Why I'm Joining the Episcopal Church

Interior of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, CA, where my family and I will be received in the Episcopal Church during the Easter Vigil.

Tomorrow, during the Great Easter Vigil at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, my family and I will be received into the Episcopal Church.

It has been a long and painful journey and after six years of traveling, it looks like I'm finally arriving somewhere. As many of you know, I have been flirting with Anglicanism for many years now. After reflecting for a while, I decided at one point to remain in the Roman Catholic Church.  But now I have discerned that it is time to leave. So what changed?

Before delving into the reasons for leaving the Roman Catholic Church and joining the Anglican Communion, let me make clear that I still love the Catholic Church. There has not been any one event that has made me want to leave.

Why then, am I leaving?

I am simply leaving to follow God's calling on my life. 

Yes, I still have some disagreements theologically with the Roman Catholic Church. I disagree with their views on women ordination and closed communion, among others. But as I mentioned before, these disagreements were not enough for me to leave the Roman Catholic Church just yet. I still loved the Roman Catholic Church and I was willing to live with the disagreements.

This is how it went down: while in prayer on an otherwise uneventful day, I heard the surprising and shocking call to join the Episcopal Church. I was feeling very comfortable in my Roman Catholic nest and then all of that changed that afternoon when I heard in prayer "I have called you into the Episcopal Church."

After this disrupting event during prayer a few months ago I was filled with great confusion. There were also moments of great joy and excitement, alongside moments of grief and fear.

I felt joy and excitement because joining the Episcopal Church would allow me to pursue and discern a calling to the Priesthood as a married man. I had resigned, with some difficulty, from pursuing this call because I also felt called towards marriage. As a married man, the doors to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church are pretty much closed to me.

I felt grief and fear because I was entering into a future that is still unknown to me while at the same time leaving the comfort of what I have known since I was a child. My flirting with Anglicanism has been just that, flirting, and now I realize that I never would have made the move to Canterbury on my own. I needed God's pushing for me to dive and swim to the other side of the river.

I now realize why I couldn't do this on my own: fear. This is a move I've been wanting to do for many years now, but when the Roman Catholic Church instills in your soul from childhood that they are the only one and true Church, letting go of those ideas can't be done overnight. Even when your mind and soul knows this not to be true, there is a part of you that still holds on to past ideas. I needed God's hands to gently push me to make the move.

I also feel fear that others will perceive this move as a betrayal. Perhaps some will feel that I am abandoning the Catholic faith. Make no mistake, I am not abandoning the Catholic faith. My faith in the Sacraments, the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, heck, even in purgatory, remains untouched.

One of the most attractive aspects of Anglicanism is its broadness and inclusion of Catholic and Reformed traditions. There are many Anglo-Catholics in the Episcopal Church whose Catholicism can be as intense (or even more intense!) as many Roman Catholics'. This broadness also makes it possible for me to engage with some Protestant traditions and theologians without the guilt that accompanied such engagements in the past.

Since the beginning of my walk with Jesus, I have been in contact with Christians of other faith traditions. I have engaged with Protestant theologians and I have found much value in what they say. This engagement almost always left me with a sense of guilt. This guilt stemmed from the fact that the Roman Catholic Church considered these theologians heretics. 

The Episcopal Church feels to me like a more ecumenical place to be, and being in this Church would give me more theological room to breathe. This theological breath was what first attracted me to Anglicanism six years ago, and it is what catapulted me into this journey.

This post wouldn't be complete without the mention of my classmates and the staff from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Episcopal seminary I'm currently attending. You welcomed me and loved me long before I became part of the Episcopal Church. For that, I am eternally thankful. You also taught me how to love the Anglican liturgy and the Book of Common Prayer, which I now regard as huge treasures for the Church!

Thank you to all of you who walked with me in this long journey. I continue to rely on your prayers and guidance. May God continue blessing us all on this journey towards Christ and His Kingdom as simple followers of Jesus. Amen.