Orthodox Christian Fellowship in North Carolina

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T11:35:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! It's snowing pretty hard as I'm writing this.

From the OCF Student Newsletter:

Dear OCFers,

Greetings in the Feast!

On behalf of OCF I wanted to wish you all a blessed Nativity and a peaceful holiday season. I know that many of you have just completed very difficult semesters or have left a stressful work environment. I pray that together we may all truly be at peace during this season, existing in the simplicity and joy the Incarnate Christ!

We have a few things to share with you this time around, but we mostly wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

See you next 2008!

in Christ,
Mike Tishel, Editor
OCF Headliner

Have a great break!

2007-12-13T18:57:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the last day of finals at UNC. I managed to get done today, and I know a bunch of people are already done.

Hopefully exams and final projects weren't too stressful for everyone. Have a safe and enjoyable break.

-Alex

Happy St. Nicholas Day

2007-12-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

Today is St. Nicholas day. From OrthodoxWiki:

Our father among the saints Nicholas of Myra, Wonder-worker, was the archbishop of Myra in southern Asia Minor in the fourth century. While widely honored and venerated, not only in the Orthodox Church, but throughout most Christian groups, little is known historically of the life of Nicholas. He is known to have been archbishop of Myra and he may have participated in the Council of Nicaea in 325. In addition to being honored as the patron saint of many countries, notably Greece and Russia, and of cities, he is the patron of many occupational groups, most notably of sea-farers. St Nicholas is commemorated by the Church on December 6, and also on May 9 (The transfer of his relics) and on July 29 (his nativity).

My church back home is named St. Nicholas, and they always have a celebration. Pictures coming soon.

-Alex

Fun church activities

2007-11-25T16:58:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed many of the activities that my church back home has done. Back in high school, we'd go on beach trips, Airsoft/paintball, and other general mayhem. The girls tried to talk us into salsa dancing. We had this one thing on Good Friday where after the service, we'd set up sleeping bags in the community building's dining area and rotate turns in a vigil, reading passages into the morning where people coming for the Holy Saturday services would then take over. It was a good bonding experience and one of my favorite memories from my youth group days.

Over last summer, some of us that were still in town before everyone started heading back to college or work went on a mountain hiking trip in the Mt. Hood wilderness area.

Gearing up

Chilling out by this one lake we found

Climbing up

Group picture at the summit

These squirrels are seriously not afraid of anything. If you put your gear down, they will try to look for food in it

But the thing that I liked best is an annual ski trip up to Mt. Hood in the winter. One family at our parish is part of a co-op lodge on the mountain, and we crash there for three days during ski season.

What are some of the activities that you have enjoyed at your churches? Leave comments; this should be interesting since everyone has their own background.

-Alex

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T17:42:00.000-08:00

Have a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving Weekend.

As I write this I am in an apartment in Harlem with one of my friends from my church back home who lives in NYC now. It's good times.

Thanksgiving service: http://www.antiochian.org/awe/services/Thanksgiving

-Alex

OCF Newsletter

2007-11-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

If you're interested on what OCF is doing at the national level, sign up for their newsletter at www.ocf.net. Michelle Torski told me about it, and it's legit.

They also linked to one of our own articles about the Diakonia retreat. Check it out.

-Alex

Feature Story: An interview with John Stonestreet

2007-11-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

You’ve all seen him at the meetings around campus. He’s the face of OCF and the OCF-NC Blog had an interview with UNC Class of 2000 alumnus John Stonestreet.

John is the first official, full-time OCF chaplain—ever. As so, there was no instruction manual for his job.

“It’s like being Davy Crockett,” John said. “It’s kind of uncharted territory.”

OCF is a full time job for John. His salary, his health benefits, and the money for the free pizza at meetings come entirely from sponsors and fundraisers organized by him. Outside of meetings, John organizes and promotes OCF events. He meets with students for lunch or coffee.

And, he plans the future of OCF.

“Every day is a new and exciting adventure and a new challenge. Challenges are fundraising, developing relations with universities, developing relations with other campus ministries and religious groups, professors, students, parents, and clergy across the state. There are a lot of relationships to really foster.”

