Am I Becoming Orthodox?

Orthodoxy, Catholicism, & The Future of Barrel Aged Faith

Dear Friends,

Last Friday, I made a short announcement on my Youtube channel that my family and I are making a transition from Roman Catholicism to Catholic Orthodoxy. This was a difficult announcement but a necessary one.

I then took some time off to be with one of my best friends (who is a devout Catholic) in order to go hiking throughout the beautiful gorge of Hocking Hills in Ohio. (The place felt like it came straight out of Middle Earth!) For this reason, it has been a little quiet on my substack this week.

To some people, this comes as a great shock, because of my close ties with so many faithful Christians and priests within the Catholic world. For others, this move may not be a surprise since they know that just about every article and video I have created held the Orthodox in very high regards and often referenced the Eastern fathers.

There is no doubt that this decision brings about both joy and sorrow within me. I have actually wept over this decision for many years now with the Lord as I contemplated it and prayed through it. Unfortunately, all Christians are not in full communion yet, and this brings a certain heartache to me and of course, to Christ. Sometimes we forget that although J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were very close friends, they too were not in ‘full communion’ with one another since Tolkien was a Catholic and Lewis an Anglican. They held much in common, but they did not partake of communion together due to different ecclesial understandings of what Christ handed down to us through the Apostles.

Since posting my video, people have asked me many questions. Of course, I do not have the time to respond to each one of them and some of them can even be quite complex theologically. The Catholic/Orthodox dialogue goes very deep and is a bit unlike the Catholic/Protestant or Orthodox/Protestant dialogue. Therefore, I will be posting videos, publishing articles, and writing books over the next several months and years that share my thinking in regards to many of these questions.

The Future of Barrel Aged Faith

When I started BAF a year and half ago, I knew it was possible that this day would come. This is why I shaped this online ministry the way that it is and why it will not change a lot. I will still be talking about the imaginative world of Scripture and the Fathers with the help of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I will still have interviews with people from various back grounds such as thoughtful Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox who love the Inklings and ancient Christianity. However, BAF will be anchored in the Orthodox tradition, and my own Orthodox journey will overflow into everything that I do. I will also be interviewing many guests who are in the Orthodox world, and they will share their own journeys into the Orthodox Catholic Church. For some of my subscribers, both free and paid, this will be too much and will feel the need to unsubscribe. This is okay, and it is something that I expected. Other Protestant and Catholic subscribers may not fully support my decision, but they want to remain close to me and this ministry. I am humbled by your support and thank God for all of you whether you need to leave or you plan to stick around.

Please keep me and my family in your prayers. I love everyone so much, and the most important thing is that we unite ourselves with Christ and share the riches of knowing Him with the world. Let us be able to embrace the same mind as the Apostle Paul when he sates,

“I consider my life worth nothing to me unless to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).

Be entirely His,

Kyle