But in the end, it is probably impossible to adequately account for all the reasons one church tradition or another has had an impact on us. Also, though you will see a chronology of sorts below, it should not be assumed that because one tradition is earlier than another, that somehow the earlier traditions have been left behind. That would not only probably not be possible, in our case it not true. That is not to say that we have tried to combine all the traditions we've encountered into one big jumbled mess. But it is to say that we have tried to keep what is true and good, and leave behind what is not so worthy.
Finally, though we believe the Church is Christ's Church, we also know it is not perfect. Fallen human beings have frequently made a mess of things. Anna and I have been on the receiving end of very unChristian behavior exhibited by Christians. It is very ugly. Also, since various churches and denominations are not perfect, there are some things that we have difficulty accepting, whether it be certain teachings and traditions, or sociopolitical agendas. Sometimes the Gospel gets muddied up by things that have less to do with the Good New of Jesus, and more to do with the kingdoms of men. So we will not endorse everything you see on the links below. But all the good and bad is part of the story, so we invite you in to listen to the tales told. Look around. Perhaps you will find the same good things we have found and with which we try to fill our lives.
The Church of the Nazarene
Although Anna's family, as she was growing up, did not have a church home per se, Anna eventually found her way to the Hominy Church of the Nazarene, Hominy, OK, where she was raised. She still considers this small-town church her home, and visits when she goes back to see family. The Nazarene Church is a movement that began roughly in the early part of the 20th century as a renewal movement within the Methodist Church, or Wesleyan tradition. The emphasis is on holiness and prayer in the Christian's life. Anna's home church does not have a web page, but I have included a couple of links to the Nazarene Church in general.
The Church of the Nazarene
(Official Website)
NazNet
(Online Fellowship Resources for Nazarenes)
The Restoration Movement Churches
(Independent Christian Churches)
My Christian heritage grew out of the unity movement begun by Barton W. Stone, and Thomas and Alexander Campbell (among others). Later in high school, Anna also joined a local Christian church. The movement out of which these churches grew was an early 19th century attempt to bring Christians together in unity of belief and practice on what they took to be the essentials of Christianity revealed in the New Testament. To restore, if you will, what C S Lewis would later call "mere Christianity." It was thus oriented both around unity and around doctrine. Unfortunately, the focus on unity was not sustained, and the movement eventually separated, first in the mid-19th century into two main groups, Disciples of Christ and the a capella Churches of Christ. Later in the 20th century a group calling themselves the independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ (not to be confused with the a capella churches) split from the Disciples. What has been left behind from this 19th century unity movement are three main groups (though there are many more minor splits), called collectively, Stone-Campell churches (after the three main early leaders), or Campbellites. The more conservative a capella Churches of Christ and the independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ generally prefer the term Restoration Movement, as they see themselves as attempting to "restore" a more simple and pure New Testament Christianity to the Church at large.
You can find out more about these churches from the links below.
The Restoration
Movement
Christian Churches/Churches of
Christ
The Disciples Homepage [NEW!!]
Churches of Christ.org [NEW!!]
Covenant Publishing (where my uncle is editor; website is still under construction) [NEW!!]
College Press Publishing in Joplin, MO [NEW!!]
The Stone-Campbell Journal [NEW!!]
The Episcopal Church (ECUSA)
Growing up in the Restoration Movement churches, I had no real understanding of liturgy, let alone its practice. Similarly, being a reform movement, our churches did not have a strong appreciation for the continuity of the Church through history, or of a present connection with the universal Church. But as a result of a book we used in one of my classes at Ozark Christian College, I began to be more interested in liturgical worship, and how the best liturgical worship attempted to maintain a connection with the historical Church, especially the early Church. Eventually, I came across references to the Book of Common Prayer (which contains the liturgies of the Episcopal Church), and purchased a copy for myself.
The Episcopal Church is the development on American soil of the Church of England. Though many of the early U. S. colonists were attempting to establish their faith apart from the Church of England, nonetheless the Virginia settlement (among others) were Anglican. After the Revolution, of course, the Anglican churches in America formed their own province, and became the Episcopal Church.
My attraction to the Episcopal Church has been through the liturgies which were developed from Scripture and the liturgies of the early Church, the sacramental spirituality, and the connectedness to the historical Church through the episcopate. I have included some links, official, introductory and liturgical, through which you might become more acquainted with the Episcopal Church.
Since becoming involved in the Episcopal Church in 1996, however, I have come to a more critical, but no less appreciative, stance. In the past couple of years or so, the Episcopal Church's leadership at both diocesan and national levels, have taken steps which have all but separated them from historic, orthodox Christianity. There are still many orthodox and faithful bishops, priests, deacons and lay persons (the diocese of Springfield, Illinois is one shining example) at work in the Episcopal Church. But the present power is held by those who have repudiated historic Christian teaching and practice and are engaged in heated and hateful struggle against those in their midst who would stand for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. My prayers and heart go out to those beleaguered faithful. The future of the Episcopal Church lies in their hands.
The Episcopal Church
(Official Website)
What
is the Episcopal Church? (at Anglicans Online)
The Daily
Office in the Book of Common Prayer
St Gregory's
Abbey (And Episcopal monastery for men)
The Orthodox Church
I came across Orthodoxy at least by January 1990, and first knew of the Jesus Prayer in the spring of 1991. I began seriously to investigate the Orthodox Church in the summer of 1991 while reading Peter Gilquist's Becoming Orthodox, but at the time Orthodoxy was still so foreign to me that I eventually passed on to further looks into the Anglican tradition. Later that autumn, around October, I read the Russian classic The Way of a Pilgrim, and about a year later read Timothy Ware's book The Orthodox Church. But at this time it became more a matter of incorporating specific elements of Orthodoxy into my faith practice than of seriously entertaining any notion of becoming a member of the Orthodox Church.
That pattern of occasional reading and specific practical inclusion would remain until the spring of 1999. At that time, while making some vocational decisions, I came to a conscious and deliberate choice to study the early Church fathers. Since that time, I have grown in my appreciation and adherence to Church Tradition, and being a Christian whose heritage is in the Restoration Movement churches, the early Church is of primary interest and focus to me.
The links below will introduce you to various aspects of Orthodoxy. Although there are various administrative jurisdictions in America of the Orthodox Church it does not make a whole lot of difference whether a link below is from the Greek, Antiochian, or other Orthodox jurisdiction.
Orthodox Information
Center
Articles
on a Variety of Topics (from the Antiochian Archdiocese website)
Orthodox WorldLinks (at
Theologic)
A
Restoration Movement Christian's Journey to Orthodoxy (Fr
Gregory Rogers' Testimony)
A Journey
of Fear and Joy (The testimony of John D. Craton, another Restoration
Movement Christian)
Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople
Patriarchate
of Antioch
Antiochian American
Archdiocese
. . . And the Journey Continues
Anna has remarked to me that some folks, looking at all the above, will conclude that I don't know what kind of Christian I want to be. I suppose that may well appear to be the case. The fact of the matter is that I know exactly what kind of Christian I want to be. I'm just trying to find a home in which to be that. The essays linked below explain what I mean.
The Pilgrim Essays, by Clifton D. Healy
Part II: Starting from Cane Ridge [Newly Revised August 04]
Part III: The Road to Canterbury [Newly Revised August 04]
Part IV: Journey to Antioch [Newly Revised March 04]
Part VI: Conclusion [Forthcoming]
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[This page last updated 08 August 2004]