He said that a long-term goal of his is for having a dedicated Orthodox worship and fellowship facility on each campus in the Triangle region—similar to the Newman Center (Catholic)—with a chaplain for each campus and a regional training center.

“The North Carolina Triangle will be a model for the rest of the country for the fact that it can be done.”

For John, college ministry has personal meaning.

“I lost my faith in college at UNC. I grew up as an Evangelical Protestant and became disillusioned with my faith in college.”

He said that he rediscovered his faith in the Orthodox Church, but not until after college when he first learned about Orthodoxy.

“I was sad that I spent time in college looking for faith but didn’t find Orthodoxy.”

John wants students to have an Orthodox presence on campus.

“I felt called to campus ministry, so I enrolled in St. Vladimir’s seminary. The summer before going to St. Vlads, I flew up to Boston to and met with the leaders of the OCF national office and said I feel called to full-time on-campus ministry.”

But back then, such a thing didn’t exist.

That was why he went to seminary. After he graduated, he got back in touch with the OCF national office, and it turned out that some other people were interested in full-time college ministry—and they were from North Carolina.

Rosanne Niforos started UNC’s chapter in the 2005-06 school year as a freshman. John came on the year later. Alex Andreev started Duke’s chapter. NC State had an operational chapter for a while.

“I think that students from diverse backgrounds have gotten to know each other and come to appreciate each other, and to realize that there are so many beautiful cultures in Orthodoxy.”

“What a lot of Orthodox students have in common is they have a culture that is different from students on campus. It helps people to see what they have in common.”

“I think it’s easy in college to forget that you’re Orthodox because nobody knows what it is.”

John said that he cannot predict what exactly the state of OCF will be in 5 years since there is a great deal of unknowns, but he is working for his long-term goal of a dedicated OCF facility on each campus.

When John was in college, Facebook and digital audio players didn’t exist, and cell phones were a luxury item.

“People walked around and talked to each other.” Strange but true.

The UNC men’s basketball team went to the Final Four three out of four years when John was in school. He won a contest from HoopsTV.com that paid him to go to the Final Four in Indianapolis.

John was a rhetoric major and part of the UNC public policy debate team.

“It was great to be at UNC.”

John had a “big fat Greek wedding” and is married to Anastasia Stonestreet.

John made it onto a sound bite of the Paul Harvey radio show when he was born on February 27 at 3:55 AM, because his older sister was born at the exact same time and date in a different year.

God & Neighbor reflection at St. Vladimir's Seminary

2007-11-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

Community Serivce: Give blood!

2007-11-06T16:55:00.001-08:00

There was a blood drive today at the business school in the foyer outside of Koury Auditorium.

People can go days without food and shelter, and even water--but blood is essential. According to the American Red Cross:

Every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood. That's a lot of blood. But only 5% of the eligible US population donates blood in any given year. Healthy donors are the only source of blood.

Source: http://www.givelife2.org/donor/default.asp?thisHB=11/06/2007%2018:03:01

In case you missed the one today or the one last week in the Great Hall, the next blood drive at UNC is on November 9. For more information, visit unc.givesblood.org

Duke University: duke.givesblood.org
NC State University: http://www7.acs.ncsu.edu/ncsu_blood_drive/

-A public service announcement by the OCF-NC Blog

OCF Party video

2007-10-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

OCF Thanksgiving Party

2007-10-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

Hello all!
First off, I want to give a HUGE shout out to Alex Cook for creating this amazing blog. I think it's really going to take off and will prove to be an excellent resource for OCFers across the state. I am writing tonight to invite you all to the 2nd annual OCF Thanksgiving Party. We tried this out last year and it was awesome, so we hope to have an even bigger group attend this year. The party (more of a dinner party I'd say) will be held at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Raleigh on Tuesday, November 13th at 7 pm. All OCF members and friends from North Carolina are invited to participate. Last year Fr. Paul and his team of Holy Trinity parishioners cooked a delicious Thanksgiving dinner for us and we all got a chance to meet and mingle with fellow OCF members from other college campuses. We also traded ideas about ways to conduct OCF meetings and events. We tried out Duke's weekly prayer service and it has now been incorporated into UNC meetings as well.
I hope to see you all at this year's Thanksgiving Party. For more information, please contact me at niforos@unc.edu or John Stonestreet at john@ocf.net. Also, look for our Facebook event "OCF Party" to find possible carpool options.
Best regards,
Rosanne Niforos
UNC OCF

Random cool video

2007-10-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Switzerland:

Sent to me by Jordan Zanetis of the University of Tennessee's OCF chapter.

