AIOPA History

The Atlanta Inter-Orthodox Parish Association (AIOPA) is a team of clergy and laity representatives from different canonical Orthodox parishes around the Atlanta area.

AIOPA was officially formed during its first meeting on March 17th 2022 as a committee of the Atlanta Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood, which seeks to bring people the knowledge of the Orthodox Church and to assist those throughout the city of Atlanta who are in need.

AIOPA Mission

  • To make the Orthodox Church presence more visible and to speak with “one strong voice”

  • To address jointly the common interests, needs and concerns of all church members

  • To build strong associations of local Orthodox church communities

    • Parishes of all jurisdictions support and help one another

    • Share talents, and coordinate ministries and programs

  • To encourage communication and interaction among parishioners

    • Minimize jurisdictional barriers among the parishes

    • Develop a strong sense of one local Orthodox Christian Family

AIOPA Members

Each Parish is represented, for the most part, by one clergy person (usually the Parish Priest), one lay person from the Parish Council, and one lay person not on the Parish Council.

American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese (ACROD)

  • St. Elizabeth Orthodox Church: Fr. Matthew Dutko | John Marion

Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (Antiochian)

  • St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church: Fr. Gabriel Tannous | Joston Brown

  • St. James Antiochian Orthodox Church: Fr. Steven Ritter | Christine Reindl

  • St. Stephen's Antiochian Orthodox Church: Fr. Jacob Andoun |

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA)

  • Annunciation Greek Cathedral: Fr. Paul Kaplanis | Fr. Christos Mars | Yana Polikarpov| Cathy Seals

  • Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church: Fr. Theodore Ehmer | Charles Glotzbach | Natalia Saratsiotis

  • Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church: Fr. Michael Tishel | Fr. Christopher Zaferes | Fr. Panayiotis Papageorgiou, Emeritus | Eliza Markley | Julia Hill

  • St. Christopher Hellenic Orthodox Church: Fr. George Tsahakis | Jackie Sarantis | Steve Sarantis

  • St. Philothea Greek Orthodox Church: Fr. Anthony Salzman

  • Sts. Raphael, Nicholas & Irene: Fr. Barnabas Powell | Evelyn Kemp | Jessica Heddings

Orthodox Church in America (OCA)

  • Sts. Constantine and Helen Romanian Orthodox Church: Fr. George Acsente | Liviu Sofian

  • St. John the Wonderworker: Fr. Gabriel Ald| Fr. Tom Alessandroni, Emeritus| Rebecca Showalter

Romanian Patriarchate (Romanian)

  • St. Mary Romanian Orthodox Church: Fr. Nicolae Clempus | Dan Fratiloiu

Serbian Orthodox Church in North, Central & South America (Serbian)

  • Sts. Peter and Paul Serbian Orthodox Church: Fr. Miladin Blagojevic | Borko Komnenovic | Mirjana M. Brockett

AIOPA Structure

AIOPA is organized in five workgoups: Religious, Charity, Social, Development and Communications.

Chairman

  • Rev. Fr. Christos P. Mars - Annunciation Greek Cathedral, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA)

Religious WorkGroup

The Religious WorkGroup will create, plan and run activities that allow our clergy and parishioners to participate together in Christian-Orthodox religious events.

Charity WorkGroup

The Charity WorkGroup will create, plan and run charitable activities that provide for the needs of those around us, share God’s deep love for humankind with others, build connection and fellowship within the Orthodox Church, the Body of Christ, and inwardly transform us as individual Orthodox Christians by heeding God’s call to love our neighbor and encountering Christ Himself when we “do for one the least of these”.

Social WorkGroup

The Social WorkGroup will create, plan and run activities intended to bring together orthodox parishioners for social events.

Development WorkGroup

The Development WorkGroup will create, plan and run activities that allow our Parish Councils to learn and grow together as a larger team, deeper and faster than each one of us can do individually in our own parish.

Communications WorkGroup

The Communications WorkGroup will create, plan and run activities intended to spread the word about the work our AIOPA Team is doing and the results is having, as well as staying connected with the main stakeholders (e.g., Hierarchs, Assembly of Bishops, Akron team, other relevant organizations).

For a deeper understanding of the Church Unity efforts, please go through these resources:

Presentations

  • The intent of this presentation is to walk us through the AoB history and then what are we doing as AIOPA and how. It’s an opportunity for us to absorb additional knowledge and also to ask questions to make sure we all feel confident about this effort. It can also be used in the future should new people join our team. The presentation is about 30min in length.

Videos

Podcasts

Documents

In order to properly position the effort of our Atlanta Inter-Orthodox Parish Association in the larger context, please find below some useful documents:

For those interested to learn more about the 4th Pre-Conciliar Panorthodox Conference from  Chambésy-Geneva, Switzerland, here are the official English documents: 

  • The Rules - Rules of Operation of Episcopal Assemblies in the Orthodox Diaspora