Orthodox Christians unite in new St. Augustine center
At jacksonville.com:
$3 million facility will train missionaries for global assignments
About 300 Orthodox Christians gathered in a steady rain in St. Augustine last week to celebrate the opening of a facility designed to train missionaries for their far-flung assignments around the world.
Clutching cameras and umbrellas, they beamed as archbishops, metropolitans and other spiritual leaders from across the Orthodox spectrum – Greek, Antiochian, Serbian, Carpatho Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Albanian and American – participated Thursday in a ritual opening and blessing of the new facility.
But organizers said the event was also a celebration of an emerging unity among various Orthodox Christian traditions in the United States.
“This is the first permanent facility of the combined Orthodox churches in America,” said Clifford Argue, a Seattle resident and president of the board of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center.