Monday, April 25, 2011
Christ is Risen! - A Pascha Greeting from the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC)
The staff, board, missionaries, and volunteers of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) hope and pray that you have a blessed Pascha. Thank you for all that you have done, and continue to do, to welcome our brothers and sisters around the world into the Body of Christ. Your prayers and support have worked to share the salvation made possible through His Glorious Resurrection with an ever-increasing chorus of voices that triumphantly proclaim “Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!”
Friday, April 15, 2011
Missionary Work in the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza, Tanzania: An Update from OCMC Missionary James Hargrave
The temple tops a bare hill, crowded by many other peaks. Nearby is a small rectangular house of unbaked brick, with a thatch roof and fresh straw on the dirt floor.
It seems an isolated scene at first. But down this hollow, or over that ridge, are other small homes among banana groves and coffee fields. This is the village of Ibare, and the house is for the priest’s family. The church is called Holy Resurrection, and Divine Liturgy is about to start.
Lake Victoria isn’t quite visible from this hilltop, but that great inland sea is not far. Holy Resurrection is part of the Muleba deanery, south of Bukoba on Tanzania’s northwestern lakeshore. Uganda is only a few dozen kilometers beyond.
The nave slowly fills during Matins. At home in Mwanza I share chanting duties, but as a guest today I can rest my voice. I stand with the chanters who intone hymns in a rich harmony which, despite discernable Byzantine roots, is uniquely Swahili in style.
The congregation joins in with more familiar hymns, bringing texture to “My soul magnifies the Lord,” “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord,” and a local setting of Psalm 50 (51) “Have mercy on me, O God.”
At the Great Doxology the nave fills with voices. Men lean against the southwest walls behind me. To their left, women sit together on rush mats. In front of them in the northeast, the children press into a tight crowd, oblivious to the open floor all around.
This is not a typical Sunday morning in the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza here in western Tanzania. It’s a special day, because a priest is present. Father Eleftherios pastors four other congregations as well as Ibare. On most Sundays he is elsewhere, and this community prays the Typika service.
Our Archdiocese, covering 400,000 square kilometers of western Tanzania, is about as big as California. The sixteen million people of this area belong to about sixty ethnic groups and speak as many distinct languages.
In such a region we have forty priests, 170 communities, and perhaps 40,000 faithful Orthodox Christians. We are responsible for eight of Tanzania’s twenty-six regions, but have congregations in only three. The bulk of the Orthodox Christian presence is clustered around the city of Bukoba, a stone’s throw from Uganda. Our faithful come mostly from only two ethnic groups. We are a small Church; but we are a growing Church.
In February OCMC Missionary Michael Pagedas visited the community of Bugabo to participate in a common occurrence—a mass baptism. Because families, communities and villages make decisions as a group, many of the newly illumined know very little about their new Christian faith beyond the fact that they have embraced it. Baptism is an important first step in becoming a disciple, but it must be followed by many steps more.
Abel, an Archdiocesan administrator, has brought me to Ibare in response to Christ’s call to make disciples. He and I are assessing the possibility of hosting a youth seminar here in July and August to be led by teachers from the Finnish Orthodox Mission and from OCMC. Each year this event is held in a different deanery of the Archdiocese, with the goal of helping local youth grow in the hope of the Resurrection.
Ibare is a good spot for the 2011 seminar because it is within a day’s walk from every community in the deanery. And it has resources. A clear stream runs through a banana orchard, providing water. The hilltop has some open space which is slightly flatter than the chasms and ridges surrounding it. We could set up one tent to house women, another for men, and conduct classes under trees. We’d have to truck in tiny stoves, sacks of charcoal, rice, beans, cups and plates to feed the two hundred or so expected participants. The OCMC/Finnish Team could stay at a guest house in Muleba, a forty-minute drive to the east.
Yes, our resources are spare. Even compared to other religious groups in the area, we are poor. Orthodox Christian faithful in western Tazania are almost all rural subsistence farmers with little cash income and even less access to formal education. Illiteracy prevents many young adults from participating even in opportunities like this seminar.
Back in Ibare, Abel and I watch the children line up for Holy Communion. They squeeze forward to the Chalice, the chest of each pressed against the shoulder blades of the one before. After Liturgy, they race outdoors to feast on little mangoes.
The adults have arranged something special for us. They seat us in the sunshine, on the only two chairs available, and dance. Traditional Haya dance is accompanied by a goatskin drum and by a singer whose verses punctuate refrains sung by the clapping and stamping crowd. On the dust of the dance floor, two or three people show their moves at a time. Everyone is involved—even babies sway on the backs of their leaping and twisting mothers.
