Maja Sellmer, 22 years old, from Berlin (Germany), has been working as a volunteer at the Orthodox Academy of Crete (OAC) since September 2023. The OAC is an institution affiliated with the Holy Metropolis of Kissamos and Selinon under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Ever since it was founded in 1968, for more than 50 years now the OAC has been pursuing its mission to not only educate about Orthodoxy but also promote dialogue between different nations, cultures, religions and denominations. The facilities of the OAC include a library with more than 30.000 books in many languages, two buildings with conference rooms as well as accommodation for the participants, an iconography workshop, a museum of Cretan herbs, a path with inspiring mosaics leading to a small chapel, and of course houses for the staff and volunteers.
While the OAC is also a research centre, at its core lies the organisation of conferences and thus the main task of the volunteers is to help with this. Most of the conferences revolve around the themes of Orthodoxy and Ecumenism, but other fields such as physics and biology are also frequently represented. The tasks of the volunteers are just as varied as the topics of the conferences and include: preparing the rooms and materials for the seminars, welcoming the participants at the reception, providing them with information about the OAC, accompanying them on excursions, taking photos of the events, and many more. Other than the international conferences which take place mostly from April to November, there are also smaller events for the local community such as concerts, book club or workshops for schools. When there are no events currently taking place, the volunteers help in other areas, such as cataloging books in the library, maintaining the gardens or preparing information material about the OAC.
Sending organisation: ASF (Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste e.V.)
Hosting organisation: Filoxenia, Intercultural-Environmental Organisation
Co-funded by the European Union