Changes

What began as a small committee in 1962 became the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Mission Center in 1984. The Mission Center was first based in New York, then transferred to the St Photios shrine in St Augustine, Florida, where Greek Orthodox Christian immigrants had first stepped foot in North America in 1768.

Starting in 1987, the Mission Center sent short-term mission teams to East and West Africa, later expanding to 25 other countries. At the suggestion of Charles Ajalat, Archbishop Iakovos “moved forward the idea” to make the Mission Center an agency of SCOBA (Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas). “This concept was embraced by all involved,” and in light of its taking on a pan-Orthodox nature, the GOA Mission Center was renamed the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC). “By 2014, 2500 short term and 115 long term missionaries have served in thirty different countries under the OCMC,” consisting of “clergy, physicians, nurses, teachers, catechists, social workers, church builders, translators, and volunteers of all ages.” The approach OCMC takes in cross-cultural missionary work is to seek the blessing of the Orthodox hierarchs in the sending nations and to work closely with and support the initiatives of the Orthodox hierarchs in the receiving nations.

Since the fall of Communism, the Russian Orthodox Church has also been very active in sending missionaries around the world, often alongside Greek missionaries. Orthodox churches under the direction of Russia or of the Ecumenical Patriarchate have been founded in the following countries in Asia: South Korea (where there is a native clergy), the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Indonesia (Father Daniel Byantoro), Pakistan (Father Joseph Farooq), India, Thailand, Singapore. The Orthodox Church also is actively growing in Central and South America, especially in Cuba, Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala. The case of Guatemala is particularly noteworthy: 200,000 Guatemalan “Indians” mass converted to the Orthodox faith under the spiritual guidance of the charismatic social justice figure, Father Andres Giron. There is currently an Orthodox orphanage in Guatemala City and a medical clinic in Aguacate.

The Greek Orthodox Bishop of Australia, Amphilochios Tsoukos, who previously served in the Congo, has established churches in Oceania, including New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa.

* Hieromartyr Daniel Sysoev (evangelist in Moscow; martyred by Muslim fanatic in 2009)

* Archbishop Dmitri Royster, Apostle of the South (convert to the Orthodox Church; active in Texas, Mexico, and the American South; reposed in 2011; body was discovered to be incorrupt)