Paul Kingsnorth, one of the most important English writers alive, was baptized as a Christian Orthodox at the Romanian Monastery in Shannonbridge, Ireland, informs orthodoxtimes.

“As a Western newcomer to Orthodoxy, I have a lifetime’s learning journey ahead of me, but I already feel like I have arrived home,” said the writer.

“I first discovered Christian Orthodoxy four years ago when I walked into a small church in Bucharest. That powerful experience stayed with me, but I could not have known that it would lead me on a journey that would lead to me becoming a member of the Romanian church,” Paul Kingsnorth told Basilica.ro.

He was baptized by his spiritual advisor, the parish priest of the Romanian community in Galway. The clergyman said he never tried to convert the writer. They met at the Romanian Orthodox Monastery of Shannonbridge, Ireland, and had some long talks. He wanted to make the writer understand that being a Christian is permanent work and the joy you feel is supposed to be one of a spiritual nature.

Even though he had many spiritual searches, Paul Kingsnorth had never been baptized in another Christian denomination. “In January 2021 I was baptized and received into the Eastern Orthodox Church. I don’t know where the path leads from here, but at last, I know how to walk it.”