Adeline Just Can’t Wait For Easter

BY JOHN MCLAURIN
PICTURES BY: AMBER MAHER

EASTER is the destination of choice for Gowrie’s Adeline Potter.

The Holy Family parishioner, is one of 21 RCIA candidates to be received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil this year and she really can’t wait.

“Undertaking RCIA has been a way of expanding my understanding of Christianity and its rich and complex history,” she said.

“It has made me appreciate my Protestant roots and allowed me to embrace Catholic teaching with a renewed understanding of the Christian faith.

“It has also consolidated my belief that even though Protestants and Catholics may have different traditions, our unity in our common faith and God’s love for us are what transcends our differences.”

Mrs Potter’s faith journey started when she was a child.

She says she is blessed to have “amazing parents”.

“They have a strong belief in God and have guided me in my Christian walk ever since I can remember,” she said.

“I was raised and baptised as a Protestant, and was encouraged to explore aspects of the Christian faith [and] through this, I gained a fairly deep understanding of God’s Word and teaching.”

The public servant, says that although she was aware of Catholicism, she never had any direct exposure to it until she met her Catholic husband, the man who will support and sponsor her during the RCIA journey.

“Robert has always been a strong supporter of the way I practise my faith and my Protestant upbringing,” she said.

“But I was also interested in learning more about Catholicism, and attended some Masses with him and we got married in a Catholic church.

“It was important to me that the person with whom I chose to spend the rest of my life also shared the same values and beliefs.”

Mrs Potter, says she and husband Robert are planning to have a family and would like for their children to be able to join in sharing the same rituals and traditions that they partake of as Catholics.

She also says in her experience that while she has found there to some differences in the practice and understanding of some teachings between the Protestant and Catholic denominations, the core doctrine of salvation through belief in Jesus Christ, His Passion, Death and Resurrection, was the same.