-Alex

New writers

2007-10-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

Please welcome Rosanne Niforos and Michelle Torski. Rosanne is the president and founder of UNC's OCF chpater, and she is in her second year in office. Michelle, from Duke University, is on the OCF National Office Student Advisory Board and is the representative for the Carolinas.

-Alex

News: Day of fasting and prayer called over OCA financial row

2007-10-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard, the Orthodox Church in America has been having serious concerns over fiscal improprieties and accountability. Details at the moment have been sketchy. This story was first brought to our attention when I received a Sunday announcements e-mail from my home church in Portland talking about an "OCA issue."

What we know for sure is that a special committee has been appointed to investigate the matter. Link: Metropolitan Herman mandates reconstituted Special Investigative Committee

At Holy Transfiguration today, an OCA church just outside of Durham, in announcements a bishop (whose name escapes me at the moment) has called for a day of fasting and prayer for October 16 for the "Holy Synod on October 16th and for the Joint Meeting of the Holy Synod and Metropolitan Council scheduled for October 17, 2007."

We will be following this story closely as it develops.

-Alex

New stuff coming soon

2007-10-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

By popular demand, we will be adding more content and new cool stuff to the blog soon. For starters, we're going to add some columnists and have more information about upcoming events.

Check back often!

We also wish everyone at Duke University a safe and enjoyable Fall Break.

-Alex

Fall 2007 Diakonia Retreat

2007-09-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

September 28, 2007—it was the weekend, and class was done. For the adventurous band of students from schools across the South, it was time for some fun.

My group from UNC left campus at about 4 PM, and our ride down turned out to be an adventure. Somewhere along the way on the middle-of-nowhere roads in the South Carolina countryside, we got lost and ended up barreling through random country roads while blasting Bruce Springsteen at 140 decibels, without an AAA map or a GPS system. Eventually, we made some phone calls to people at home with computers and figured out our directions, which was an improvement over our earlier system.

“That sign says Greer—13 miles. Let’s try that one!”

I was beat and crashed early. We had a lot ahead of us.

Part of the Diakonia retreat is doing some work on the area grounds. We got up at 7 AM for a morning church service, ate breakfast, and then went out to work at 9. The two projects that the groundskeeper, Aka, needed on the site were a massive job of pulling weeds (seriously, some of these weeds were 5 feet tall...I've never seem them this big), and building a retaining wall behind two of the cabins.

Rolling out

Morning services

Breakfast

First, let me give you some background about Aka. He’s one of those guys who always has an interesting story to tell, often involving amazing feats of strength and bravado—like a retired smokejumper or Marine. Chuck Norris checks under his bed at night for Aka.

Aka is second from the right

To build a retaining wall, we first had to excavate some of the dirt behind the cabins and level the ground. The first tier of the wall were railroad ties—gigantic, heavy blocks of wood—that had to be flat, level, and placed end to end. To secure the railroad ties in place in case a rainstorm brought that wall of dirt sliding down, we had to drive 2-foot long aluminum reinforcing bars through the boards with sledgehammers.

Me standing by the outside of the cabin after the ground was excavated and the first ties were laid in. A lot of work was still ahead of us

After the first tier was leveled and put into position, we took a lunch break; the food there was amazing by the way. I’ve been on some retreats where the food was on par with Carson Dining Hall at the University of Oregon, and that’s not a compliment. This was a pleasant surprise.

The nice ladies in the back served us

When we came back, it was time to secure the ties into the ground. Now this is a bit harder than it sounds, considering that these railroad ties were extremely dense (each of them weighed about 75 pounds). After an hour of drilling holes in them for the rebars, the drill bit was hot to the touch. After a while longer, the wood literally started smoking.

