The Path In: Inquirer, Catechumen, Reception

What you'll notice

There's a man who's been standing near the back for months. He knows when to cross himself now, and he's stopped flinching at the incense. One morning he's standing before the priest, facing east, and the priest breathes on his face three times, signs his forehead and his breast, and lays a hand on his head. The prayer asks God to remove his "former delusion" and to unite him "to the flock of thine inheritance."¹

Then come three exorcisms, two of them addressed straight to the devil, which is not something you hear at most Sunday services. Then the priest turns the man around to face west and asks him, three times, "Dost thou renounce Satan, and all his Angels, and all his works, and all his service, and all his pride?" Three times: "I do." Then the priest tells him to breathe and spit on the devil, and he does. Turned back to the east, he's asked three times, "Dost thou unite thyself unto Christ?" He says the Creed out loud and bows to the Trinity.²

He walks back to his spot, and he isn't a visitor anymore. He's a catechumen.

What it's called

An inquirer is anyone asking questions about the Church. It's not a rank, and nobody keeps a list. You can be an inquirer for a week or for ten years.

A catechumen (Greek katechoumenos, "one being instructed"; Slavonic oglashennyy, "one who has been announced to") is someone formally enrolled to prepare for baptism or chrismation (the anointing with holy oil that seals entry into the Church). The rite you just watched is printed in Hapgood's service book as "The Prayers at the Reception of Catechumens," at the head of the baptismal service; it calls the goal "holy Illumination," which is the old word for baptism.³

A godparent (Greek nonos or nona, the book word anadochos; Serbian kum) stands with you; Hapgood's English calls the godparent the "Sponsor."⁴ Your patron saint is the saint whose name you'll carry. The day you come in is your reception: by baptism and chrismation, or by chrismation alone if you were already baptized. How Converts Are Received explains which and why.

What's actually happening

Everyone who becomes Orthodox as an adult is received after a time of instruction. Parishes run it differently, but the steps underneath are much the same.

You inquire. You come to Vespers and Liturgy, you read, you ask. Nothing is asked of you yet.

You're made a catechumen. That's the short rite above. From then on you're the person the deacon means when he prays for "the Catechumens" at every Liturgy, and the whole room prays with him. The Litany of the Catechumens is where you'll hear it.

You learn the faith. The core is the Creed, which you'll say aloud at your reception, and the Lord's Prayer. Learn both by heart. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem told his candidates to learn the Creed "not writing it out on paper, but engraving it by the memory upon your heart."⁵ The Creed in Plain Words walks through it line by line.

You choose a godparent. The godparent should be Orthodox. The canonists collected in the Rudder were blunt about it; Hapgood's 1906 notes say the sponsor "ought to be" Orthodox and require any sponsor from another church to recite the Orthodox Creed.⁶ The old canon law treats the bond as real kinship, with its own marriage rules.⁷ For an infant, the sponsor answers the questions; for an adult, the sponsor stands beside you and keeps standing there for years. Family Life, Name Days, and Godparents has more.

You choose a patron saint. If you already have a saint's name, that's the place to start. Learn your saint's life and feast day, because that day becomes your name day. And it's the name you'll hear at the chalice: "The servant of God, N., partaketh of the precious and holy Body and Blood."⁸

You start living it. A Bible, a prayer book, an icon, and if you like a cross to wear and a prayer rope. Short morning and evening prayers, kept every day. Liturgy every Sunday, and other services when you can. You begin giving to the parish. Prayer at Home and Almsgiving and Stewardship cover the details.

If you were already baptized, you make a first confession before you're received. The 1906 Russian rite for receiving baptized converts asks for a confession of "all his sins, which he can recall, from his youth up," and the OCA lists confession alongside chrismation and Communion in its account of how such converts come in.⁹ Confession explains what happens.

Then a date is set. There's no official length to the catechumenate; about a year is common. Which rite you'll receive is your bishop's decision, applied by the priest who catechizes you.

Why it matters

The Church takes its time because it isn't asking you to sign a statement. Saint Paul says those baptized into Christ were "buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). Walking is learned. Becoming a Christian means learning how to live in Christ, and that's slower than learning facts about Him: prayer, fasting, confession, the rhythm of feasts, the habit of showing up.

The catechumen prayers say this in their own idiom. The first exorcism calls the candidate a "newly-enlisted warrior of Christ."¹⁰ Enlistment comes before the battle, and training comes between them.

Field Note: "Breathe and spit upon him." Yes, really. At the renunciation the priest tells the catechumen to breathe and spit on Satan, facing west, where the light goes out.¹¹ It's about the least decorous line in the service books, and it's there on purpose. You're not being asked for an opinion about evil. You're being asked to turn your back on it.

Where it came from

Instruction before baptism is as old as the Gentile mission. At Pentecost, Peter baptized about three thousand people in a day (Acts 2:41), but they were Jews who already knew the Scriptures and were waiting for the Messiah. Pagans had more to unlearn. Hebrews 6:1–2 lists the foundation every believer laid: repentance, faith toward God, baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection, and judgment.

The Didache, an early church manual, says to teach the whole moral instruction first and then baptize, and to have the candidate fast a day or two beforehand.¹² Around 150, Saint Justin Martyr described it from the inside: "As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them." Then, he says, they're brought to the water.¹³

By the fourth century the catechumenate was a public order of the Church. Catechumens heard the readings and the sermon and were dismissed before the prayers of the faithful.¹⁴ The Apostolic Constitutions set three years, with an escape clause: "it is not the length of time, but the course of life, that is judged."¹⁵ That sentence is still the rule of thumb.

What you do

If you're Orthodox: say hello to the people in the back; most catechumens were made at coffee hour long before anyone breathed on them. If someone asks you to be a godparent, know what you're agreeing to. It's a lifelong job, starting with praying for them by name.

If you're visiting: inquiring costs nothing. Come to Vespers, come to Liturgy, read, ask. When you want to begin, tell the priest you'd like to become a catechumen, and tell him how and where you were baptized, if you were. Don't go shopping for the rite you'd prefer; however you're received, you'll be fully Orthodox. And watch for convert zeal: overdone fasting and judging cradle Orthodox are the usual symptoms, and a simple rule and a slower pace are the cure. The First Year After Reception picks up from there.

Go deeper

• Saint Justin Martyr, First Apology 61 (ANF 1), and Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatechesis (NPNF2 7).
• Hapgood, Service Book, "The Prayers at the Reception of Catechumens," pp. 272–276.
• "Navigating Orthodox Initiation: A Catechumen Roadmap" and "The Orthodox Church's Path to Lifelong Discipleship," Simply Orthodox.
• How Converts Are Received and The Litany of the Catechumens.

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