Writing straight with crooked lines: the winding conversion odyssey of Fr. Paul Chaim Benedicta Schenck

Writing straight with crooked lines: the winding conversion odyssey of Fr. Paul Chaim Benedicta Schenck September 2, 2014

And what a journey it is:

I was raised Jewish. My father and his siblings were the first American generation born to descendants of Polish and Austrian Jewish immigrants. My mother was not born Jewish. Her motherwas Catholic and her father Episcopalian. My mother’s mother, only sixteen years of age when she gave birth to my mother, saw to it that she was baptized in the Roman Catholic Rite. On the way to St. Mark’s parish, where my mother was baptized, is a small mission called “St. Margaret’s,” while my mother’s given name is Marjorie, her Christian name is Margaret.

Dec08_5My maternal grandmother died while my mother was still young and her father raised her in the Episcopal Church. After a tragic first marriage that ended in her husband’s suicide, my mother was left a young widow struggling to raise two daughters. My father met her and came to her aid. She converted to Judaism and married him in the Jewish ceremony. Their agreement was to raise their children Jewish. That is why when my twin brother and I were born, we received ritual circumcision, were inducted into the Covenant of Abraham, given Hebrew names (Hillel and Chaim), and enrolled in Hebrew school for six years.

When I entered high school, I was introduced to a group of Christian young people who took their faith very seriously. They met for prayer in the mornings, gathered for late night Bible studies in homes, and were conscientious about church attendance. They were Protestants and Catholics. I began attending a small Methodist chapel in our neighborhood. The minister was a Salvation Army officer, as the congregation could not afford a pastor. I attended the Sunday School, the youth group, and Sunday church services. It was there my brother and I requested baptism after responding to the call to accept Christ in a parish mission. I was baptized “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” on October 11, 1974 by immersion in the river.

My brother and I both became involved in Christian fellowship in school. We attended the prayer meetings, the Bible studies, joined the youth group on evangelistic efforts such as sharing witness in church services, in public places like malls, and door-to-door visitation. I became a volunteer youth counselor with the Billy Graham Association and the Christian Broadcasting Network. I discerned a call to Christian service and thought at first that I would attend the Methodist college and seminary. Then I learned about a missionary Bible college nearby. I arranged to graduate from my high school ayear early and I applied. It was necessary to obtain two referrals from ordained ministers. The pastor of a large evangelical church and my own minister provided the requisite letters, and I was accepted.

And that was just the beginning.  Read it all.


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