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This article was first published in AGAIN magazine, July-September 2002 (volume 24 No. 3). It has been reprinted with permission.

A Long Road

By Douglas B. Trent

As I began to attempt to write an article that tells the story of how St. John the Forerunner Orthodox Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, came to be, I realized that the challenge would not be to find enough to say, but rather to condense the experience of this church community into a number of words appropriate for a magazine article. For you see, the story that I will attempt to tell is at least twenty-seven years in the making.

Twenty-seven years represent a mere grain in the sands of time, but to the faithful of St. John the Forerunner Orthodox Church they represent most or all of our adult lives spent together in the pursuit of the Kingdom of God. They also represent the hundreds of people who have come and gone, or who have otherwise been touched by the grace of God as a result of a group of people coming together and daring to ask God to come and dwell with them.

St. John the Forerunner Orthodox Church came into being on July 10, 2002, as approximately one hundred souls were received into the Holy Orthodox Church via the Sacrament of Chrismation by His Grace JOB, Bishop of Chicago and the Midwest in the Orthodox Church in America. On August 16, 2002, Fr. Joseph Gibson was ordained to the priesthood, and the faithful of St. John the Forerunner have begun to celebrate the Divine Liturgy and partake of the one Eucharist instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I have told you the end of the story. I must now go back and tell you how we got here. What is now St. John the Forerunner Orthodox Church began as a group of primarily evangelical Christians who sensed the call of God and began meeting together on Sunday mornings in the basement of a home in Indianapolis, Indiana, and later in a disused warehouse. The stated goal of these Christians was to take the Holy Scriptures seriously and to believe that the dynamic activity of God and the Church as expressed in the Scriptures was not merely historical and could be experienced in the present. In short, these believers sought to be as the Church was in the time of the Apostles.

In the mid-1970s, the leader of this group of Christians, Kenneth Samuel Jensen, met a dynamic man by the name of Peter Gillquist. Through this meeting a relationship was established with what was called the New Covenant Apostolic Order. The New Covenant Apostolic Order was the basis for what became the Evangelical Orthodox Church in 1979.

The Evangelical Orthodox Church was for us in Indianapolis, in the words of C. S. Lewis in The Last Battle, going “further up and further in.” In a sense, the EOC was for us proof of the old saying, “Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.” For you see, what we found was that this Church of the Apostles that we sought was liturgical, it was sacramental, and it had not (as we had suspected) been lost centuries ago. Through the EOC, we were introduced to the Fathers of the Church and the truth of the Faith they had defended. We discovered that the worship of the Church through the ages had followed a form referred to as “liturgy.” At the same time, our church community grew and was molded in the bonds of Christian love and fellowship.

In Search of American Orthodoxy

We continued to grow in our understanding of the Orthodox Faith and the practices of the historical Church. During the period between 1979 and 1986, what had then become Holy Trinity Evangelical Orthodox Church adopted liturgical practices taken primarily from Western sources, such as the Anglican Church and the Lutheran Church. While our theology was taken from the Eastern Christian tradition, our worship had a decidedly Western flavor.

Unbeknownst to most of us in Indianapolis, many of the other churches in the EOC had already begun to marry the Eastern Christian theology they had discovered to the Eastern tradition of prayer. In 1987, a large portion of the EOC entered into the Holy Orthodox Church under the omo-phorion of Metropolitan Philip Saliba of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America. This transition has been well chronicled in Becoming Orthodox by Fr. Peter Gillquist and in other publications. Therefore, I see no need to make further comment about that except to say, “Thanks be to God!”

What has not been well chronicled is what happened to some of the rest of us who did not enter the Orthodox Church at that time. The years immediately following what many of us referred to as “the split” were exciting. We began to seriously pursue a deeper understanding of the Orthodox Faith, reading contemporary Orthodox writers such as Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Fr. John Meyendorff, John Zizioulas, Christos Yannaras, and Fr. Georges Florovsky. Oops! Be careful what you ask for. The years that followed were spent redefining the vision for the Evangelical Orthodox Church.

At Holy Trinity EOC in Indianapolis, there was a growing sense of awareness that we needed to marry the theology we had come to believe with our practice of worship and spirituality. In a sense, you could say it was here that the “trouble” began. Around 1993, with the assistance of the monks of New Skete Monastery, we began to implement the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and other aspects of the liturgical life of the Church, such as the services of Vespers and Matins. It was, in the opinion of this writer, this step that started the ball rolling toward the eventual union with the Holy Orthodox Church.

One of the objectives of the Evangelical Orthodox Church, as we understood it, was to strive for a truly American _expression of Orthodoxy. It had been our judgment that Eastern-rite worship was, so to speak, “hard to sell” in America. This was no small struggle in our own context, but our faithful set about the task of learning the Eastern rite and were formed by it.

From my personal perspective, it was the repetition of the services of Holy Week and Pascha for several years that really began to erode the validity of the idea of an alternate Orthodoxy. What we confronted was that, in particular during the season of Great Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha, the Orthodox Church sets aside its disputes, jurisdictional and otherwise, and feasts in the risen Savior. It was at this time of the year that we experienced both joy in the victory of Christ and a sadness at our separation from others who held the same beliefs we did.

There was a growing sense of our isolation and poverty amongst a number of the clergy and laity of Holy Trinity EOC. However, it was in the wake of a particularly difficult time in our church, and upon the occasion of the retirement of our Bishop Kenneth Samuel Jensen in December 2000, that we began to seriously evaluate the direction in which we were heading.

