I first heard about the Orthodox Church in 1968 at the age of 15, when I was attending a Roman Catholic school. It was just a brief mention of the Roman Catholic Church’s schism from the Orthodox faith. However, in the year 2000, I started studying theology. In 2001 I joined the Anglican Church and studied at the seminary in Auckland. There, I came across some historical facts about the Orthodox faith. At the time I was confused, because I heard various sources say that Orthodoxy was the ancient Church, long before Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants, etc.
As I grew up, I wondered, “Why are there so many churches that worship one God? What is the true church?” I heard Roman Catholics, Anglicans and some others professing faith in “one holy, catholic and apostolic church.” So I continued to pray to the Holy Mother of God to show me the way to the true Church. In the year 2005, I was ordained an Anglican priest and served five years as a hospital chaplain in Oakland and five years as an archdeacon in the province of Samoa. At that time, I faced difficulties as I saw the Anglican church blessing same-sex marriages, ordaining Arminian clergy and ordaining women and Arminian bishops. I felt that all of this was and is against the Bible (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:6; Eph. 5:24-25, 30-31). In late 2013, I began to feel the touch of the Blessed Mother and to see visions and receive answers to my prayers. After 3 intense years, in 2016, a Greek man named George came to Samoa and spoke to me briefly about the Orthodox faith. When he returned to New Zealand, he spoke about me to Metropolitan Amphilochios.
In May 2017, another miracle happened. I was in New Zealand when George called me and asked me to meet Metropolitan Amphilochios for the first time. After a spiritual conversation with His Eminence, I felt the grace and touch of God and agreed to be baptized and become Orthodox. I thank the Holy Mother of God for the revelation of His love and I praise God for choosing me, me, the humble servant, to become the first Orthodox priest in Samoa. Metropolitan Amphilochius invited me and my wife Salome to Wellington to receive Holy Baptism and Chrismation there, to be married in an Orthodox marriage and to receive ordination as a deacon and elder. Now we feel completely complete and born again in Christ in His true Church, the Orthodox Church. These days, I am visiting Constantinople and Greece, specifically Mount Athos, where venerating the icons of the Virgin Mary and the relics of the saints has strengthened my spiritual resolve to dedicate our lives to follow in the footsteps of Christ and become pioneers of Orthodoxy, not only to my people in Samoa, but wherever God directs me to spread the good news. Special thanks to His Eminence Metropolitan Amphilochios for his advice, prayers and blessings for me and Salome, and to all the clergy and people who support us in the beginning of our Orthodox mission. May the name of the Lord be blessed.
π. John Peniamina Tapelu
