Journey to Orthodoxy – Werner Meyer-Hellige

       On first acquaintance, Werner Meyer-Hellige did not appear to be a likely candidate for conversion. Born in 1889 into a privileged family, he left a career in the German military in 1921, when he inherited his father’s firm of A.I. Eisfeld, a successful establishment that manufactured pyrotechnical supplies and explosives. It was located on a…

Journey to Orthodoxy – Seraphim

To describe my path to Orthodox Christianity not only reveals a philosophical/theological change, but a painful dislocation in terms of custom, language, and social contacts. Now, after years of wandering in the desert, I give glory to God for bringing me into the Promised Land, among His chosen people. I was born of an unwed…

A Convert’s Journey

    What are the things which bring a person to Orthodoxy? First and always there is, of course, the grace of God. But there are also those who come in order to escape something –viz., modernism and renovationism in today’s Christian sects. Some come for aesthetic reasons–because the Liturgy, temples, vestments, etc., appeal to their artistic…

The Anatomy of a Conversion

(From a lecture delivered at the St. Herman Winter Pilgrimage, Feb. 1984)      A modern Russian novel may seem to be a rather strange choice as a topic for a lecture to a group of English-speaking Orthodox-especially on the eve of Great Lent. This particular book is a work of some 550 pages written in rather…