From October 25-28, the students and staff of St. Herman Seminary had the privilege of hearing veteran Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) missionary Floyd Frantz speak on an Orthodox perspective of substance abuse counseling. Mr. Frantz has spent the past 10 years serving as coordinator of the St. Dimitrie Program in the Archdiocese of Cluj, not only in substance abuse counseling but in training clergy in Romania and the Republic of Moldova to work in substance abuse counseling as well.

Mr. Frantz spoke on alcoholism as disease, Orthodox spirituality and recovery, and made several comparisons between the problems of addiction in the Orthodox culture in Romania and that of Alaska. His work is a welcome addition to Archimandrite Meletios Webber’s Steps of Transformation (Conciliar Press). Before returning to Romania, Mr. Frantz had the opportunity to speak of his ministry to the faithful at Holy Resurrection Cathedral and St. Innocent Academy before visiting the offices of the Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA), where our seminarians learn about addiction and recovery. We are pleased to have Mr. Frantz as our new adjunct instructor in substance abuse counseling and look forward to his future visits to the Seminary and hope that many of our students will serve on OCMC’s mission trips to Romania to supplement their Seminary study of substance abuse counseling. Visit http://www.ocmc.org/resources/view_article.aspx?ArticleId=371 to learn more about Mr. Frantz’ ministry with OCMC in Romania and an archive of his ministry newsletters.