Water break

Me riding in the golf cart with Aka to fetch more rebars

Drilling holes for the rebars

Finishing up tier one. Construction is a combination of precision and brute force

The dog kept watch over our operation

The kid wanted to help

Meanwhile the other group was clearing the area of weeds

Victory pose. After six hours we were all tanked

But that’s what it’s all about. When all was done, we could see the difference that just six hours of work made. I should have taken more before/after pictures.

The rest of the day was free time, and many of us headed out to the pier, taking out canoes, fishing, or just chilling out. I am thinking that we need at least one jet boat and a wakeboard for next time.

Goofing off in the water

There was also an incident on the pier where at great personal risk to myself, I had to throw someone into the water (name withheld since suspects are innocent until proven guilty). There have been multiple interpretations of what happened, but most people—especially the St. Barbara’s crowd—agree that I was acting in self-defense. Unfortunately, we may never know the truth about what happened on that Saturday afternoon.

On the pier, anyone can turn on you at any moment

Saturday evening Vespers service

Shenanigans aside, the retreat was great. Something that has always impressed me at Diakonia Retreats is the quality of the homilies and lectures. They were all very practical to the lives of college students—issues like making time for church, and living in a good manner not just in the 2 hours on Sunday at Liturgy. It’s really too much to write about in just one blog entry; suffice to say, I will be definitely attending the next Diakonia Retreat and am thinking about going to College Conference now.

Back inside our cabin

Another thing that caught my attention was when we were having a discussion about future OCF activities. It got very intricate, with us debating both the merits and disadvantages of “ethnic” Orthodoxy, and how to plan OCF events accordingly with that phenomenon.

But, in retrospect, what struck me most about that conversation...was simply that we were having it.

One year ago when I transferred to UNC, I showed up to a weekly OCF meeting in a back room in the student union. John Stonestreet was there leading us, and I remember there were about 7 other students there. 1 of them was Byzantine Catholic. 2 others were from Duke.

Flash forward to Fall 2007. OCF at UNC has expanded considerably, and we have a bigger cadre of “regulars.” People know about us. Now, we’re talking about whether we want to use The Pit (a public area at UNC commonly used by clubs and organizations) or instead use the Great Hall for an upcoming event.

If there is one word to summarize what I saw at the Fall Diakonia retreat, it's progress. OCF in this region has come a long way.

Sunday Divine Liturgy

Our choir

I’m eager to see the state of OCF for the Spring retreat.

-Alex

News (non-OCF): Greek wildfire recovery

2007-09-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

Since we have a sizable Greek population at the three schools here, I though you'd be interested:

Greek recovery 'to take decades'
A gutted olive grove in the village of Artemida, southern Greece. File photo

Large areas of southern Greece were badly burnt by the fires
The environmental charity WWF has said it will take at least two decades for forests to grow back in the areas of Greece destroyed by the recent fires...

Source: BBC News
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7017389.stm

Our hopes and prayers go out to all those who were affected.

-Alex

Daily readings and homily, 9.26.07

2007-09-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios blesses NC OCF Chaplaincy

2007-09-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

OCF at McCallisters

2007-09-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

Engaging the campus

2007-09-27T11:41:00.000-07:00

Students from GA & NC reflect on OCF experience

2007-09-27T11:30:00.001-07:00

Greek students reflect on OCF experience

2007-09-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Countdown to Diakonia- 2 Days

2007-09-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

As I continue to look for more reasons why I should procrastinate on my COMP 416 project, I've decided to post some shots from some of our earlier events this year.

Our invasion of Parizade in Durham on Greek Night back in August:

The people running the show:

Your fearless leader:

Countdown to Diakonia- 4 Days

2007-09-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

In my experience Facebook isn't always reliable as far as finding out how many people are going to an event, but just from the people who I've been talking to, we're going to have quite a bit more people coming to Diakonia than we did back in March. Jordan Zanetis from Tennessee said that a large contingent from his school is going to be there, and I've heard similar things here at UNC and at Duke.

Now this is definitely nice to see OCF expanding. On the other hand, having a smaller group last time was also nice in order to get to know people more on a one-on-one basis. It kind of had a "first-day freshman dorm" feeling.

I am going to open this up to comments on the blog. What do you guys think is better: big groups or small groups? What is the best way that we can do something like the Diakonia retreat?

-Alex