FSMB 2022 Conference Reflections: Baptized In God’s Time and Way

Back in 2010, a young seminarian spoke at the Ancient Faith & Afro-American Christianity Conference in Aniston, Alabama. These were a few of his words: “And in many ways, if the Lord wills I know that if I have a ministry, it will be in many ways the fruit of the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black.” Neither Subdeacon Paul Abernathy or John Norman, the one who recorded a portion of Abernathy’s talk, knew the twist and turns that God would bring them through. Both were from Pittsburgh and didn’t know each other until a couple of years earlier.

My good friend, Subdeacon John Norman and his wife Hiwote, let me crash in their apartment during the 2022 St. Moses the Black Conference in Pittsburgh. He has completed the St. Stephen’s Certificate in Orthodox Theology and reads extensively. Father Paul Abernathy…