The enthusiasm of this dance is visible throughout western Tanzanian society. Of course there are needs. We foreigners often think of obvious material issues, or else of spiritual needs vaguely defined by the concept of winning converts. But the greatest need is for communion. When asked what we foreigners can do to help local people often reply, “Just come be with us. Share in our lives.” This is the example of Christ our God, who did indeed heal the sick, feed the hungry, and preach of the Kingdom. Even more importantly, he took on human flesh and participated in our lives. Our salvation comes not by the teaching or by the healing alone, but by the Incarnation.
OCMC Missionary Mama Charita Stavrou likes to remind me that “We are here to do what God wants us to do.” If we show up, the Holy Spirit will guide us. The global Church is starting to listen.
OCMC has six long-term Missionaries working out our salvation in the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza. OCMC Missionaries Felice Stewart, Michael Pagedas, Maria Roeber and Katie Wilcoxson are health care workers that have been asked by His Eminence Archbishop Jeronymos to minister to the bodies and spirits of people in the town of Bukoba, as well as elsewhere. We are joined regularly by short-term teams from Greece, Finland and OCMC.
Teams and missionaries come with a task or job description, but our deep role is communion: participation in the lives of our local sisters and brothers. We are supported in this work by the prayers, friendship, encouragement and material generosity of folks in North America and around the world. You are welcome to join in.
It seems an isolated scene at first. But down this hollow, or over that ridge, are other small homes among banana groves and coffee fields. This is the village of Ibare, and the house is for the priest’s family. The church is called Holy Resurrection, and Divine Liturgy is about to start.
Lake Victoria isn’t quite visible from this hilltop, but that great inland sea is not far. Holy Resurrection is part of the Muleba deanery, south of Bukoba on Tanzania’s northwestern lakeshore. Uganda is only a few dozen kilometers beyond.
The nave slowly fills during Matins. At home in Mwanza I share chanting duties, but as a guest today I can rest my voice. I stand with the chanters who intone hymns in a rich harmony which, despite discernable Byzantine roots, is uniquely Swahili in style.
The congregation joins in with more familiar hymns, bringing texture to “My soul magnifies the Lord,” “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord,” and a local setting of Psalm 50 (51) “Have mercy on me, O God.”
At the Great Doxology the nave fills with voices. Men lean against the southwest walls behind me. To their left, women sit together on rush mats. In front of them in the northeast, the children press into a tight crowd, oblivious to the open floor all around.
This is not a typical Sunday morning in the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza here in western Tanzania. It’s a special day, because a priest is present. Father Eleftherios pastors four other congregations as well as Ibare. On most Sundays he is elsewhere, and this community prays the Typika service.
Our Archdiocese, covering 400,000 square kilometers of western Tanzania, is about as big as California. The sixteen million people of this area belong to about sixty ethnic groups and speak as many distinct languages.
In such a region we have forty priests, 170 communities, and perhaps 40,000 faithful Orthodox Christians. We are responsible for eight of Tanzania’s twenty-six regions, but have congregations in only three. The bulk of the Orthodox Christian presence is clustered around the city of Bukoba, a stone’s throw from Uganda. Our faithful come mostly from only two ethnic groups. We are a small Church; but we are a growing Church.
In February OCMC Missionary Michael Pagedas visited the community of Bugabo to participate in a common occurrence—a mass baptism. Because families, communities and villages make decisions as a group, many of the newly illumined know very little about their new Christian faith beyond the fact that they have embraced it. Baptism is an important first step in becoming a disciple, but it must be followed by many steps more.
Abel, an Archdiocesan administrator, has brought me to Ibare in response to Christ’s call to make disciples. He and I are assessing the possibility of hosting a youth seminar here in July and August to be led by teachers from the Finnish Orthodox Mission and from OCMC. Each year this event is held in a different deanery of the Archdiocese, with the goal of helping local youth grow in the hope of the Resurrection.
Ibare is a good spot for the 2011 seminar because it is within a day’s walk from every community in the deanery. And it has resources. A clear stream runs through a banana orchard, providing water. The hilltop has some open space which is slightly flatter than the chasms and ridges surrounding it. We could set up one tent to house women, another for men, and conduct classes under trees. We’d have to truck in tiny stoves, sacks of charcoal, rice, beans, cups and plates to feed the two hundred or so expected participants. The OCMC/Finnish Team could stay at a guest house in Muleba, a forty-minute drive to the east.