EOC Bishop Kenneth Samuel had led and served this church community for twenty-five years. Given our understanding of eucharistic ecclesiology, we knew that in order for the church to be constituted we needed to have a bishop. This is what was taught by St. Ignatius of Antioch in the early centuries of the Church. Bishop Jensen’s retirement brought into the forefront a question that had been lurking beneath the surface for some time. What is an Orthodox bishop and where is one found? Is a bishop simply a man raised up by God to shepherd a flock, or is there more to it? What about his connection to the other Orthodox bishops? What about his connection to the bishops who have guarded the Faith of the Apostles throughout the centuries?

The question at hand was whether we should continue to labor with the EOC, attempting to establish a so-called “American” _expression of Orthodoxy, or whether it was time at last to humbly present ourselves to the Orthodox Church here in North America. Would God give us another good and faithful man to shepherd us in isolation, or was it time to find, in the words of Fr. Lev Gillet, “one of the appointed teachers of the faith” to be our archpastor and spiritual father?

Finding a Father

Over the next eight months, we had conversations within our community and with the other bishops of the EOC to discern the direction in which God would lead us. In August of 2001, it was mutually agreed that the clergy of Holy Trinity EOC were no longer on the same path as the bishops of the EOC, and the relationship officially ended. Needless to say, there were and are a variety of emotions, ranging from sadness over the division to gratitude for the years that we journeyed together.

As we had come to believe that the sacramental life and unity of the Church is manifested in the bishop, and as we did not have a bishop, we suspended our eucharistic services in September of 2001. Obviously, with the horrifying events of September 11, our hearts were heavy, but God sustained us during this period. We continued to meet and to pray together as we could, using reader’s services. This period of our lives without participation in the Holy Eucharist was like the nation of Israel walking in the desert being led by God. He sustained us with the reader’s prayers we were able to pray and the fellowship He had kindled between us. It was like manna from heaven.

Over the months that followed, we spoke with local Orthodox clergy and had visits from a variety of Orthodox clergy, including Fr. Peter Gillquist. This visit in particular was a joy to many in the community, as it afforded something of a connection to our heritage. In December 2001, we received a visit from His Grace JOB of the Orthodox Church in America. The relationship with the man that God would give us as our new bishop was initiated that night.

In January 2002, three of the leaders of the community journeyed to Chicago to deliver our formal request to be received as catechumens in the Orthodox Church in America. Here we could embrace the fullness of the Church as it has existed for over two hundred years in North America. Here we could humbly offer the gifts we believed God had given us, working together with our countless brothers and sisters who share this goal of a united Orthodoxy in North America. Here we could find a loving archpastor and spiritual father who has an organic connection with the other Orthodox bishops and with those faithful bishops who have gone before.

On February 13, 2002, in excess of one hundred persons were received as catechumens under the protection of the Holy Orthodox Church. There was much joy and weeping. Perhaps the most remarkable and joyous aspect of our catechetical period was the support shown to us by the other Orthodox churches in the central Indiana area. At our reception into the catechumenate there were clergy from several jurisdictions present, including the OCA, the Antiochian Archdiocese, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church.

During the months of February through May, catechetical instruction was conducted by leaders of the community along with local Orthodox clergy and His Grace JOB himself. It was a time of exploration, unification, and excitement.

On July 10, 2002, His Grace JOB received us into the Holy Orthodox Church by means of the Sacrament of Chrismation. As each of us made confession and received the Holy Chrism, we could sense the weariness of our journey fading away. In a sense, we had endured a trial. But to a greater degree, we had set our feet to the path that God had put before us. It was at once an arrival, a continuation, and the beginning of a journey.

Why the name change? One of the realizations that we came to rather quickly was that we were a part of a larger family now. Our decisions and actions affected other church communities and other Christians in our immediate area. Through our own consideration and by way of input from our Orthodox brethren in the city, it became apparent that a name change was in order. We had been Holy Trinity EOC for approximately twenty years. There was already a Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Indianapolis, which had been here much longer. We now had an older-sister parish, and it was appropriate for us to defer to her.

Another reason for the name change was that we were making a new beginning, and it seemed right to mark the beginning of this new phase of our life by taking a new name. After all, it is common practice for newly chrismated Christians to take a spiritual name and for some clergy to take a new name at ordination. After some discussion in the community, the decision was made to make a change.

Now the question was whom to take as a patron. Whom would we ask to pray and intercede on our behalf? This task became a real opportunity for our community to unify. It was decided that we would choose three names, submit them to His Grace JOB, and ask him to name us. The meeting that was held to discuss this matter was truly a blessing. There were seven names put forward, with each nominator expressing his or her experience of how a particular saint had demonstrated similarities to the life of our community or of how the saint could be a strong advocate for us.

In the end, St. John the Forerunner, the Theotokos, and St. Michael the Archangel were selected, and a letter was sent to His Grace JOB asking him to choose one. On the night of the chrismation service, he officially gave us St. John the Forerunner as our patron to watch over us and to intercede on our behalf to the Holy Trinity.

Our years as Holy Trinity EOC were truly a blessing, as in a very real sense the Holy Trinity was our patron. God Himself watched over us and sustained us during our years of journey. Now we have been given the one who came to prepare the way of the Lord, the one who said of himself that he was not fit to untie the Lord’s sandal. May we as well be able to prepare the way for the Lord in our own hearts and in the world around us. May we attain the same humility and self-sacrifice as St. John. Holy Forerunner, pray for us.

In the ensuing weeks we have installed a new sign bearing the name of St. John the Forerunner, installed a new iconostasis, and celebrated our first wedding in the Orthodox Church. Earlier in this article I stated that I had told you the end of the story. This is not quite accurate. We do not know the end of the story. We only know that whatever comes our way, God is good, and we will be sustained.

Douglas Trent served as a priest at Holy Trinity Evangelical Orthodox Church for fourteen years. He and his wife Michele have two sons in college, one son in high school and a six year old daughter who keeps them young.