Coming out

When I was 16, I was considering converting to Roman Catholicism. I was even on the RCIA course at my local RC parish church. This proved to be an exercise in futility, as I was being treated as a child. All it served to do was to demonstrate the ignorance of this particular deacon about Anglicanism. I can only imagine that he had read some four-page guide on What Anglicans believe, as he had so many misconceptions about us that the course became increasingly frustrating with each session, as he made known his assumptions that I wouldn't know about the Real Presence, or vestments, or the number of Sacraments, or what the role of a priest is at Mass. It was this that made me give up in the end. Do English RCs really think that all Anglicans are raving protestants?

However, my little rant aside. While all of this was going on, it was very difficult of me to tell people who knew me well that I was considering leaving Anglicanism. It isn't just about belief: there are both an entire network of people and a whole culture to leave behind, and people can see this as a rejection of that, even if they are understanding about the faith aspect of it.

Nearly six years later, I am concerned about the same. I do not know yet what will happen over the next few weeks, months or years, but there are certain of my friends to whom I could not even show this blog without eliciting a bad reaction. I am very much at the beginning of my questioning and searching, and so I have no intention of saying anything to anybody that may cause upset, but if I get to the point where a decision is made, this is something that I shall have to do. There are ordained friends of mine, both male and female, who could see this as a rejection of their entire ministries and the validity of their orders, which they hold so dearly.

In my reading of scripture, the Fathers and in my own reasoning, I can find no convincing theological objection to the ordination of women to the priesthood. However, I do not believe that I alone, in my reasoning, can discern the Truth. Orthodoxy has not accepted this, whether because it is felt to be impossible, or because it believes that the Church must decide this as a whole, through an oecumenical council. In any case, I must follow what the Church teaches. I do not reject Anglican Orders, regardless of who they are conferred upon, but if I do convert, I can see how many of my friends may think that I do reject them, and much else that comes along with Anglicanism.

There must be people reading who have converted at some point and faced the same issue. How did you go about coming out? Did it cause any permanent rifts? Did your removal of yourself from a culture in which you had spent most of your life cause you any degree of lasting pain?

I would be very glad to hear back.