Membership - a lifelong journey
Membership in the OCM is open to anyone who wants to participate in the work of the order, obey its laws and rules. It is a criterion that you are baptized in the Christian faith, and that you profess Christianity, regardless of which church you belong to. Admission to the order takes place at a solemn ceremony called knighthood. Here you must take a pledge of allegiance to the Grand Master of the order and confirm that you will continue to serve God, Christianity and the purpose of the order.
Any Christian, honest person can become a member and be dubbed a Knight of the Order of Constantine the Great - female members are initiated as Dames.
The order is very open in nature - the dubbing ceremony takes place publicly and in Sweden a tradition has developed of carrying out the ceremony at a finely tuned musical service where the public is welcome to attend.
The order has around 1000 members worldwide. In countries with a smaller number of members, they constitute the country's Commandery. In countries with many members, several Commanderies are formed and as a unifying and comprehensive Exarchate. Finland has the most members as a single country. Greece and Sweden follow. The Swedish Exarchate currently has around 80 members.
Swedish honorary members of the order are Bishop Emeritus Carl Axel Aurelius and Ambassador Fredrik Vahlquist.