Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) is an agency of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the United States serving students at over 200 universities and colleges.
“[Orthodox Christian mission] refers not only to the length and breadth of the earth, but also to the depths of each soul for its essential reformation. The Church grows both by acquiring new members and by enabling those already baptized to acquire a deeper experience of the mysteries of life and love. If in the first case there is a type of growth that is quantitative, in the second the growth could be called qualitative. It is to this case in point that the pastoral responsibility of the Church is concerned, ‘to equip of the saints, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.’” —Archbishop Anastasios of Albania
The Alaskan Mission to the Already-Present Church
As early as the mid-seventeenth century, Orthodox Christianity arrived on the Alaskan shores, not in the form of an organized diocese or even a mission but in the persons of the early Russian entrepreneurs who traded with the Alaskan people. Over nearly 150 years, Russian Christians came in and out of Alaska, building relationships with the then pagan natives through business, friendship, and even marriage. Generations lived out their Christian faith far from the normal rhythms of life of Christian Russia, and yet, the Church was already present in Alaska in the lives of the Christians who lived there.
It was not until 1794 that the first priests and monks from Valaam arrived as missionaries to bring the fullness of Christian faith to Alaska. Even then, they were sent not because they envisioned the conversion of thousands but because there were Russians to serve—Russians who were interacting with and intermarrying within the non-Orthodox community into which they were embedded. The first goal of the Alaskan mission, then, was to build up the Church that was already there by increasing the liturgical, sacramental, and pastoral care available to the Orthodox Christians living in Alaska. It was from answering the call to serve the Russians that the Alaskan mission ultimately grew to what we often think of in reading the lives of Sts. Innocent, Herman, Jacob, and the others.
The American College Campus Is Today’s Alaskan Mission
At Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF), we think of college campuses in the US today much like the Church thought of Alaska in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For just about 150 years, Orthodox Christians have been living, worshiping, and sending their young people to institutions of higher education in the lower forty-eight states—institutions where our students build relationships through classes, friendship, and yes, even marriage, within a context that is primarily not Orthodox. And, just like the early Russian fur traders, our students live life on campus with differing degrees of connection to the Church they knew at home as they work out who they are and who they are becoming as adults.
So what can we do to further imitate the Church in the time of the Alaskan mission? We believe that now is the time to send missionaries from among our communities, specifically called to build up the Church where it already is present in the hearts and lives of Orthodox college students, and by doing so, extend the reach of the Church from the parish to the campus. That’s why in 2023, we launched the campus missionary initiative, bringing full-time staff to serve college students on their campuses.
Like the first missionaries in Alaska, OCF campus missionaries are not considered “missionaries” because they are tasked with bringing the Gospel to a brand-new place. Rather, they are called missionaries because they are ones sent to support the building up of the Body of Christ—sent to young people who have seeds of faith in their hearts in order to support them in their effort to love and serve God and neighbor—sent to empower, inspire, and equip the already present Church in its effort to invite all peoples into the fullness of a life in Christ.
Photo: ocf.net
OCF campus missionaries dedicate their time to creating a rhythm of Orthodox Christian life through which students who are already part of the Church can learn and grow. While the common perception in the Church is that college is a time that a young person’s faith must simply survive, our goal is to make it a time when a person’s faith thrives. Every week, campus missionaries offer multiple opportunities for worship, education, fellowship, and philanthropy on and around their campuses. Through this rhythm and depth of life, students develop deeper relationships with one another as well as with a lay role model who can help disciple them in the Orthodox Faith. And through the building up of rich campus communities, we can also begin to invite all young people into the life of the Church.
Campus Missionaries Today
Photo: osf.net
As of Fall 2025, there are now three campuses where full-time campus missionaries have been sent to strengthen the Church’s reach on campus: Texas A&M University, Arizona State University, and Atlanta (serving Georgia Tech and Emory University). At each location, within the first year, student participation increased by at least 185%. Students from varied backgrounds and experiences of the Church have been given the opportunity to deepen their roots in the Church and, as their lives are transformed by Christ, they have begun to bring their friends, their roommates, and other students they meet on campus. At this time, around one-third of student participants at each location are catechumens and inquirers simply because Orthodox students and their campus missionaries are living out their faith in meaningful ways.
Photo: osf.net
In addition to simply bringing young people into the Church and igniting their love for Christ, OCF campus missionaries are discipling students to bear the fruit of the Christian life in their relationships, their parishes, and in the community around them. For example, at Arizona State University, students spent over 70 hours last school year serving the homeless community of Phoenix by providing haircuts, snacks, and a listening ear. At Texas A&M, OCF students took the lead in gathering other ministries on campus to open a food pantry in the on-campus chapel for food-insecure students. At all three locations, students serve in their parishes as chanters, altar servers, Sunday school teachers, prosphora bakers, and more. There have even been a few weddings celebrated as students are able to meet other young people who share their depth of faith and commitment to Christ.
God willing, OCF will continue to expand this initiative in the coming years. Our next campus missionary location is slated to be Penn State University in Fall of 2026 with others preparing for launches in 2026, 2027, and beyond.
You can learn more about OCF campus missionaries and support this crucial initiative here.