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Sun... beach... palm trees... mansions... yachts... Rolls Royces... Rolex… Gucci... Versacci…this is Boca Raton, Florida.

The Divine Liturgy celebrated every Sunday at 10am on a huge college campus… this is the Mission of St. Ignatius of Antioch in Boca Raton, Florida.    

The Mission of St. Ignatius of Antioch is based on Florida Atlantic University (FAU) on Glades Road in Boca Raton, Florida.  FAU is a University which boasts over 28,000 students.  St. Ignatius Boca at FAU may be the first Antiochian Orthodox Christian ministry ever established to serve upon a college campus in the history of this great Archdiocese.  This Orthodox mission maintains unlimited growth potential where the hope is “to bring America home to Orthodoxy!”

His Grace Bishop Antoun arrived in Orlando, Florida on Friday, January 7^th, 2011, to Bless and visit the faithful of St. George Church. Upon arrival, His Grace asked Fr. John E. Hamatie, pastor of St. George’s, to please take him to visit Monk James of the Orthodox Community of Ss. Cosmas and Damian. The Community has a long-standing ministry of housing, helping and caring for homeless HIV-positive men in the Orlando area. Afterwards, His Grace and his dear sister Marie Shaleesh, who accompanied Sayidna for the week-end, drove to St. George’s to attend the weekly Church feeding of homeless people. His Grace was very much impressed with this ministry of St. George’s and with the feeding of over two hundred men, women and children that day.

Bishop Antoun Speaks at the 2010 Clergy SymposiumDuring the 2010 Clergy Symposium at the Antiochian Village a banquet was held in honor of Bishop Antoun for his 50 years of priesthood.

The evening was chaired by Economos Antony Gabriel. Following are his remarks. There was also a slide presentation by Rt. Rev. John Abdalah and remarks by both Very Rev. Joe Shaheen and Very Rev. George Rados.

Your Eminences,

Metropolitan Philip and Metropolitan Ephraim

Hierarchs of the God-protected Archdiocese

Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

This evening I was tempted to recall all the humorous episodes in our life that we shared with you. 

However, it is “serious” business to salute you on the occasion of your 50 consecrated years in God’s holy Priesthood.  Few among this audience know of the Antoun we met in 1959 and the suffering you endured in your early years in North America, miles away from family and friends in a different culture and attending St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York City with professors who at times were difficult to understand with their various accents, living with complete strangers who barely spoke English.

Recently, Bishop Basil spoke with AFR correspondent Matthew Namee about the historic assembly of bishops which took place in the week following Pentecost. His Grace was elected Secretary of the Assembly. Below are excerpts from the interview, which can be found here in full:  

"The bishops delighted in being together and doing the work of the Church."

"The ultimate task was to prepare the Orthodox (Church) of this region...to constitute itself as a canonical, single Church.…It is a huge task, one that a vast majority of Orthodox Christians in America have been praying for, hoping for, talking about, for a long, long time."

"It’s as if the Mother Churches have said to us, ‘Look, you have been asking for this. Before we give it to you, we would like to know, what is your plan?’"

On SCOBA:

"We were blessed by the work of SCOBA….the work of the Episcopal Assembly was made quite easy by the 50 years of preparation."

"The Episcopal Assembly is comprised of every Orthodox bishop, not just the primates. We had 55 in attendance, (in New York) where the maximum of SCOBA members would have been 8."

Ancient Faith Radio has also posted an extensive interview with Fr. Mark Arey, General Secretary of SCOBA, titled Unraveling the Episcopal Assembly. Additionally, Antiochian.org has compiled a summary of online Assembly articles.