I know what it’s like to begin embracing the faith of the Apostles…

 

I was raised Anglican in the Virgin Islands. Baptized and confirmed. Served on the altar. Went to All Saints Cathedral School from Kindergarten to twelfth grade.

 

But like I said in the beginning of this journey, I began questioning Christianity early…

 

It began as abstract questioning. I had no issues with the Christianity I experienced. But, what I read in history bothered me.

 

Then I moved to Delaware for college…

 

For the first time in my conscious life, I was living in an environment where I was no longer in the majority. And White supremacy smacked me in the face. I began to experience Christianity differently.

 

And that experience drove me to make a change…

 

But, I didn’t know about the faith of the Apostles. I didn’t know there was a different expression of Christian faith other than Western Christianity. I didn’t even know enough to distinguish what I did know as “Western Christianity.”

 

All I knew was that this thing that was presented to me as Christianity was some bull…

 

And I wanted no part of it anymore.

 

So, I converted to Rastafarianism.

 

Where Western Christianity and Western Theology denied my Black identity as being created in the image of God…where the Western Church tried to convince me that my Blackness was no longer important…that I could abandon my Blackness and just be Christian – as White supremacy had interpreted the faith…

 

Rastafarianism restored my sense of Blackness and gave me a sense of the holiness of my identity as created in God’s image.

 

And as I learned more about Rastafarianism, I learned more about Haile Selassie and Ethiopia…

 

As I learned more about Ethiopia, I learned about Orthodoxy – i.e. “the Straight Way.”  

 

 

 

It’s funny that we should even call it Orthodox Christianity…

 

That’s proof of White supremacy and Western hegemony… Somehow, “Christian” means Western. In order to identify the faith of the Apostles, you need to add an adjective. The faith – as established by Jesus and passed on by the Apostles is not just “Christian,” period. It is Orthodox Christian…

 

 

Anyway…

 

When I found Orthodoxy, my spiritual father made me do a study that would help my conversion…to help me make the transition from Western thinking on Christianity toward the Ancient perspective.

 

In his wisdom, he understood that this one thing needed to be embraced in order for me to be liberated from Western Christianity and begin to embrace the faith as it was given to us…

 

He had me do a study on grace…

 

You see, we are “saved by grace” and invited to share in His grace. But what does that all mean?

 

Our understanding of grace…our embrace of grace…our relationship to grace is the foundational difference between a Christian faith that oppresses some and a faith that liberates all.

 

And that’s what we should want, right?

 

 

 

We need grace to survive. We need grace to thrive. We need grace to become Beloved Community. But if we misunderstand grace…if we hold to a misinterpretation of grace, we can never be responsible with grace – if we’re able to access it at all.

 

But, with a proper understanding of grace we are empowered to “walk worthy of the calling to which we are called.” We are enable to “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

 

We understand that “walking worthy” is a constant and “pressing toward” takes intentionality and diligence.

 

We are equipped to become the Church, as opposed to just coming to Church.

 

And that’s a faith worth having, right?

 

 

And to have that faith we must be serious about it…

 

You see, our culture encourages us to take the Holy Spirit for granted. The Spirit gives grace and we just dwell in it. We forget that Christ ascended into heaven and so while He came among us as one who serves, He returned to the Right Hand of Power.

 

Yet we have a faith that tells us God exists to serve us…

 

And so, we allow Western Civilization to trick us into thinking we don’t have to learn anything about theology. We don’t need to learn anything about virtue and vice. We don’t need to learn about confronting the enemy. 

 

All we need to learn is that Christ died for our sins, and that by believing in Him we are saved…

 

…a faith that helps you to climb out of the pit.

 

If you’re ready to make that climb…