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Over the course of the past two years, the Clergy Wives Advisory Group (CWAG) of the Office of Pastoral Life (OPL) has sponsored five online retreats for widows of clergy of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). The retreats have been edited for the privacy of participants’ discussions, and are now available online:
- April 2023: His Grace John Abdalah, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, “Grief Is Complicated”
- September 2023: Mother Angelina, Monastic, Holy Assumption Monastery, Calistoga, CA, “Navigating Parish Life as the Widow of a Priest”
- November 2023: Mother Christophora, Abbess, Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration, Ellwood City, PA, “Illness and Aging”
- February 2024: Father Sergius, Abbot, Monastery of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, South Canaan, PA, “On Prayer”
- May 2024: Father Ian MacKinnon, Retired Archpriest, Diocese of the West, Orthodox Church in America, “Finding Your Purpose as a Widowed Clergy Wife”
“We are extraordinarily grateful for our speakers who so graciously led these retreats,” said Mka Natasha Lazor, a regular participant of and advocate for the retreats. “They clearly demonstrated their love, care, and concern for the widows of clergy in our Church in their thoughtfully prepared presentations.”
