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History of the OCMCFr. Alexander Veronis
O rthodox Christianity has a continuous history of missions in its 2,000 year existence. St. Paul, Sts. Cyril & Methodius, St. Kosmas Aitolos, St. Stephen of Perm, Sts. Herman & Innocent of Alaska, St. Nicholas of Japan and Archbishop Anastasios of Albania usually capture the highlights when Orthodox speak of their foreign missions.
However, God has always spoken to the hearts of believers to spread the eternal gospel and “make disciples of all nations.” The growth of missionary consciousness in America during the latter part of the 20th century offers one more example.
In 1962, a program began at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Lancaster, PA, focused on foreign Orthodox missions. It was called the Lenten Self-Denial Club (LSDC) which challenged the faithful to sacrifice meals during Lent and offer the equivalent cost to neophyte Orthodox missions in Uganda, Mexico and Korea.
In 1966, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Clergy-Laity Congress created a Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Missions Committee, based on the expanding success of the LSDC project in the first diocesan district.
For the next 18 years, (1967-1985), this Missions Committee met twice annually at the Archdiocese. Bishop Silas served as the Episcopal head and I as the Coordinator. Twenty interested clergy and lay leaders served with us, all volunteers.
The Missions Committee used the model of the LSDC to raise funds. Yearly, 200,000 Lenten Mission Coin Cards were mailed to all Archdiocesan parishes. Income rapidly increased from $10,000 to $200,000.
The Clergy-Laity Congress of 1984, with the blessing of Archbishop Iakovos, expanded this Missions Committee into a Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Mission Center to be located at the St. Photios Shrine in St. Augustine, Florida. Fr. Dimitrios Couchell became the first full time paid Executive Director.
Volunteer members of the former Archdiocesan Missions Committee continued to serve as the Board of Directors for the Mission Center. They were appointed by the hierarchs of all the Archdiocesan Dioceses to represent a cross-section of the national Church.
Archbishop Iakovos and the 1994 Greek Orthodox Clergy-Laity Congress, with the blessing of SCOBA, transformed the Mission Center into a SCOBA program with a new name: Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC).
By 1996, the Mission Center increased its annual income to over one million dollars, supporting Orthodox missions in twenty countries worldwide. The success and growth of the program caught the attention of other Orthodox jurisdictions in America under SCOBA (Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America).
From 1995 to the present, the OCMC has reached out to over 31 countries worldwide with mission programs. Fr. Martin Ritsi, with ten years of missionary experience in Kenya and Albania, now ably serves as the Executive Director. |
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