Country Profile: Greece

Greece occupies the south of the Balkan Peninsula; it is 80% mountainous, has 1400 islands and the tenth longest coastline in the world. To the north lie Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria, to the east, Turkey. Standing in this position at the edge of Europe, Greek culture has strong eastern influences, also due to Ottoman rule from 1453 until 1829. Greek life is noisy; loud conversations with lots of gestures, driving with one hand on the horn and late night partying are the norm. Despite some changes, the role of the family is still strong. Largely monocultural in the past, modern Greece is becoming much more multicultural, and the younger generation are open to external influences and new ideas.

Tourism and shipping are major sectors of the economy; tourism provides 15% of Greek GDP and employs almost 17% of the workforce, directly or indirectly. Greeks are proud of their heritage from the ancient Greek civilisation, and the country boasts 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Greece is an EU member, and a relatively affluent and materialistic society where image and status are very important. The current severe economic crisis has raised awareness of financial, moral and spiritual needs and hit the vulnerable in society especially hard.

CHRISTIANITY

Greece was the first European country to hear the Gospel; Paul journeyed to cities like Philippi, Thessaloniki, Athens and Corinth. The Greek state is defined as Eastern Orthodox by its constitution. Whilst 98% of Greeks call themselves Orthodox, only 2% go to church regularly. Just 0.2% of the population belong to evangelical churches which tend to be fairly traditional with strong leadership structures. Many small towns, villages and islands have little or no evangelical witness.

OM GREECE 

Vision Statement

Our vision is to serve and strengthen the Greek Protestant community and to encourage and help them in fulfilling the Great Commission.

OM Greece works alongside Greek churches, many of which are small and value OM’s partnership and prayer. Team members can be involved in youth work, leadership, discipleship, special events and different church meetings. It is also on our heart to reach out to those on the edge of society, for example refugees, immigrants, prostitutes and Roma.

OM has teams in two cities, Larissa and Athens.

Athens Team

In this big city there are small Greek churches serving their local areas and these can benefit from individuals supporting their ongoing ministries. We work especially in the area of community projects, usually in poor central districts where many immigrants and refugees live – people from Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Some team members are also involved in church youth ministry.

We also seek to raise awareness amongst Greek believers of the needs in other countries so that the Greek church is more able to pray, give and send workers to other parts of the world.

Larissa Team

Larissa is a major town in central Greece with a large Albanian migrant population. We reach out to them through visits and offering practical help where necessary. We organise Albanian language church services twice a month. From our Albanian literature Centre we distribute Albanian Christian literature for all of Greece.

We work in cooperation with the local Greek evangelical church and are involved in their church activities as well.

We partner with other organisations to serve the large Roma community in this area; the Roma people have been hardly reached with the Gospel and face major social and economic hardship.

For more information, please visit our website www.gr.om.org, or contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it