Miles Jesu: Sons and Daughters of the Immaculate of Heart of Our Lady of the Epiphany, An Ecclesial Family of Consecrated Life in the Catholic Church

Continuity in the British Isles / On the Path to Rome

How I Became a Catholic
Testimony of Andrew Lees, Path to Rome Conference

Born into an Anglican family, I was taken to be baptised at the local Anglican Parish church by my parents and godparents. From a very early age the fact of my baptism was of enormous importance and comfort to me. My Christian education was largely left to Sunday school and our monthly attendance at Church.

I had throughout my childhood the covering prayers of my grandmother who held a weekly prayer group in her home and attended Holy Trinity Brompton (H.T.B.), an Anglican Church in London, where she organised a mid-week service of prayer and healing. At the age of eight she gave me a small book of children’s prayers. Each night I prayed a simple prayer in my own words. Once, in one of my prayers, I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my life. Instantaneous with this prayer I became aware of Christ’s love for me and for the world. Fear, darkness and doubt were cast away and I was filled with joy. I decided to read the Bible, starting at Genesis. I remember reaching Deuteronomy but found it hard going. Someone suggested I might do better to read the New Testament which I started but did not complete.

It was at this time that I was invited by a neighbour to join the local Crusaders, an interdenominational Sunday morning group for boys. It was there that I prayed, worshipped, was instructed in the Christian faith, and developed friendships which have continued to this day. It was a definite alternative to the local Anglican church which my parents occasionally attended.
At the age of eleven, my mother, who was by this time very active in her Christian faith, took me to an evangelical service led by Gerald Coates. At the end of the meeting we were invited to stand if we wanted to give our lives to Christ. It was another invitation to say “yes” to Jesus, and I stood up. Again I received the assurance of the Father’s love and his hand on my life.

At the age of about fourteen I went through the process of being confirmed in the Anglican Church, which had remained my Church of reference. Strangely to me at the time there was no tangible spiritual dimension to my confirmation.
I left Crusaders at the age of seventeen and only went to our Anglican parish at Easter and Christmas. I did, however, read my Bible, prayed, and continued to enjoy the company of my Christian friends. It was one of these friends who told me about the Catholic Church. I think I was sixteen at the time. He told me that Catholics worshipped Mary and believed she was without sin and that the Pope could never err. He also told me that Catholics believed in a second chance after death and you could pray for the dead. All these things seemed to me to be totally incompatible with basic Christian belief and in my thoughts I became opposed to the Catholic Church which I was convinced was unchristian, even antichristian.
It was at about that time that I had a dream. In my dream I was in a garden. There was a small pond, covered pathways and a path of flagstones set into the grass. Suddenly I heard a voice which said: “Who do think you are to criticise my Church?” I was shaken to the very core of my being, and filled with a profound sense of shame. I knew at that moment that my anti-catholic views were wrong. I felt as if I had been picked up by the scruff of my neck and shaken. I woke up and instantly recognised that Catholics were without any doubt my brothers and sisters in Christ, fully Christian in every respect. I embraced them in my heart. I could not reconcile the doctrines of the Catholic Church with my understanding of Christian faith but this was no longer my problem.

I came to London at the age of eighteen to study medicine and decided I should start going to Church. It seemed natural to join my grandmother at Holy Trinity Brompton where John Collins had just been installed as vicar. Within a few years the congregation grew and H.T.B. is now known as the home of Alpha, an introductory course to the Christian faith which is used as a tool for evangelisation by many churches, including the Catholic Church, all over the world.

Later I met my German wife who was Catholic but had not attended Church for many years. I invited her to Holy Trinity Brompton where she soon found faith in Christ. We were married in a Catholic Church but continued to attend H.T.B.
After one Sunday Morning service I was meditating on the things that I thought were close to the heart of Christ; the poor, the sick, the Jews, the Church. If I thought of the poor I could see them, they were tangible. If I thought of the sick they were there and tangible, so were the Jews but where was the Church? I felt suddenly unsure of myself. Where was the Church He loved, the Church? I knew it could not be H.T.B. H.T.B was a certain church in a certain place at a certain time. Christ Church had to be more encompassing than that. So where was it? It was disconcerting not to know the answer.
We left London but continued to attend H.T.B. for another five years. Eventually the journey to Church on Sundays became too difficult, especially with two children, and so we decided to find a Church nearer to where we lived. The natural choice was the Anglican church which we attended one Sunday morning. A woman priest was celebrating Holy Communion which was a very uncomfortable experience for all of us. This made me question the role of leadership and authority in the Anglican Church. It became evident that this leadership and authority was lacking and the result of this was a deep sense of disunity. Surely the Church of Jesus Christ had to be one unified entity? For the first time I had ventured away from the protected environment of H.T.B. where schisms in the Anglican Church seemed far away and at the outermost fringes. The Anglican Church started to look like a rudderless ship, breaking up with people clinging onto the wreckage.

We decided to attend our local Catholic church which was quite natural to us as we had always attended Catholic churches when on holiday. Coincidently at that time, a Catholic family we had met on holiday came to stay with us for the weekend. At last I was able to ask questions about the Catholic Church and, fortunately, they were able to explain many of the doctrines of the Church. It all made sense.

I spoke to our local parish priest and started on my journey to be received into the Catholic Church. I felt like a small child holding up their hand and placing it in the hand of the father, trusting in the father’s love, not in what I thought I knew. I was sure that the Holy Spirit would lead me into the truth.

In April 2001 I was received into the Catholic Church with my ten year old daughter, and at the same time being confirmed with my wife. The experience remains one of the highlights of my life. It was truly coming home after a long journey. It was a very profound step witnessed by the rest of my Christian family. To this day I am simply amazed that Christ should have taken the trouble to bring me into His Church. Why me?

I have a great affection for all the leaders at H.T.B where I had been a member for 20 years. It was from them that I received so much teaching. How I pray for them, and for my protestant family and friends, that the Holy Spirit may bring them home too, into the unity of the Body of Christ in his Church.