"The Orthodox Church is Evangelical, but not Protestant. It is orthodox, but not Jewish. It is Catholic, but not Roman. It isn't non-denominational - it is pre-denominational. It has believed, taught, preserved, defended and died for the Apostolic Faith since the Day of Pentecost 2000 years ago."

I am an Orthodox Christian convert (though a Greek Orthodox bishop once reproved me for referring to myself as a "convert" - he said that everyone is a convert!). I was raised in a Protestant denomination and never really felt any dissatisfaction or compulsion to leave (except for the stereotypical college drift), until I began to seriously study Christian history and theology, as part of a discernment process for a call to the ordained ministry.

The closest I had ever come to Orthodoxy was touring the church and eating baklava at the local Greek festival, so "gobsmacked" is a pretty fair description of what I felt when I discovered the ancient Church - the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I'm a theology and history geek. My idea of fun is curling up with a good book by Jaroslav Pelikan or a smackdown discussion of the nature of the Trinity. As my grandmother would often say, "It's better than stealing hubcaps."