Orthodox NCD was initiated in 2007 when Christian Schwarz, the founder of Natural Church Development International and based in northern Germany, met with Fr. Jonathan Ivanoff, an NCD Certified Coach who had been using NCD in Orthodox parishes since 2001 to discuss furthering NCD among the Orthodox parishes here in North America. That initial meeting led to the development of a form of NCD that was contextualized to produce both initial “parish-friendly” materials that could appropriately and adequately explain NCD to the average Orthodox parishioner as well as an Orthodox form of the NCD Survey. This is also now supported by Orthodox training materials and workshop facilitation materials utilized by the ONCD Coaching Network.

Orthodox NCD seeks to:

• Train and support priests, coaches and parish leaders;
• Develop additional local resources;
• Provide statistical information on NCD findings;
• Work with all Orthodox jurisdictions to effectively bring ONCD into any parish that wants or can use it;
• Liaise with the NCD International Institute in its ongoing research to take full advantage of the latest information and data.

As of 2024, over 80 ONCD Surveys have been done in Orthodox churches throughout North America in multiple jurisdictions including the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and the Orthodox Church in America.