Each Year, the Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada celebrates College Student Sunday. This the date for this celebration will be Sunday, September 29th.
The Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) is the official campus ministry program of the Orthodox Church in the Unites States and Canada. The mission is to support fellowships on college campuses, whose members experience and witness to the Orthodox Christian Church through community life, prayer, service to other and study of the Faith.
Thousands of Orthodox College students in more than 300 chapters at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada comprise the OCF. All of the Jurisdictions of Orthodox in the USA and Canada are represented on the Board of Directors. I have the pleasure not only serving as Chaplain at Harvard University but also representing the Romanian Archdiocese on the Board of Directors.
In the last 10 years the number of chapters representing college and universities have expanded from 50 to more than 300. The OCF Chaplaincy program was developed four years ago in North Carolina with the first full time chaplain at Duke University and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. In 2005 all of the OCF Chaplains were invited to participate in the first Chaplains Conference to work toward communication and better coordination of Chaplains serving OCF.
There are several program sponsored by the National Office of OCF:
Real Break: an alternative spring break service-learning program, gives students an alternative to “traditional” spring breaks. In ten years, hundreds of students have traveled to Constantinople, Guatemala, Mexico, Alaska, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Canada and San Francisco.
College Conference: affords the students the opportunity to gather and grow in their faith annually. Since 2001, we have added three additional locations to the original site. Growing the number of participants from 200 to 400 with conferences in the east, south and west.
Day of Prayer: initiated by the first Student Advisory Board during Great Lent 2003; students from across North America participate in 24 hours of continuous prayer beginning on the first day of Great Lent.
The ministry of OCF is unique – fostering a love for Christ in places where He is ridiculed, questioned, and abandoned on a daily basis. Banning together as a community, OCF presents a witness on college campuses that Orthodox Christianity is alive and available to students. OCF sustains them through their challenging college years, and helps ensure the future strength of our Holy Orthodox Church.
Why not invite local college students to your church on Sunday, September 19th!
