About

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Welcome to Orthodoxical.com – a journey in search of traditional Orthodox Catholic belief.

Hi, I’m Douglas Hippo and I’d like to explain what brought me to starting this blog and my increasing frustration with liberal Christianity and its ‘anything goes’ kind of philosophy.

I’m sorry if you’re a liberal Christian but I feel our journeys are just not compatible, so you may want to leave now. Of course, God willing, you may just be called to make the journey with me. If so, hold on to your hat and try not to be offended.

I was brought up in the Anglican Church in a fairly middle of the road, indistinct kind of church; certainly not liberal mind you – it just didn’t really have any clear direction, and any ‘get up and go’ that it might once have had (I say ‘might’ reservedly, I’m not sure it ever did have much) had long since got up and gone.

I’m not decrying the congregation, they were a lovely bunch of people, and the priest was a holy and humble soul who clearly loved his flock but his preaching left a lot to be desired – it just went over our heads. Oh, he was well meaning but just couldn’t relate his wisdom (and he was wise) to our ordinary level.

Consequently, I was a luke warm Christian who was going nowhere.

Then one day I had an experience of the power and presence of God. The experience itself was remarkable enough but more remarkable was the wake up call it gave me. Suddenly, my faith came alive and has been a power house for me ever since.

It was shortly after my life changing experience that I first felt a call to vocation and began to explore ordained ministry. The road I set out on back then was to be a long and arduous, and at times miserable, one and which proved ultimately to be the wrong road. Even now I still feel called to be a priest but I’m glad it never came about – I would not have made a good priest; I’m too lazy for a start.

So what is my vocation? All these many years later that is something I’m still exploring.

But one good thing that did come about, sort of in tandem with my experience and sense of calling, was an introduction to the Catholic Renewal movement within the Anglican Church.

Whereas once I would have been perfectly and ignorantly happy to call myself a Protestant, I now discovered the beauties of Anglo Catholic worship and belief. Safe to say I’ve spent most of the next thirty or so years since then worshipping as much and as often as I could in ‘Anglo Catholic’ churches where the liturgy and spirituality would come alive and fire me up for the coming days and weeks until my next ‘fix’.

Sadly, the liberals have grown increasingly powerful and obstinate in the Anglican Church and aren’t content with imposing their own way, they now want an end to diversity (i.e. Catholics) in the Church. At least, that’s the impression I get and one I ceased to be comfortable with a few years ago.

Consequently I am currently and ever so tentatively edging ever nearer to Rome – or so I thought; since first writing this piece I have discovered that, in fact, my calling (if you can call it that) is to the Orthodox Church. You can find more of the tale of my journey in my later postings..

But the tale I’ve related so far doesn’t really answer why I started this blog.

The answer to that lies some years ago, in the early nineties, and followed yet another ‘goodbye’ from my then Director of Ordinands. As luck would have it I was soon to be going away for a few days with my, then young, family and decided to spend some time trying to sort out just what my vocation was and where it was leading me if it wasn’t to ordination.

The tale of what happened to me that week is quite lengthy and one I’m not going to inflict on you here. Basically, I was wandering along one day on my daily walk when I noticed, just off the road ahead of me, a field full of sheep. Then I saw that the fence in the corner of the field nearest to me was broken down, allowing the sheep the possibility they could easily get out and stray.

My first though was, ‘Oh. I ought to do something about that’, but then I thought, ‘No. Don’t get involved. It’s not your problem’.

Then, like an enormous though harmless electric shock, I got the distinct feeling of having been scolded. Followed instantly by a voice I couldn’t physically hear saying to me, “I am making it your problem! My sheep are straying and I want you to help me bring them back”.

Needless to say I recognised the voice as being God’s and also that he wasn’t talking about these sheep in this field. And, although I knew he was talking about Christians, I also got the distinct impression it was Christians in the global sense and not just Anglicans. Further more, he was referring, I’m now sure, to lapsed and misguided Christians who have lost their way and need guiding back.

What was I to do?

I’d only just been turned down for ordained priesthood, so how could I fulfil this new, and rather dramatic, opening up of my vocation?

That is something I’ve been wrestling with ever since, including further attempts at scaling the walls of priesthood. I’ve even considered writing books but just can’t seem to get started. Mostly I’ve just floundered about whilst praying and asking for guidance.

Slowly, and somewhat painfully, I’ve come to the conclusion that God wants me to talk about my beliefs in a way that will attract (God willing) the wandering masses back to the fold. Hence my feeble attempts with this blog.

The articles appearing on this site are generally my own and form my own opinions; although I make every attempt to keep in step with official teaching the articles do not necessarily conform to the teaching and dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church nor (more particularly for me) the Orthodox Rite Churches. I do, however, stand prepared to be corrected.

I’m no theologian, though, so the road may be bumpy and with a few pot-holes but I trust it won’t be blocked or diverted. I’m also trusting that God has got some kind of spiritual ‘SatNav’ for me: I’m thinking of His admonition to us about not worrying what to say because, when the time comes, we will be given what to say. Well, if I’m right, the time for me has come.

If you’re coming with me, welcome to the journey; but regardless of whether you are or not, please pray for me and the task now looming frighteningly large in front of me.

Now, where’s that SatNav?