Yes, our resources are spare. Even compared to other religious groups in the area, we are poor. Orthodox Christian faithful in western Tazania are almost all rural subsistence farmers with little cash income and even less access to formal education. Illiteracy prevents many young adults from participating even in opportunities like this seminar.
Back in Ibare, Abel and I watch the children line up for Holy Communion. They squeeze forward to the Chalice, the chest of each pressed against the shoulder blades of the one before. After Liturgy, they race outdoors to feast on little mangoes.
The adults have arranged something special for us. They seat us in the sunshine, on the only two chairs available, and dance. Traditional Haya dance is accompanied by a goatskin drum and by a singer whose verses punctuate refrains sung by the clapping and stamping crowd. On the dust of the dance floor, two or three people show their moves at a time. Everyone is involved—even babies sway on the backs of their leaping and twisting mothers.
The enthusiasm of this dance is visible throughout western Tanzanian society. Of course there are needs. We foreigners often think of obvious material issues, or else of spiritual needs vaguely defined by the concept of winning converts. But the greatest need is for communion. When asked what we foreigners can do to help local people often reply, “Just come be with us. Share in our lives.” This is the example of Christ our God, who did indeed heal the sick, feed the hungry, and preach of the Kingdom. Even more importantly, he took on human flesh and participated in our lives. Our salvation comes not by the teaching or by the healing alone, but by the Incarnation.
OCMC Missionary Mama Charita Stavrou likes to remind me that “We are here to do what God wants us to do.” If we show up, the Holy Spirit will guide us. The global Church is starting to listen.
OCMC has six long-term Missionaries working out our salvation in the Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza. OCMC Missionaries Felice Stewart, Michael Pagedas, Maria Roeber and Katie Wilcoxson are health care workers that have been asked by His Eminence Archbishop Jeronymos to minister to the bodies and spirits of people in the town of Bukoba, as well as elsewhere. We are joined regularly by short-term teams from Greece, Finland and OCMC.
Teams and missionaries come with a task or job description, but our deep role is communion: participation in the lives of our local sisters and brothers. We are supported in this work by the prayers, friendship, encouragement and material generosity of folks in North America and around the world. You are welcome to join in.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Volunteer Opportunity at the Orthodox Christian Mission Center
The Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC), located in St. Augustine, FL, is seeking 5 volunteers to join their Thank You Calling Team. We ask that individuals on this team call a monthly list of OCMC donors and thank them for their gifts on behalf of OCMC. Solicitation is not a part of this program. Training and orientation will be provided, and calls can be made from the OCMC offices or from home if the volunteer has unlimited calling. The time commitment is 3-4 hours per month and the volunteer does not have to reside in north Florida, as information can be provided via email. To find out more information, or to volunteer to become a part of this team, contact Kenneth Kidd, Annual Gifts Officer, at 904-829-5132, Ext. 161 or at kenny@ocmc.org.
Friday, April 8, 2011
My Next Assignment to The Republic of Moldova: An Update from Missionary Christina Semon
Following the completion of my first term in Romania, God has opened the door for me to serve next in The Republic of Moldova. My second term of missionary service will draw upon the experiences and skills I have acquired in the last two years of my life and ministry among the Romanians. Along with my co-workers and my future Moldovan ‘family’, Fr. Ioan and Preoteasa Michaela Cristea who will host me in their home in Leova, I look forward to entering a new culture, building new relationships, and sharing in this blessing to help build a parish youth program. As a team we will be helping to strengthen the spiritual foundation of the Church there.
Fr. Ioan expressed to me the need for help in establishing this ministry. We are now collaborating with him in this vital mission to raise up leaders who will assist in the organization and direction of this program for the Moldovan youth. Please consider joining with me on the front lines through increased prayer and financial support for the continuation of my missionary service in a land where our Orthodox brothers and sisters are calling for help, and the devastating effects of Communism are still greatly felt.
Thank you to those parishes across the United States that I have been honored to visit during the past two months as I prepared for my new assignment. I am strengthened by your love and encouragement, and will return to the mission field before Holy Week to begin life in Moldova. Please visit my webpage at http://csemon.ocmc.org to see photos taken on my journey and read more about my experience as an OCMC Missionary as they get posted.
Fr. Ioan expressed to me the need for help in establishing this ministry. We are now collaborating with him in this vital mission to raise up leaders who will assist in the organization and direction of this program for the Moldovan youth. Please consider joining with me on the front lines through increased prayer and financial support for the continuation of my missionary service in a land where our Orthodox brothers and sisters are calling for help, and the devastating effects of Communism are still greatly felt.
