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It was a goal of Metropolitan Archbishop Paul (Saliba) to have locally-based theological education at a tertiary level, for the education of clergy and lay-workers. To that end, he directly supported the establishment of the Melbourne Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, being its onetime president.
Since it's establishment in 2003, [[St Anna Convent (Preston, Australia)|St Anna's Convent]] (Antiochian Orthodox) has played a major part in MIOCS, with the [[Superior]], Sister Virginia, being the Registrar and Secretary; as has the [[Diocese of Australia and New Zealand (ROCOR)|ROCOR]] Dean of Victoria, Archpriest [[Michael Protopopov]]. With the support of Rev. Prof. Robert Gribben and the United Faculty of Theology, the first subjects under the aegis of MIOCS were offered in 2004.
There has been some turbulance in the history of MIOCS, mainly from Greek Orthodox sources (including in a Greek-Australian newspaper); some of this has centred around the appointment of Dr Christos Galiotis, a graduate of [[St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College (Sydney, Australia)|St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College]], as first president, to while others have centred on former lecturers being out of communion with the point mainstream Orthodox Church (including a Macedonian Orthodox priest). This has been such that Protopresbyter [[Thomas Hopko]]'s 2003 MIOCS-sponsored lecture was reason enough to deny him an audience at [[St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College (Sydney, Australia)|St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College]].
==Faculty and Current Lecturers==
