Blog Posts

What could be more appropriate this time of year than to give thanks to the endless number of women serving our Orthodox parishes across the US?  And thanks to Axia’s Women of the Week series, I am delighted to spend some time reporting on what we have learned.

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The second piece in our series on of how we move through space in our churches, by liturgist, chanter, and mother Sarah Roumas. You see here naves of Greek, Armenian, Serbian, OCA, and Coptic churches in the US or abroad.

Our Woman of the Week series is probably what Axia is best known for! We haven't been asked often why we do it, because it seems to make sense to our readers right off the bat--and that's a good thing! But now that I've raised the issue, you might be interested in more of the rationale behind these profiles. Here it is:

This month we celebrated the Seventh Ecumenical Council, which was held in Nicea, Asia Minor, in 787. Under Empress Irene, 367 Bishops were present. The Council published a statement approving the creation and veneration of icons as an essential part of prayer, a way to encounter and experience the holy presence. The statement says, “The icons of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, that of our Lady the Theotokos, those of the venerable angels and those of all saintly people. Whenever these representations are contemplated, they will cause those who look at them to commemorate and love their prototype.”

Building a new not-for-profit board is hard.  Hard for the obvious reasons: finding the right mix of leaders to shepherd an idea to scale, having the tenacity to ask friends and family for financial support, making room for hard conversations, and then bending and re-shaping for the good of the collective.