Your spirits connected! we are all tiny parts of the same Oneness, but we forget about that when we incarnate. Religion as we know it here in this life is a cultural thing. It's something that is supposed to lead us to Source and Oneness, but the reality is that it usually doesn't. For you it did: it awakened something in you, after which you found your own way to Source. But for your father it probably didn't at the time. Hence the 'religious' disconnect between you. It must have been a beautiful experience that you felt that your father, in spirit, did understand you after all. We are all one!
