Mass Conversions Around the World

The number of converts to the Orthodox Church has risen dramatically in recent years.

Social media was flooded during Holy and Bright Weeks with posts from churches across America announcing they had received 20, 50, or even more than 100 catechumens into the Church in time for Pascha.

Such blessed events also took place in many other missionary fields around the world.

In Constantinople’s Metropolis of Korea. Photo: orthodoxianewsagency.gr    

In the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Metropolis of Korea, Metropolitan Ambrose celebrated a Baptismal Liturgy on Lazarus Saturday, April 4, in which 13 catechumens were baptized into the Church, reports the Orthdoxia News Agency.

At the ROCOR church in Brisbane. Photo: Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church, Brisbane    

Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church (ROCOR) in Brisbane, Australia baptized 32 people into the Church on Holy Saturday.

At St. Moses Church in DR Congo. Photo: exarchate-africa.ru    

Also on Holy Saturday, 11 locals were baptized at the St. Moses the Black Church (ROC’s Exarchate of Africa) in the village of Kikwit, DR Congo.

In Western Uganda, 20 people, mostly children, were baptized at Holy Trinity Church (Exarchate of Africa) in the village of Mwitanzige in western Uganda.

At Holy Trinity Church in Uganda. Photo: exarchate-africa.ru    

And in Buenos Aires, 10 adults and three children were baptized on Holy Saturday at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos, following several months of catechism.

The Paschal service the next day marked the first Liturgy in the church since the completion of the large-scale fresco project.

Protopresbyter Esteban Jovanovich, who celebrated the Baptisms at the Serbian cathedral, offered words that are true for all the many conversions happening throughout the world:

This day is a day of joy for the entire Church, since today there are 13 new members of the Body of Christ and therefore all the other members rejoice on this day in which we celebrate the victory of Christ over hades, over death. Christ commanded His Church to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19). He didn’t say to baptize only the Jews, or only the Greeks, but “all nations.”

At the Serbian cathedral in Buenos Aires. Photo: iglesiaortodoxaserbiasca.org    

OrthoChristian previously reported that more than 250 people were baptized in the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, more than 200 became Orthodox in Finland this spring, and a mass Baptism in Vietnam brought eight people into the holy Orthodox Church.