Stories the numbers don't tell

Received by email and blogged with the sender's permission. The numerical shrinkage of the Episcopal Church includes thousands of these stories that we don't hear over all the bluster and denial:

"This is to let you know that on March 27Th, Lazarus Saturday, I was joyfully received into the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Church after 72 + years in what is now TEo [*]. It was an incredible moment in my life which will unfold forever. Actually as I sat down with the padre the day before for my life confession, an awesome experience, I began to connect a lot of dots in my life and saw the hand of God leading me, saving me, refining me, healing me helping me learn to forgive others and myself, and God(I have been mad at Him in the past) and I just was in awe. There is nothing like going to the throne of grace.

The Orthodox celebrate the Saturday before Palm Sunday as Lazarus Saturday, signifying not only Jesus' last miracle in calling Lazarus out of his tomb but encouraging us to allow Jesus to call us out of our tombs. What tomb have I been living in? As I stood outside the main door of the temple and renounced all heresies and apostasies past and present and then turned around to face East and confirm my faith saying the Nicene Creed and professing Orthodox belief, which was mainly what I learned 50+ years ago in the Episcopal Church, plus a few more things like icons, prayers for the dead, asking saints to intercede for us, (I mean they have time), and relics(I figure God can heal anyway He wants-if people were healed when this sinner prayed for them in my bumbling Spanish He can use anything) I realized that I was really turning from not only my own darkness but the darkness that has invaded my former Episcopal parish.

God has certainly been pushing to get me to this place over the last 10 months. Heading "home" has been an absolutely incredible experience. As I told a friend, if someone had told me this time last year where I would be I would have called him a fool."

[*] TEo means "The Episcopal organization," a blog term descriptive of the denomination's spiritual emptiness.

How sad that she had to go to another tradition to find what the Episcopal Church taught and shared with all Christians just a generation or two ago.