Find Strength at the Table
Grow in Sisterhood & Nourish Your Calling...
Who We Are
We are the wives and widows of priests and deacons serving in the Orthodox Church in America. We said yes to our husbands’ calling to ministry. We love our husbands, and we love the Church. We are not naturally strong, but have become strong through God’s love. We know that in our weakness, Christ’s strength sustains us. As sisters, we strive to always make space for one another, as the Mother of God has done for us.
What We Do: Inform, Support, Encourage
- Provide opportunities for connection & fellowship
- Foster solidarity through shared reading, online forums & guided conversations
- Offer in-person retreats & meet-ups
Share resources for stronger financial, spiritual, and mental health - Pray for clergy wives, widows & the people they hold in their hearts
- Generate dialogue with our bishops for the building up of the Church
Get Involved
Your generosity helps sustain the work of the Clergy Wives Ministry. Through donations, we are able to offer retreats, gatherings, resources, and meaningful support for clergy wives and widows across the Church. Every gift helps strengthen this ministry of fellowship, encouragement, and care.
Mission
The mission of the Clergy Wives Ministry is to gather, nurture, and care for the wives and widows of the clergy throughout North America, that each woman—who so often pours herself out in service to others—may herself be known, strengthened, and upheld in her own vocation. Rooted in the life of the Church and sustained by prayer, we seek to walk alongside one another in love, bearing one another’s burdens and rejoicing in one another’s joys. We desire to strengthen our bonds with Christ, His Church, and one another beneath the veil knowing that to the extent our lives have been planted together in likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection (Rom 6:5).
Clergy Wives Retreat
We are the wives and widows of priests and deacons serving in the Orthodox Church in America. In saying yes to our husbands’ calling, we have also embraced a life of service, love, and faithfulness to the Church. We are not strong on our own, but through God’s love, we are strengthened and sustained. As sisters, we seek to make space for one another with compassion, encouragement, and prayer, following the example of the Mother of God.
One Book. One Sisterhood.
One Book. One Sisterhood. is a ministry of connection, formation, and fellowship for clergy wives and widows. Through shared reading, guided conversation, retreats, and gatherings, it strengthens bonds of sisterhood, encourages prayerful support, and helps build up the life of the Church.
Meet the Director
For over 20 years, I have walked as a clergy wife—making space for my husband to minister, raising our four sons, and underwriting much of his work through my own income. In that time, I have known both the deep joy and the real exhaustion that come with this calling. When I was just four years into ministry, I found myself facing the need for open-heart surgery. If I had not already been connected to other clergy wives, I do not know how we would have weathered that storm.
When my husband and I were leaving seminary, a group of about eight friends—sisters whose husbands were also students at St. Vladimir’s—decided we would stay connected. Eventually, we began gathering in person. It was so life-giving to walk side by side in our journeys that we continue to this day. During the ten days leading up to my surgery, these sisters called me, connected me with physician friends, and even set up a GoFundMe so that the unexpected cost would not become a burden. One dear friend came and stayed with my family for over a week, caring for my children while my husband helped me recover. Without them, I do not believe I would have survived one of the hardest trials of my life. That sisterhood, that lifeline, is what I desire for all clergy wives.
Along with my lived experience, the Lord has prepared me for this role through my professional background. Years in design, disability care, client relations, and event planning have equipped me to design programs, galvanize connections, and create inclusive spaces where clergy wives and widows feel welcomed and nurtured. After recovering from burnout, I am more passionate than ever to help other sisters find balance and lasting strength. My vision is a place where every sister not only survives but thrives—offering her gifts so we build a Church sustained by God’s grace, beauty, and love.
I invite you to explore this website, and I hope you will find it informative, encouraging, and nourishing. Come back often as we add more courses to this table in the wilderness—a place where, like Christ and His disciples, we gather, are fed, and grow in strength, knowing that together we sustain one another for the work of the Kingdom.
St. Olga, Matushka of All Alaska
St. Matushka Olga (Feb. 3, 1916 – November 8, 1979) was a Yup’ik (Native Alaskan) woman who lived in Kwethluk, Alaska. She served as a clergy wife, a midwife and a confidante in her village, caring especially for women. In love and prayer, she supported the spread of Orthodox Christianity. The Orthodox Church in America proclaimed her glorification on November 8, 2023.
Holy Matushka Olga, pray for us.
Learn more about the Glorification of St. Olga.
St. Xenia
Saint Xenia lived during the eighteenth century, but little is known of her life or of her family. She passed most of her life in Petersburg during the reigns of the empresses Elizabeth and Catherine II.
Xenia Grigorievna Petrova was the wife of an army officer, Major Andrew Petrov. After the wedding, the couple lived in Saint Petersburg. Saint Xenia became a widow at the age of twenty-six when her husband suddenly died at a party. She grieved for the loss of her husband, and especially because he died without Confession or Holy Communion…
To continue to learn more about St. Xenia, click here.
Projects
Newsletters
Directories
Clergy Wives Prayer List
Diocesan Point People (DPP)
Retreats & Workshops
Clergy Widows
History of Clergy Wives Ministry
In July 2020, following the first clergy wives online retreat, His Grace Bishop Alexei encouraged the retreat facilitators to form a group representing the voice of OCA clergy wives. With the blessing of Bishop Alexei, eight women volunteered to initiate this group, committing to meet every other week to lay a firm foundation for a new and meaningful initiative within the church.
In the years to follow, through the faithful vision and efforts of six volunteers (Matushka Valerie Zahirsky, Matushka Alexandra Safchuk, Matushka Jennifer Levine, Matushka Wendy Cwiklinski, Matushka Miho Ealy, and Matushka Lela Powell), regular newsletters helped connect clergy wives to one another. Resources, news, book recommendations, and the sharing of prayer requests helped encourage a sense of sisterhood across the Orthodox Church in America. The establishment of Zoom retreats and workshops brought the wives of both priests and deacons together to be strengthened in body, mind and spirit. An intentional ministry to clergy widows was also launched under the watch of this dedicated volunteer committee.
In 2025, Clergy Wives Ministry began a new chapter with the creation of a formal director position, a change representing a systemic investment of the Orthodox Church in America in the 1,200 clergy wives that serve so vitally alongside their husbands to nurture our church. Matushka Carrie Foley was hired into the new role.
Under Matushka Carrie’s directorship, Clergy Wives Ministry is planning its inaugural in-person retreat in 2026, piloting a diocesan Matushki Meet-Up program, and launching the One Book, One Sisterhood program. An exciting redesign of the current website is underway and will highlight both our common bond—our love for our Church and our husbands—and the great variety of ways each of us fulfills our calling. We’re excited to continue to expand our mission to connect, encourage, and support clergy wives as they live out their call to serve Jesus Christ and His people.
Mission
Our mission is to provide relevant, Christ-centered, spiritually-nourishing, and feedback-based programs to connect, encourage, and support clergy wives of the Orthodox Church in America in order to champion their gifts in serving the Orthodox Church.
Purpose
Our purpose is to facilitate programming for clergy wives and to communicate with the administration of the Orthodox Church in America and the other initiatives of the Office of Pastoral Life on the needs and unique challenges of clergy wives.
Vision
Our vision is to be a support to every clergy wife in the Orthodox Church of America.
Empowering Spiritual Caregivers
Upcoming Events
Stay Connected and Engaged with Our Calendar of Events. Explore Workshops, Retreats, and Community Gatherings Tailored to Support Your Spiritual Journey and Professional Development.
Connect With Us
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We’d love to have a more complete contact list of clergy wives in the Orthodox Church in America. If you haven’t received communications from us, please submit/update your contact information here: