William Sulik
I was born into an observant Roman Catholic family and was baptized about 13 days after my birth. I was raised according to the teachings and traditions of the Church of Rome, although I truly did not understand what was communicated to me. At points of my childhood, I was thoroughly committed to the enchantment of the Christian community as I read about it in books like The Robe or The Silver Chalice and in movies like Ben Hur (and later, as a teen, in Godspell and the Jesus Christ Superstar record). Nevertheless, despite years of CCD (“Confraternity of Christian Doctrine”); being confirmed, and going to Catholic school for 3 years, I would have told you, when I was a senior in high school, that I was an agnostic (not an atheist, because I recognized that being an atheist required a degree of faith, which I did not have).
As a senior in high school, I was surrounded by a number of friends who were involved in Young Life – a parachurch Christian ministry geared toward proclaiming the Gospel to teens. One of my friends was a beautiful young girl named Debbie Blair, who was quite enthusiastic about Christ. Following my graduation, she began to bring me to a Bible study of the book of Romans.
About the same time, we began dating and, toward the end of the summer, we went on a long hike which included a climb up South River Falls in the Shenandoah National Park. At the top of the falls, I brought out a pocket New Testament and she had me read I Corinthians 13. My experience at that place and time reminds me of something I later read by John Wesley:, “...I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation...” I soon started college and got involved with one of the Young Life leaders, who was also at college with me – a young man named Sam Pascoe. He discipled me and introduced me to the Scriptures, including things like the Apocrypha. Sam later went on to become an Episcopal priest. Oh, and much later, young Debbie Blair married me.
Over the next few years, I was involved in some very good Christian fellowship groups, including Saturday Night Alive (with Renny Scott, an Episcopal Priest, and Benny Phillips, a non-denomination minister). I was also involved in several loose fellowship groups which weren’t very edifying - they advocated a more emotional spirituality – which rejected any form of serving Christ with one’s mind. At that time, I was enrolled in college at George Mason University and began taking classes in things like the Old and New Testament and Religion in America. In addition, the Religion in America course was important for me, as the final required a paper discussing the gospel as evangelization or the “social gospel.” I basically concluded that Jesus did not call for an “or” but an “and.”
I transferred to James Madison University, where Debbie was enrolled and became very involved in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. This was an important ministry because I saw that you could serve God with your mind.
Debbie and I were married at Church of the Apostles in Fairfax (1981) and were received into the Episcopal Church in 1982. At that time, we started teaching Sunday School, something we continued when we returned to Northern Virginia following law school in Oklahoma. We were members of Truro Church in Fairfax from the late 1980’s until we moved to Corpus Christi.