Thank you to those parishes across the United States that I have been honored to visit during the past two months as I prepared for my new assignment. I am strengthened by your love and encouragement, and will return to the mission field before Holy Week to begin life in Moldova. Please visit my webpage at http://csemon.ocmc.org to see photos taken on my journey and read more about my experience as an OCMC Missionary as they get posted.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
St. Dimitrie Newsletter: from Missionary Floyd Frantz
Greetings! I hope that this finds you well today, and in good spirits on this most blessed day of Meatfare Tuesday.
It has been a few weeks since our last newsletter, and people have been reminding me of this so I am at last going to get down to the "doin" of writing one. I hope you have time to read it, and that you will enjoy having it. Actually, quite a lot has been going on over here since my last posting.
You may remember Christina Semon, my OCMC colleague here in Romania. She has been doing some therapy groups with the St. Dimitrie Program in the Tbc hospital in Savadisla, and we have been going at times to the Republic of Moldova to help with the project of Fr. John in Leova, Moldova. She had requested reassignment in Moldova for her second term of missionary service, to focus on establishing vital youth programs and developing youth leadership. Well, last week she was given a go-ahead, and will be working in Moldova while applying much of what she learned during her first term as a missionary in Romania. It is going to be a very good assignment, and I hope that you will keep up with it at OCMC's web site, www.ocmc.org.
On our side of things, the Holy Romanian Synod has approved our addictions courses to be used in both the faculty seminaries and in the high school seminaries. This was actually more than we had hoped for when we submitted them last year. Of course, it means that we will need to keep it updated, and will need to develop it over time. It is very exciting for us as it has been a long term goal of ours for several years to have this happen.
One other item of note is that Deacon Stephen Holley from St. Michael's in Westminster, California has been visiting us and doing some very nice presentations in the local parishes to young people on "How to choose a mate for life", which is based on his short book about the subject. He has been well received, and in now in Iasi doing the same over there with Fr. Iulian.
There is much to say, but I do not like to send out long emails as few people have the time to read them. I will try to be more faithful about writing in the future, as I would like to share about some of the people in our program. They have been bringing joy to my heart, and in the next email I will share this with you.
In His Love,
Floyd & Ancuta Frantz
OCMC Missionaries in Romania
If you would like to contact us please use: floydfrantz@gmail.com
You can visit the St. Dimitrie Programs web page at www.stdimitrie.org
If you would like to make an online donation in support of our work in Romania please go to the Orthodox Christian Mission Center web site at www.ocmc.org After finding the Frantz Family page, you will need to log in, but it is a simple process and it is very important to us. You may also call 877-GO-FORTH, and they will assist you with making a donation online or with your card.
It has been a few weeks since our last newsletter, and people have been reminding me of this so I am at last going to get down to the "doin" of writing one. I hope you have time to read it, and that you will enjoy having it. Actually, quite a lot has been going on over here since my last posting.
You may remember Christina Semon, my OCMC colleague here in Romania. She has been doing some therapy groups with the St. Dimitrie Program in the Tbc hospital in Savadisla, and we have been going at times to the Republic of Moldova to help with the project of Fr. John in Leova, Moldova. She had requested reassignment in Moldova for her second term of missionary service, to focus on establishing vital youth programs and developing youth leadership. Well, last week she was given a go-ahead, and will be working in Moldova while applying much of what she learned during her first term as a missionary in Romania. It is going to be a very good assignment, and I hope that you will keep up with it at OCMC's web site, www.ocmc.org.
On our side of things, the Holy Romanian Synod has approved our addictions courses to be used in both the faculty seminaries and in the high school seminaries. This was actually more than we had hoped for when we submitted them last year. Of course, it means that we will need to keep it updated, and will need to develop it over time. It is very exciting for us as it has been a long term goal of ours for several years to have this happen.
One other item of note is that Deacon Stephen Holley from St. Michael's in Westminster, California has been visiting us and doing some very nice presentations in the local parishes to young people on "How to choose a mate for life", which is based on his short book about the subject. He has been well received, and in now in Iasi doing the same over there with Fr. Iulian.
There is much to say, but I do not like to send out long emails as few people have the time to read them. I will try to be more faithful about writing in the future, as I would like to share about some of the people in our program. They have been bringing joy to my heart, and in the next email I will share this with you.
