Jump to The order of things The rite, and the part nobody mentions How long it takes How you will be received — and a genuine disagreement A godparent A name The day What is expected of you in the meantime What people actually find hard
There is an article here on what a catechumen is and another on how someone becomes Orthodox. This one is the practical shape of it: what happens, in what order, roughly how long, and what people find hard.
One warning before anything else. Almost everything below varies — by jurisdiction, by bishop, and by the priest in front of you. Where sources disagree, this article says so rather than picking one. Your priest decides your case; a website cannot.
The order of things
Inquirer. You are coming to services, reading, and talking to the priest. There is no ceremony and no commitment. Many people stay here for a long time, and that is not failure.
The Rite of Making a Catechumen. A short service, usually before or after a Liturgy, that formally enrols you.
The catechumenate. Months of instruction, attendance and conversation.
Reception. Baptism, or chrismation, or in a few cases a confession of faith — followed immediately by your first communion.
The rite, and the part nobody mentions
This is worth describing properly, because people arrive at it unprepared and it startles them.
In the standard form published by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, the candidate stands facing east while the priest breathes on the face three times and signs the forehead and breast with the cross. Then come three prayers of exorcism — asking God to drive out every unclean spirit. That language is not softened, and it is not metaphorical in the service’s own terms.
The candidate then turns to face west — the direction the tradition associates with darkness — raises the hands, and is asked three times: Do you renounce Satan, and all his works, and all his worship, and all his angels, and all his pomp?
And after the renunciation, you blow and spit. Physically. That is in the rite.
Then you turn back east, lower your hands, and are asked three times whether you join yourself to Christ. You say the Creed. You bow and worship Him.
An Antiochian parish describes the same shape independently — the threshold, the plain clothes, west then east — so this is not one parish’s idiosyncrasy. Details of wording and rubric differ between service books.
Nobody tells you about the spitting. Now someone has.
How long it takes
The honest answer is a range, not a number.
North American parishes across the OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese converge on something like six months to a year, sometimes considerably longer, and they say plainly that it depends on the bishop, the jurisdiction, and where the person actually is. Many parishes aim for reception at Pascha, which pulls the timetable backward into Lent.
For contrast: the Apostolic Tradition attributed to Hippolytus says catechumens should hear the word for three years. The modern catechumenate is much shorter than the ancient one, and Orthodox sources say so themselves rather than pretending otherwise.
If it is taking longer than you expected, that is not a verdict on you.
How you will be received — and a genuine disagreement
Three paths exist:
- Baptism, for those never baptised, or baptised without water or without the Trinitarian formula.
- Chrismation alone, with confession, for many already baptised with water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in another church. This is stated as the practice of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and appears in OCA guidance for receiving Catholics and many Protestants.
- Confession and profession of faith, without chrismation, used for converts from the non-Chalcedonian churches — Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Syriac.
This is one of the places where sincere Orthodox Christians disagree sharply, and it would be dishonest to flatten it. Some clergy and communities hold that a prior Trinitarian baptism should be received by chrismation; others practise or advocate baptising every convert regardless. Fr Seraphim Rose, who is often claimed by the stricter side, argued against that practice as a sectarian instinct. Historians of the American Church document the disagreement running back a long way.
What every source agrees on is the procedure: the priest decides in consultation with the bishop, and in any case of doubt about a prior baptism the hierarch must be consulted. You cannot work out your own case from reading, and you should not try.
A godparent
You will need an Orthodox sponsor in good standing — someone actually practising, known to the parish. In most places the priest must bless the choice before you ask, so he is part of the decision rather than a rubber stamp.
What is asked of them is real but not enormous: to know the faith or learn it alongside you, to be present, and to keep being present afterwards.
If you know no Orthodox Christians at all — which is common — this is arranged through the priest, who will normally pair you with someone in the parish. That is the usual route rather than a published rule.
A name
You will take a saint’s name. There is no fixed method: the Orthodox Church in America says outright that there is no universal, standard way one is chosen. Some take a saint commemorated near their birthday; many adult converts take the name of a saint whose life meant something to them on the way in. Discuss it with your priest — and read the life properly first, because you will be hearing that name for the rest of your life.
The day
You will be told what to bring — usually a white baptismal garment, a cross, and a candle. If you are being baptised it is full immersion in most practice, and you should expect to be genuinely wet.
Chrismation follows, and then, in the same service, you receive communion for the first time. That is the point of all of it.
What is expected of you in the meantime
Attendance — Sunday Liturgy certainly, Vespers and feasts when you can manage them. Instruction, in a class or one to one. Reading. A daily prayer rule, kept small. Learning the fasting seasons. And meeting the priest regularly, which is the part that actually does the work.
Catechumens do not receive communion. You are, in the Church’s own language, not yet within its canonical boundaries — which sounds colder than it feels in practice, since you are prayed for by name and blessed at every service.
On being dismissed: in some parishes catechumens leave the church after the Litany of the Catechumens, part way through the Liturgy. In others they stay. An Antiochian parish argues that the physical dismissal is a twentieth-century revival rather than an unbroken practice. Both happen; ask what your parish does rather than being caught out.
What people actually find hard
Not the theology.
The length. Orthodoxy is not something you finish, and the catechumenate is deliberately slow. People who arrive at a run find this maddening.
Family. A spouse or parents may hear “I am becoming Orthodox” as “I am leaving you.” Orthodox pastoral writing on this is consistent: patience and shared worship do more than argument, and pressing the case usually costs more than it gains.
Convert zeal. This is written about constantly by Orthodox priests, which tells you how common it is. The pattern: a few months in, you know more theological vocabulary than most of the parish and less than almost anyone about actually living it, and the temptation is to start correcting people — relatives, cradle Orthodox, strangers on the internet. Fr Andrew Stephen Damick names it as zeal not according to knowledge, which curdles into rigorism.
The practical counsel from one Antiochian parish is the best short version: get a spiritual father and actually listen to him; assume the quiet people in the back know things you do not; if something about the parish troubles you, raise it in confession rather than posting it.
A note. These articles explain what the Orthodox Church teaches and why. They are not spiritual direction. Anything touching your own rule of prayer, fasting or confession belongs with your priest or spiritual father, who knows you and your circumstances.
- The Making of a Catechumen — Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America — the text of the rite itself, exorcisms and renunciation included
- What happens during the catechumenate? — St Michael Antiochian Orthodox Church, Texas — and the companion pages on what is expected and on avoiding excessive zeal
- How to become an Orthodox Christian — Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church (OCA) — the six-months-to-a-year range, and its dependence on the bishop
- Reception of adults by baptism or chrismation — Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral — the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s practice
- Chrismation and reception — Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church, Livonia (OCA) — the three pathways, and the rule that the hierarch is consulted in doubtful cases
- Fr Seraphim Rose and “corrective baptism” — Orthodox History — documentation that the disagreement is real and long-running
- Baptismal names — Orthodox Church in America — there is no standard method
- Godparent selection and commitments — St Michael Antiochian Orthodox Church, Greensburg — what a sponsor must be
- Where does zeal for God come from? — Fr Andrew Stephen Damick, Ancient Faith — on zeal that turns into rigorism
- Family concerns and converting to Orthodoxy — Robert Arakaki, Ancient Faith — pastoral counsel from Fr Isaiah Gillette
- Clinton Arnold, “Early Church Catechesis”, JETS 47 (2004) — quotes the Apostolic Tradition on the three-year catechumenate
One passage. One week with it.
Words for the Narrow Way takes a single saying of Christ and gives it seven days — the passage in full, what the Greek is doing, how the Fathers read it, and one practice small enough to actually do.