Overseas Christian Fellowship

Overseas Christian Fellowship Australia (OCF Australia) is a student-led, student-run, non-denominational and non-profit Christian organisation with connected centres across Australian university campuses. As of September 2008 there are 22 recognised and existing OCF Centres across all Australian states except the Northern Territory, of which 19 are fully active.

The current vision statement of OCF Australia is "Reach out. Build up. Send back" highlighting its three missions as an arm to the church. The organisation focuses on catering for International Students at Australian Universities to develop their Christian foundation and to prepare them for Christian ministries. Members of OCF colloquially call themselves "OCFers".

Many church leaders, christian organisation directors/committee members across Asia-Pacific countries were former members of OCF in their tertiary years.

History

OCF was founded in 1958 when various International Students' fellowships in different Universities around Australia decided to meet and stay connected and share a common goal. Each year an AGM is held with a Convention Camp where members from each centre gather to discuss plans for the coming year, make any amendments to the vision statement and resolve any issues.

The population of OCF membership has grown significantly over its 50 years of history and currently has between 20 to 300 members per centre (depending on its location and campus share).

Culture

As the turnover of members occur frequently (due to the lifespan of a typical bachelor degree being 4 years, and some members join in later years of study), members who are able to remain active in a particular centre for 5 years or more is referred to as a 'dinosaur'.

Majority of its current members are Asians, being closest to Australia.

Weekly meetings are commonly held on campuses or supporting church. Since OCF is student-led and student-run, the general atmosphere of both the meetings and the events are more relaxed and casual than most organisations, promoting the accessibility to non-believers and non-members.

Events

While each OCF centre runs independently, some events are almost universally run at similar times. Weekly meets occur on either Friday or Wednesday night, an Easter and Winter camp (combined centres in each city/state) held annually are common. A national Convention is held once a year at a different host city each time. Convention for 2008 is held in Adelaide, hosted by OCF AU, OCF Uni SA and OCF Flinders.

As OCF centres prioritises evangelism on campus, many activities including non-members exist. Events such as Evangelism Nights (E-Nite), Buddy Dinners (at people's homes), O-Week activities (Orientation Week for new students to campus) and other social outings occur regularly.

Affiliates

Members of OCF, after graduation, may leave to return to their home country, where they join other christian organisations such as OMF (Overseas Mission Fellowship) or their local church's ministries.

Of the members who opt to remain and work in Australia, they often stay connected to OCF to serve as an advisor, guardian or speaker for a centre.

For returnees (people who return to their home country after finishing studies), an OCF Alumni exists in both Malaysia and Singapore.

List of OCF Centres

NSW
OCF Sydney (University of Sydney)
OCF New South Wales (University of New South Wales)
OCF Macquarie* (Macquarie University)

Victoria
OCF Berwick* (Monash University, Berwick Campus)
OCF Carlton (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)
OCF Caulfield (Monash University, Caulfield Campus)
OCF Clayton (Monash University, Clayton Campus)
OCF Frankston* (N/A)
OCF Geelong (Deakin University)
OCF MU (Melbourne University)
OCF Swinburne (Swinburne University of Technology)
OCF Parkville (Melbourne University)

South Australia
OCF Adelaide (University of Adelaide)
OCF Uni SA (University of South Australia)
OCF Flinders (Flinders University)

Queensland
OCF Griffith Uni (Griffith University)
OCF UQ (University of Queensland)

Western Australia
OCF Murdoch (Murdoch University)
OCF Perth (University of Western Australia)
OCF Curtin (Curtin University of Technology)

ACT
OCF Canberra (Australian National University)

Tasmania
OCF Hobart (University of Tasmania)

Note: centres with a * may not be officially affiliated yet.

External links

* [http://www.ocfaustralia.org/ OCF Australia home page]
* [http://ocfparkville.ocfaustralia.org/ OCF Parkville home page]
* [http://caulfield.ocfaustralia.org/ OCF Caulfield home page]
* [http://unimelb.ocfaustralia.org/ OCF Melbourne University home page]