Woman Of The Week Listing
Our Woman of the Week is Donna Rizk Asdourian, a scholar and leader who has long been nurturing an idea for ministry for Christian Orthodox women. Here she is participating in a panel in New York at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center with Sister Vassa Larin, Dr. Tamara Grdzelidze, Dr. Anne Bezzerides, and Axia's Dr. Patricia Fann Bouteneff. We asked her to tell you about how that ministry evolved:
"After countless moves, 13 cities, 5 states, 4 countries, 2 kids, & my husband’s ordination to the diaconate, it’s been quite a journey.
Our Woman of the Week is Summer Kinard, nominated for her work as an author, advocate, and publisher, while homeschooling her five children. You see her here holding the first title from Park End Books, a gothic Christian women's devotional for persisting in hard places, which she edited; giving a workshop on an accessible approach to Lent in early February 2020 at Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Austin, TX; and one corner of heraccessible church school classroom, St. Hilda's Class, at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Katy, TX. We asked her to tell you about herself:
Dorothy J. Berry is our Woman of the Week, nominated for her work as an archivist, and as a mainstay in her parish choir. You see her here showing archival items to actor, director, and activist Danny Glover. We asked her to tell you how she came to do this work:
Our Woman of the Week is Valerie Yova, music director at St. Athanasius Church in St. Barbara, California. Valerie was nominated for the role she has played in Orthodox music in America over the last decades. She has been music director at Romanian, Antiochian, and OCA parishes in California, Michigan, and New York; founded or co-founded pan-Orthodox choirs, chorales, and singing academies, and was President and Chair of PSALM Inc., a national pan-Orthodox organization for church musicians. You see her here conducting a workshop at Antiochian Village and performing the St. Matthew Passion in Detroit in 2000. We asked her to tell you how she ended up where she is:
Jasmina T. Boulanger is our Woman of the Week, nominated for her work chairing the board of the International Orthodox Christian Charities. We asked her to tell you how she came to fill that role:
"Today, after a long career as a lawyer and economist, I am a wife, a daughter, and Chairman of the Board of International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC). IOCC has now been in existence for 30 years and I first heard of it in the mid-1990s in an unusual way.