Conversion StoriesLutheran

James Cope: Former Lutheran Minister

October 16, 2000 One Comment

Jim grew up in a Lutheran family on a dairy farm in northern Ohio, but he didn’t have a real relationship with God. His journey of faith began while stationed, in the Army, in Korea, where he discovered his sinfulness and God’s grace. Upon his return to the States he felt a call to the ministry and was ordained a Lutheran pastor in 1963. Early in his ministry, Jim came to believe that he was catholic, according to the beliefs of confessing evangelical catholic Lutherans. Beginning in 1970, he began to be troubled by the path he saw his denomination was following. St. John Paul II’s first visit to America began his real journey to the Catholic Church. Jim was received into full-communion with the Catholic Church at Easter 2000.