A few people have asked me why I chose the Catholic Church over the Orthodox Church (or churches, since there are several autocephalous and autonomous Orthodox churches based on region such as Russia, Greece, Antioch, etc.).

Back when I was a Protestant looking for my lifeline, I actually started out researching the Orthodox Church first and was seriously leaning in that direction.

I read a few books such as The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware (Bishop Kallistos Ware) and Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith by Peter E. Gillquist.

I even bought the Orthodox Study Bible and used it as my main Bible for a few months. I also listened to many podcasts, and became convinced that the Orthodox Church was perfect for me.

The Orthodox Church in Japan (OCJ) is an autonomous Eastern Orthodox church within the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.

In all of Tokyo there are only two Orthodox churches, and the one nearest to me is called Nikolai-do. The "do" sounds like "doe" and not "due." Its official name is Holy Resurrection Cathedral.

I recalled how peaceful the sanctuary was several years before, when I stopped in on a weekday after I had sketched the church building.

At that time, a person at the entrance asked me to pay 300 yen (roughly three dollars) when I entered, and gave me a candle which I was to put in an empty slot in a candle holder where other candles were burning.

The entrance fee surprised me, but was perhaps understandable since this old church was a popular tourist attraction.

The sanctuary was beautiful, but roped off and inaccessible to the public, so I had to be content with standing in the small vestibule apparently reserved for visitors.

Then, after a few months of a serious research, I decided to visit Nikolai-do on a Sunday morning as a seeker rather than a tourist.

I looked forward to worshipping in that beautiful sanctuary, and thought it would be fun to be in a church where I had imagined there would be lots of bearded men like myself, so I would feel right at home.

As soon as I walked in the door, a man asked me to pay 300 yen, and told me to not go past the ropes, or go into the main sanctuary area where the members were, but to stay in the vestibule which was quite crowded with visitors and tourists.

The vestibule was basically standing room only; there were a few chairs along the walls but they were all filled, and if you were sitting, you couldn't see what was going on in the sanctuary because of the crowd.

The worship service (called the Divine Liturgy) was filled with beautiful singing, and the frangrance of incense. But I could not understand a single word of what was said or sung! It was clearly not modern Japanese. Maybe it was an old form of Japanese but I couldn't swear to it.

It might possibly have been Slavonic, since I knew that this would be in the style of the Russian Orthodox Church.

That Sunday morning I felt very uncomfortable at Nikolai-do for several reasons. Over the years I had visited many different churches as an outsider, but always felt welcome.

Even when when I visited a Greek Orthodox Church near my college in Canton, Ohio twenty-six years earlier, they made me feel welcome, and I could worship with the congregation although I could not understand the langauge.

But here at Nikolai-do in Tokyo, I felt a coldness which I had never felt at a Church before. Imagine demanding an admission fee from people who want to come and worship, and then barring them from coming into the sanctuary!

The culture in that church was very foreign to me, not to mention the language. I couldn't understand a thing about what was going on, and it went on for a long time, while I stood with the other visitors, not knowing when it would end.

I endured this for about an hour or so, and then went home while the Liturgy was still in progress. I think my tired legs could have endured if I could only understand what was going on.

Anyway, a few months later, I decided to give it another chance. I visited a second time and paid my 300 yen and stood on the outside, watching everyone on the inside worshipping God. This time I managed to stay for about two hours before I finally gave up and left -- again, while the Liturgy was still in progress.

(I have no idea how many hours the Divine Liturgy goes on at that church.)

At this point I gave up on the Orthodox Church, convinced that it was too unfriendly and too culturally foreign for me to consider, and started visiting various Catholic churches nearby.

There are only two Orthodox churches in all of Tokyo with only one of them close enough for me to visit regularly. However, there are currently 75 Catholic churches in the archdiocese of Tokyo, with at least five near enough to my home to seriously consider, so I visited all five.

The culture at the Catholic Church Mass was much more familiar to me especially as an Anglican, and the contemporary Japanese language was also familiar, to my great relief. And the people were so welcoming and friendly! I never felt like an outsider. And of course nobody demanded that I pay a fee to come in the door, or barred me from entering the sanctuary.

So I shifted the focus of my research to the Catholic Church. To my surprise, I discovered that the official Catholic position is friendly towards the Orthodox churches.

When I had read Orthodox literature or listened to Orthodox podcasts, I often discovered great hostility towards the Catholic Church (I have also learned that there is some hostility and rivalry between some of the Orthodox churches themselves).

On a pamphlet I received from Nikolai-do there was a declaration that only the Orthodox Church is the true Church, and there was even a diagram showing how the Catholic Church split off like a smaller branch from the main trunk which they identified as the Orthodox Church.

On the other hand, in the literature and podcasts produced by members of the Catholic Church, I found great respect for the Orthodox churches.

The Catholic Church considers the Orthodox churches to be part of the true Church, as one of "two lungs" of the same Church as they often say -- albeit a much smaller lung, at around 18 percent of the size of the Catholic Church.

And, as I mentioned in my main article Why did I become a Catholic? I discovered that the Catholic Church has stayed with the successor to the apostle Peter, which was one of the major deciding factors for me. Still, since the Orthodox churches are considered part of the true Church, I felt I could easily go over to that side.

As a matter of fact, almost exactly six years after I joined the Catholic Church, when I was walking around the neighborhood of Nikolai-do, I suddenly felt drawn to go over there and have a quiet time of prayer in that beautiful environment which I had not visited in all those years since I became a Catholic.

During my frequent walks around Tokyo, I have often stopped in Catholic churches for prayer in front of the tabernacle where they keep the Body of Christ, and have always felt welcome.

As I walked toward Nikolai-do on that autumn day, I felt the old thrill from seven years earlier when I was researching the Orthodox Church and I had felt so drawn to its exotic beauty. My pace quickened as I started to entertain thoughts of what if I converted to the Orthodox Church some day, after all?

When I walked into the church entrance, a lady at a table next to the door was taking a donation from a visitor. I wondered if perhaps I had been wrong all along about the "entry fee" being mandatory, and simply walked past the lady and continued towards the sanctuary. But she stopped me and told me that I must pay 300 yen first.

Her manner was friendly enough, but the message was so cold and unfriendly.

This was after several years of my walking unhindered into various Catholic churches for free, so I felt the disparity more keenly.

I payed the fee, received some literature and a candle, and proceeded to the small and crowded vestibule where maybe a dozen visitors were gathered, and stared longingly in my confinement toward the cavernous sanctuary beyond the rope barrier. I felt like an unwelcome intruder, a trespasser who was being observed.

Not being able to pray in such an atmosphere, I left after a minute or so.

As I walked away, my former exhilaration was replaced with depression, and I determined to never visit that church again.

I'm sure there must be friendly Orthodox churches out there -- the Greek Orthodox Church in Ohio seemed friendly enough when I had visited it many years ago as a college student. Perhaps if I were living near one of those churches, I might have become an Orthodox Christian.

But the Orthodox Church in Tokyo has put up unnecessary barriers. Are they serious about evangelism? If they reconsidered their policy towards visitors, then perhaps there would be more than just two Orthodox churches compared to 75 Catholic parishes (which is still a small number for such a huge area).

And there would be more Japanese in the Kingdom of God.