Foundation News Ireland, Washington, Ukraine, and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation: One Archon’s Remarkable Journey
Born to an Irish-American family and raised in the Roman Catholic Church, Archon Miceál O’Hurley is now the Secretary of the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Ireland. His unswerving dedication to truth and justice, however, has taken him not only into the Holy Orthodox Church, but to two of the most prestigious universities of the United States of America, and even to the battlefields of Ukraine. Archon O’Hurley’s journey is one of the most unusual and inspiring stories of our tumultuous age, and a stirring testimony to the power of faith in one man’s life.
“I came to Orthodoxy,” Archon O’Hurley explained, “having been raised a Roman Catholic. For years, I worshipped in the Eastern Rites of the Church, but I always felt ‘incomplete.’” “When I married Oksana,” his beloved Ukrainian wife Oksana Shadrina, Archon O’Hurley continued, “we decided to worship in one Church, so I became Orthodox, coming to the faith the same way every Orthodox Christian does, by Baptism and Chrismation. I was received into the Orthodox Church at Saint Michael’s Golden Domed Cathedral in Kyiv.”
In Ukraine, Archon O’Hurley became familiar with Vladimir Putin’s unjust and fratricidal war against the Ukrainian people. “My wife and I have watched Ukraine suffer since 2014,” Archon O’Hurley explained, “when parts of Donbas and Crimea were occupied. We engaged like so many others in charitable acts to support the Ukrainian people with medical and humanitarian aid and to support Ukraine’s defense.”
Archon O’Hurley’s determination to see the Ukrainian people receive justice took him to Turkey: “I was at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in 2022, when the Russians and Ukrainians met in a last-ditch effort for a peace deal.” These efforts, however, were foredoomed: “Given Russia’s ambitions for territory, and its desire to put an end to Ukraine’s re-emergence as a nation, peace was not possible without Ukraine agreeing to be subsumed by Russia, in much the same way the Bolsheviks did in 1917.”
Back in Ukraine as the war began, Archon O’Hurley witnessed horrors that brought him to realize that the implications of the conflict were much larger than just a dispute between two nations: “A few days after the full-scale invasion, I was in Kyiv, where I was embedded with a Marine unit. I remember being at the mass grave in Bucha, holding a blood-stained blanket that served as a funeral shroud for a woman murdered and dumped into a mass grave without any human dignity being afforded her or the others, let alone a funeral liturgy. I knew in my heart it was not a political struggle between Russia and Ukraine, but an existential contest between Good and Evil.”
Accordingly, Archon O’Hurley determined that he must join the struggle himself, and volunteered to serve. “I have had the honor to have served with the United Council of Ukrainian and Foreign Cossacks, named after Hetman [military commander] Alexander Levando, a hero of the Ukrainian Cossack people, in Ukraine, in Bakhmut and other points on the front. Most of my work, however, has been about organising relief efforts and providing vehicles from tactical vehicles to buses used to evacuate civilians from the line of contact to donating ambulances that save lives.”
His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine recognized Archon O’Hurley’s selfless labors for the Ukrainian people. “Aside from military awards and decorations, I was presented a different honor from His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphaniy, including the Order of Liberty.” The greatest reward, however, was not a ribbon, plaque, or title. Archon O’Hurley recounts that “the most meaningful rewards, however, came in knowing I played some small part in saving lives and ensuring my Orthodox brothers and sisters, who were freed to worship without the fear, oppression and control of their oppressors by means of the Tomos of Autocephaly granted by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Great and Holy Synod of the Church, will continue.”
Regarding Ukraine, Archon O’Hurley concluded that the nation “has suffered much since its conversion to Christianity in 986 A.D. but it is the nation’s sense of Orthodoxy, fidelity to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and tradition that have sustained its people. Whatever happens, that must continue, and we will keep working to ensure it will.”
Archon Miceál O’Hurley and Oksana Shadrina are the authors of the new book, Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: The Russian Orthodox Church’s Threat to European Security and Democracy (Ibidem/Columbia University Press, 2025) which explores the politicization of the Moscow Patriarchate by means of its “Third Rome” ideology, which leads it to claim to be the legitimate center of worldwide Orthodox Christian life within the context of the Russkiy Mir (Russian World).
After his extraordinary service in Ukraine, Archon O’Hurley returned to his native land. “Living in Ireland,” he remarked, “our family worships in the Greek Orthodox Church, where we were welcomed warmly. Here at home in Ireland, our many prayers for a resident bishop came true in 2024, when His Eminence Metropolitan Iakovos of Ireland, Exarch of the Celtic Sea, was elected and enthroned to both lead and serve us.”