In His Love,
Floyd & Ancuta Frantz
OCMC Missionaries in Romania
If you would like to contact us please use: floydfrantz@gmail.com
You can visit the St. Dimitrie Programs web page at www.stdimitrie.org
If you would like to make an online donation in support of our work in Romania please go to the Orthodox Christian Mission Center web site at www.ocmc.org After finding the Frantz Family page, you will need to log in, but it is a simple process and it is very important to us. You may also call 877-GO-FORTH, and they will assist you with making a donation online or with your card.
Friday, April 1, 2011
When I was 35...An Update from OCMC Missionary Michael Pagedas
On February 22, 2011, I celebrated my 36th birthday. Of course, I had to think of a unique way to celebrate (spending a day by myself at Disney World was the previous record-holder), so I traveled to Mwanza and then spent my birthday in the Serengeti. This was my third trip to the Serengeti, and while I didn’t see as many animals as on the previous trip, I saw just about everything I wanted to see. This time I saw even more lions than last time, plus I saw a dik-dik (a tiny antelope) which I had never seen before. While I was in Mwanza, some friends of mine back in Bukoba called me to wish me a happy birthday. I met this family a few months ago on one of my daily walks. They live in a house right on the beach along Lake Victoria. In the beginning, I was a little unsure about the expectations of this relationship (more on that in my next blog), but I have learned that they are genuinely interested in being my friends and are delighted to have me stop over on a regular basis. I even began taking over some of my movies, and we watch them together. Since I wasn’t in Bukoba on my birthday, this family had me over for a mini celebration after I returned. They brought out a cake (a small round cake without frosting) and sang happy birthday to me in Swahili. Then they brought out some chicken soup. They raise chickens at their home, so I asked if we were eating one of their chickens. They said yes. The two daughters (4 & 11 years old) then presented me with handwritten birthday cards. Both were addressed to “Uncle Michael” and they thanked me for coming to visit them and play with them. This is one of the extra perks of mission work.
There was another event a week before my birthday that was an even bigger perk. Back in November, at the first priest seminar in Bukoba, I met a priest named Fr. Polycarp. We made a connection and further developed it when he returned for the second priest seminar here in January. It was then that he asked me to be the godfather for his baby son. Arrangements were made, and on February 14 (Valentine’s Day) I went to St. Eleftherios Church in Bugabo for the baptism. This was my first trip to Bugabo, which is a town very close the Uganda border. The church property is within view (almost a 180ยบ view) of Lake Victoria and the weather is nice and cool. Fr. Spyridon told me that he had grown up close by and was a fisherman there before he was called to the priesthood. Seraphim’s baptism ended up being a mass baptism. 27 babies, children, and young adults were welcomed into the Orthodox Church. I imagine this is what it must have been like back in the early church when the masses were baptized by the hundreds or even thousands. I now have godchildren in three different countries, and for those back home who are trying to keep count, it’s up to 15 now.
What’s interesting about both of these experiences, and the many others I have had like them, is that I didn’t actively seek them out. They sought me out. It’s like I am already being rewarded (unworthy as I am) for my service here in Africa. If this is just the beginning, I can’t wait to see what happens from here on out.
Thank you to my support team!
Michael
m.pagedas@ocmc.org
There was another event a week before my birthday that was an even bigger perk. Back in November, at the first priest seminar in Bukoba, I met a priest named Fr. Polycarp. We made a connection and further developed it when he returned for the second priest seminar here in January. It was then that he asked me to be the godfather for his baby son. Arrangements were made, and on February 14 (Valentine’s Day) I went to St. Eleftherios Church in Bugabo for the baptism. This was my first trip to Bugabo, which is a town very close the Uganda border. The church property is within view (almost a 180ยบ view) of Lake Victoria and the weather is nice and cool. Fr. Spyridon told me that he had grown up close by and was a fisherman there before he was called to the priesthood. Seraphim’s baptism ended up being a mass baptism. 27 babies, children, and young adults were welcomed into the Orthodox Church. I imagine this is what it must have been like back in the early church when the masses were baptized by the hundreds or even thousands. I now have godchildren in three different countries, and for those back home who are trying to keep count, it’s up to 15 now.
What’s interesting about both of these experiences, and the many others I have had like them, is that I didn’t actively seek them out. They sought me out. It’s like I am already being rewarded (unworthy as I am) for my service here in Africa. If this is just the beginning, I can’t wait to see what happens from here on out.
Thank you to my support team!
Michael
m.pagedas@ocmc.org
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