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Frederica Mathewes-Green , a native of Charleston, South Carolina, is a regular commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition and other media outlets, a columnist for Beliefnet, and a regular contributor to Christianity Today, which she formerly served as a columnist. Last October, Dick Staub interviewed her about her spiritual journey and her book The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation. Now she's back to talk about a kind of sequel to that volume: The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer (Paraclete Press).

We've heard the story of your journey to Christianity, and then Eastern Orthodoxy, before. But could you quickly summarize it for those who haven't?

I was raised in a nominal Roman Catholic home, but without any really strong faith there. As a teenager and a student, I totally cast away the Christian faith. I just believed it was stupid and only stupid people could believe it. I actually became an anti-Christian, and very antagonistic.

After I graduated from college, while traveling around Europe, hitchhiking, doing the tourist thing, I went into a church in Dublin. At that point I was calling myself a Hindu, but even if you're a Hindu, you've got to look into churches when you're in Europe. And I was looking at a statue of Jesus. I can't explain it. I just was looking at the statue, and the next minute I knew I was kneeling down.

And I could hear an interior voice, not with my ears, but I could like hear a voice inside speaking to me and saying, "I am your life. I am the foundation of everything in your life." And it was a big surprise. I thought I had the whole world figured out. I thought all religions were equal, and it's just this delightful garden of spiritual flowers you just stroll through. And probably Jesus was just this mythological figure people made up.

It was like a brick to the head. It was the most bracingly real experience I've ever had. In comparison, the rest of life seems like a dream. It took me about a week—I was on my honeymoon—before I could even talk to my husband about it.

It was about six months, we had both started seminary, really as seekers, not as believers. A friend of ours said, "Had you ever taken Jesus as your Lord?" And we said, "Huh?" You know, nobody talks that way to liberal, educated people. But we all knelt down, and he helped to lead us through the prayer where we really committed ourselves.

How long was it from that time to your journey into Orthodoxy?

That was 1974, and we became Orthodox in 1993. It was kind of like a rocket ship. You have the thing that boosts you out, and then you have the next force that pulls you in. The out stage was the painful stage because my husband had been an Episcopal priest.

We were very happy and content in the renewal wing of the Episcopal Church. But a little bit more than ten years ago—history repeats itself—there was a general convention, and at that time already there were some warning signs. There were bishops who were denying the resurrection, and the Creed, and there was a resolution at this convention that said clergy should abstain from sex outside of marriage. You wouldn't think this would come up for a vote, but it did. And the resolution was defeated.

When that happened, we began to see where else could we go. My husband visited an Orthodox church and was immediately very drawn to it.

Had you had any exposure to Orthodoxy prior to that?

None at all. And I went with him to this church and I didn't like it at all. My feet hurt. Why are we standing up all the time?

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September (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47