Archon O’Hurley explained that “His Eminence is the first resident Orthodox Bishop in Ireland for almost 1,000 years, since the Great Schism of 1054. I have the pleasure to serve him as the Metropolitan Secretary and assist him in implementing his vision, unworthy though I am to do so. In testament to the wisdom of the Synod in creating this Metropolis (we were formerly under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain), our numbers are growing, and the Divine Liturgy is celebrated weekly and on Feast Days.”
“Metropolitan Iakovos,” Archon O’Hurley continued, “has sustained an incredibly strong Greek Orthodox ethos, with Hellenism being dear to us all, even if we are Irish, Lebanese, Syrian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Albanian, Russian or of other Orthodox Christian traditions. Like Saint Patrick, who came before to call Ireland to holiness, we, too, are called to build a Metropolis from the ground up that bears witness to the God-Man Jesus Christ and to the Orthodox Church, in a spirit of freedom, love, and coexistence among all people. His Eminence ministers to all Orthodox Christians in Ireland, even amidst the presence of other jurisdictions longer established and carrying the funding and assistance of their national governments. His Eminence Metropolitan Iakovos genuinely reflects the mission and diakonia of the Ecumenical Patriarch and makes everyone welcome to the Orthodox Christian Faith.”
Archon O’Hurley’s role as Metropolitan Secretary is just one aspect of his diakonia. “I have been fortunate,” he states, “to have been raised to engage in a life of service. I had written a bestselling book, The Passionate Steward: Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising (St. Brigid Press – 2000), focusing on the aspect of how faith calls us to a life of generosity according to our means.”
Archon O’Hurley’s emphasis on giving of one’s time, talent and treasure in the service of God’s Holy Church has not been merely theoretical in Ireland any more than it was in Ukraine. “Aside from our family’s support for Ukraine and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, I have enjoyed helping connect donors with good causes around the globe, including in Lebanon, where I continue to support the International Orthodox College in Zahle, that gives children a superior education meant to help them and their Christian communities thrive in a challenging environment. I was invited by Archbishop Damianos to assist with the legal team helping the Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai defend its rights in the Egyptian Court of Appeals where, with great thanks to the leadership of the Greek Government, the Monastery’s future has been secured. Most recently, I have been assisting Metropolitan Iakovos with the design and permitting process to improve the church in Dublin and begun to raise money for its expansion and construction.”
In light of all this tireless activity, it was only a matter of time before Miceál O’Hurley was called to become an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. “I was both surprised and honored,” he recounts, “to be informed I was to be invested an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the offikion of Νομοφύλαξ (Nomophylax – Lawkeeper). I found the experience unusual, because we are a working-class family, and there is a misnomer that to be called to serve as an Archon required significant financial donations. His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, with whom I have had to pleasure to meet in Albania, Constantinople and at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum earlier this year, explained that Archons are called to serve with their time, talent and treasure. In November 2025, His Eminence Metropolitan Iakovos of Ireland invested me as Archon Nomophylax in Dublin, Ireland with my family watching and supporting me.”
Archon O’Hurley states that “as a member of the Order of Saint Pammakaristos, I was greeted warmly by Archons across the world, with whom I now feel an affinity. In my correspondence with Dr. Anthony Limberakis, National Commander of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the United States, I was made to feel a true sense of brotherhood. In our conversation, we chatted about our shared experiences of serving on Capitol Hill, he as a page and I as a legislative assistant and later counsel, and many other shared ideas and values. It was that sense of camaraderie and Christian kindness that led me to learn more about the works of the Archons of the United States and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation.”
Moved by their conviction that the Ecumenical Patriarchate is entrusted with an indispensable global ministry, Archon Miceál and Oksana ultimately made a $75,000 legacy donation to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation. “Although our household can by no means considered wealthy, the mission, achievements and accountability of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation led us to review our estate planning and, to our surprise, God willing, we will be able to make a Testamentary Gift to the Foundation from the proceeds of our life insurance. Our lawyer explained that by naming the Foundation and the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Ireland as ‘contingent beneficiaries’ in our wills, once our family is provided for and all estate costs discharged, any residual assets can be donated to causes that reflect our life’s values. We might only be able to give the proverbial ‘Widow’s Mite,’ but we decided to do what we can as every gift helps build up the Church and secure the Ecumenical Patriarch’s future.”
