I was a sixth-generation Episcopalian - there's some inertia for you, though nothing on a par with giving up ones career. My family and I hesitated for a long time, even though the writing was plainly on the wall and had been since the first days of Pike and Spong.
We found a happy and welcoming home in the Catholic church - a wonderful, orthodox parish with priests who preach the Gospel with fervor. (And we didn't even have to give up our beautiful English music, because the choirmaster is a huge fan of Tallis, Byrd, et al. You'd think that wouldn't matter, but to somebody whose family have been church musicians since the 1890s . . . )
My only regret is that we didn't cross the Tiber sooner. As I've told others on FR, we were mourning beside a dead body when the Church was alive and well and waiting patiently for us, just around the corner.
We will keep you in our prayers.
Thanks, American Mother. I am much encouraged by your remarks. Many who have gone to Rome have spoken similar sentiments. I will be wonderful simply to worship without ECUSA's din ringing in my ears.
I concur. I left in the middle of being on a rector search committee. Talk about leaving with maximum exposure! But once we were in the safety of the Church away from the heterodoxy, it's amazing how much spiritual growth has occurred, how much I'm learning.
Alice, you talked at Pontifications about the freedom to able to focus on spiritual matters. I must confess that the last couple of years in ECUSA, I found that I used my own spiritual walk as an example, as a badge almost. I was living in a fishbowl because I was the ringleader of dissenting voices from GC2003. I didn't realize, until I left, that it had become a point of pride for me.
I pray for you rest from your weariness, joy in the fullness of the faith, and healing in the Real Body and Blood of Christ.