About the OVM

“We Offer These Gifts”: A Program for the Theological Exploration

About the Program

• Mission Statement of the Office of Vocation & Ministry
• The Grant
• Theological Foundations

About the Leaders

• Vocation & Ministry Program Coordination
• Hellenic College Leadership
• CrossRoad High School Program Leaders
• Evaluator

Mission Statement of the Office of Vocation & Ministry

The Office of Vocation & Ministry (OVM) at Hellenic College provides opportunities for college students, high school students, and those who serve them, for growth in Orthodox Christian vocation and leadership through theological inquiry, ongoing reflection, and service activities by way of retreats, workshops, classes, conferences, study sessions, and mini-grants.

The OVM defines vocation as one’s unique and ongoing response to Christ’s call to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and the neighbor as oneself. It seeks to encourage all participants to consider their life as vocation, and to nurture the next generation of leaders who are called to full-time ministry in the church, whether to the ordained priesthood or to lay ministry.

The OVM seeks to be theologically and faithfully Orthodox Christian; to be excellent stewards of the resources of this Lilly Endowment Inc. grant to Hellenic College; to work with integrity, energy and creativity; to provide engaging and rich programs through effective administration; to publish resources to share learning; and to utilize collaborative inquiry for ongoing program planning and evaluation.

The Grant

The Office of Vocation & Ministry (OVM) was established in 2003 when Hellenic College became one of 88 accredited colleges and universities in the United States to receive a prestigious five-year grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. for "the theological exploration of vocation."  The Lilly Endowment, one of the largest philanthropic foundations in America and Europe, believes that vital religious communities are essential for a flourishing and humane society, and targeted a key need in this regard:  To keep these communities strong and vibrant a new generation of talented leadership, both ordained and lay, is essential. 

The Endowment identified Church-related colleges and universities as a locos of opportunity for such efforts.  The Endowment's three interrelated objectives for this effort are:

1.     to help college students make connections between faith and their vocational choices

2.     to increase the number of candidates for full-time Christian ministry

3.     to enhance the capacity of a college's faculty to teach and mentor students in these arenas

The Lilly Endowment hopes that their grant-funded programs become a permanent part of their host institutions-that these colleges and universities, together with their wider religious communities, continue to fund the programs through their own resources. To help with this transition phase, Lilly invited Hellenic College to apply for a sustainability matching grant of $500,000 to continue its initiatives through June 2012. Hellenic College gladly accepted this invitation, applied for the funding, and received word in May of 2006 that the Lilly Endowment would award Hellenic College the sustainability matching grant.

Program Leaders

Vocation & Ministry Program Coordination

Ann Mitsakos Bezzerides, Ph.D., Director of the Office of Vocation & Ministry, earned her doctorate from Boston College in Theology and Education with her dissertation titled, “Conversing with John Chrysostom as Christian Religious Educator.” She also earned an M.Div. from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary where she has served as a lecturer in Religious Education, and a BA from Middlebury College where she studied English Literature and Creative Writing. She edited Christ at Work: Orthodox Christian Perspectives on Vocation, which serves as a guiding text for OVM programming. Having grown up in the Boston area, Ann learned the books of the New Testament during Vacation Church School at HC/HC, in the very classroom that now, in renovated form, is the Office of Vocation & Ministry. Her research interests include any and all topics related to an Orthodox theology of vocation and ministry; the history and contemporary practice of Christian Religious Education; hermeneutic of retrieval for the use of Patristic texts for the formation of today's educators; evaluation methodologies and practices for ministry; Christian faith and higher education; and youth ministry. She is extremely thankful for the opportunity to serve through this initiative. Tel: (617) 850-1308 Contact Ann M. Bezzerides

Stephanie C. Skedros, Development and Public Relations Coordinator, is an alumna of Boston College. She carries a strong background in higher education in the area of admissions and financial aid. In fact, she served as the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid for Hellenic College/Holy Cross in the early 90s. Stephanie has also worked at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Graduate Theological Union. She is committed to the mission of Hellenic College/Holy Cross and feels blessed to serve the Office of Vocation & Ministry in this capacity. Tel: (617) 850-1311 Contact Stephanie C. Skedros

Michael Tishel, CrossRoad Director, is an alum of Gordon College  with a BA in Comparative Historical Theology, and did his graduate work in theology at the Aristotle University of Thessalonika. He has been involved in youth ministry both on the high school and college levels for a number of years, working as a youth and young adult leader at his parish, for his diocese and for National Orthodox Christian Fellowship. Mike is grateful for the opportunity to serve God and his neighbor through the CrossRoad Summer Institute. Tel: (617)850-1309 Contact Michael Tishel

Hellenic College Leadership

The President of Hellenic College, Rev. Nicholas Triantafilou, is fully committed to the program aims of the Lilly Endowment Inc. grant. He believes that every opportunity should be made for young women and men to explore their Orthodox faith in light of their personal goals, whether as a full-time matriculated student at Hellenic College or through one of the other programs sponsored by or at Hellenic College. He believes that developing a new generation of leaders for the Orthodox Church in North America is a primary educational objective of the College, and is particularly concerned about increasing the number of potential clergy for Greek Orthodox parishes in the United States.