Parish Outreach Hub
A Resource to Reach and Serve College StudentsIntroduction
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Preparing High School Students
Before College
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Celebrate Your Graduates
Learn More About College-Going
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Orthodox College Prep: What’s This All About?
Nowadays, you hear a lot of talk that the value of a college degree is its earning value in the job marketplace. Take, for...
From High School to College: The First Forty Days
Noah was in the ark for forty days and forty nights. Moses retreated on Mt. Sinai for forty days. Jesus met Symeon in the temple on his...
Family & Youth Ministries
Find even more resources through these organizations.
Orthodox Youth Directors in North America
GOA Youth and Young Adult Ministries
American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Youth
Supporting Students
During College
Welcoming students & supporting an OCF Chapter
Welcoming Students Into Your Parish
5 Ways to Make College Students Feel at Home
For college students, a new parish in their college town might seem like a closed-off clique into which students are simply unimportant, transient members in whom the parish need not invest much time. Of course, most parishes don’t intend to come off this way, and we all want our college students to be accepted and cared for. Here are five ways you can ensure that your parish is including its college students and creating a home-away-from home for them.
Doing Pan-Orthodox
OCF is an organization charged by the Assembly of Bishops to bring together all Orthodox Christians from all backgrounds and jurisdictions and to do it well. We’ve been “doing pan-Orthodox” for a while now. Here are a few lessons we have learned.
College Student Sunday: What Your Parish Can Do
I am thankful every time we get a call or an email from a parent, priest, Philoptochos chapter, or parish council asking what they can do to help our young people get connected to an OCF chapter, reach out to their local campus, or assist in the growth of the...
Your Liturgy is Weird
Not every student has experienced the diversity of Orthodox liturgical practices. What can you do to help students make sense of those differences?
Have a Home-Cooked Meal With Your Orthodox College Students!
Let’s be honest: food matters to Orthodox Christian College students. They come from homes where meals are celebrated and joyful. So, it only takes about a month of cafeteria food for the longing for food, made with love, to hit hard.
Supporting an OCF Chapter
Discussion Resources
Use these blogs to spark discussion in your chapter meetings.
How to Use the OCF Blog for Your Chapter Meetings
In case you didn't know, OCF has a TON of great resources on the website you can use for your chapter. Here's how to use the OCF blog. Read an article and have a discussion. Visit ocf.net/blog. On the right, click on Tags Click on Chapter Discussion for articles...
5 Spiritual Books for Chapter Study
The Way of the Pilgrim Author: Anonymous Length: 264 pages What you can expect: An unnamed Russian pilgrim hears in church one day that he should, "pray without ceasing," so he travels around on foot seeking wisdom on how to pray, specifically the Jesus Prayer Why you...
Managing Funds for Your Chapter
We often get asked by chapters how and where they should open a bank account for money they raise for their activities throughout the year. Here are our top three suggestions: Option #1: You can find out if student activities or the campus ministry...
Five Minute Church History Lesson
We're talking outreach again this week. Now that we have the principles down, what can we say when we get questioned about our faith? Let's start with the hardest question you'll probably get. Orthodox? What's that? In the back of my head, I'm always...
Bible Study
The Old Testament Canon
Today we continue to answer the question: Why are some books in the Bible while others were excluded and how was that decided? The canon of the Old Testament is a much more complicated collection than the New Testament. Unlike the New Testament that was written,...
How to Read the Bible & Where to Start
Just picking up a Bible and committing to read the whole thing can seem an impossible task. Where should you start? How should you make sense of the whole book? Here's a little bit of advice for getting started: Everything must be read through the lens of Jesus...
The New Testament Canon
Why are some books in the Bible while others were excluded and how was that decided? This is a great question! Today I'm going to address the New Testament canon. Let's start off with a little bit of context. By the end of the first century or early in the second...
Resources for Bible Study
Wanting to upgrade your chapter Bible study? Here are some resources we suggest for helping you prayerfully study the Scriptures. The Orthodox Study Bible: If you're not already using it, the OSB has some helpful, basic articles and footnotes throughout the...
Popular Blog Topics
Dating Advice, Orthodox Style
Photo from Matt Westgate on Flickr In the midst of everything that is going on in college, I know that many of you are probably also thinking about getting married or pursing romantic relationships. Dating can be a tough scene for us Orthodox Christians--let's be...
Four Saints Who Struggled with Lust
From the years of my youth, many passions combat me, but you who are my Savior, assist me and save me. --from the First Antiphon of the Anavathmoi of the Fourth Mode As the hymn declares, many temptations arise in the soul in one's youth. There is a certain...
Icons Are Not Idols
This week's campus question: What's up with all the pictures? Isn't that like idol worship? Doesn't the Bible forbid that? Explaining iconography to someone who doesn't pray with icons can be a little daunting. For us Orthodox, it's as natural and normal as reading...
Preparing Students for Life
After College
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Ebb and Flow: On Mental Health and Coping With Ambiguity
I’ll begin by spilling my heart. I have the deepest respect for you all who are OCF students and I would do all I could for you. So, what is mental health and what is ambiguity? Basically, mental health is an ability to cope with stress, connect with others, and...
I Need a Vocation, Not a Vacation
Every kid has a dream job. Whether they want to grow up to be a doctor, veterinarian, ballerina, athlete, astronaut, scientist, a mom, a dad, or even the president, it is up to them to choose a path to follow. We, as college students, are in the 'refinement' section...
From the Beyond: Life Post-OCF
Hello from the beyond! The scary unknown that is post grad, the uncharted territory of working adulthood. An update: Upon graduating from Pitt and passing on the OCF baton, I embarked on a new great adventure. I am spending the next two years as a teaching fellow with...
More Resources for Life After College
Check out the work of these organizations of the Church, providing opportunities and resources for college grads.