"I have been asked many times over the past few months why I decided to enter the Christian faith. Why now? What happened? The questions themselves contain the answer. Something changed. I cannot qualify what, but all of a sudden something, someone, was compelling me to take a path I had not yet taken. ‘Thinking about’ had now become ‘doing’.

We live in a world that often seeks to differentiate and define through labels: ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘we here’ and ‘them there’, ‘normal’ and ‘different’. I too carried this baggage when I was deciding how to proceed. How was I to enter this community? What would ‘they’ think of me? What actually was the Christian faith?

There is nothing like talking to people to break down prejudices. My knowledge of Christianity had been shaped largely by statements in the press; statements that often fostered a ‘them there’ mentality. But be it through talking to the clergy or to other members of the Minster congregation, I quickly realised this wasn’t a closed group with its own rules, but rather an open community to whom I could ask questions without fear of being labelled an outsider.

I was certainly unsettled by the first service I attended: I was not expecting such a warm welcome! There was no interrogatory ‘What are you doing here?’, but rather the extension of an open hand that did not bear judgement, only joy.

Through entering the Christian faith I feel like so many doors have been opened. Often I step through with the conviction and belief that this is this is the path to take. Sometimes I feel that the time is not yet right, but I know that people will continue to hold that door open for me until that time does come. Other times, people offer a hand of support to help guide me when I am uncertain or have doubts.