This is our third week of celebrating Women’s History Month by highlighting the roles that women are already doing in the Church—roles that we tend to assume only men are allowed to fulfill. Last week we took a look at women engaged in church diplomacy and advisory roles to bishops. This week we’ll spotlight women who act as the administrative leaders of their church-related organizations, as abbesses, trustees and directors, and parish council presidents.
Monastic Superiors
Abbesses (like some abbots) are laypeople, and they lead the many women’s monasteries. Although most heads of monasteries seem to be cradle Orthodox, there are more than a few who are converts. Some hail from the “Old Country,” but many were born and raised in North America. In many parts of the world, abbesses command profound respect and wield considerable authority, and I have witnessed priests asking their blessing and kissing their hand.
The life of monastics in general and their superiors in particular involves a great deal of physical, mental, and spiritual labor. Many monastic superiors in the US are the founders of their monasteries, and frequently serve the wider Church as translators, iconographers, and so on. In addition to living lives of prayer and providing hospitality to guests—meals and clean rooms–acting as intercessors in prayer, and visiting the sick, nuns must support themselves, earning and raising funds for their livelihood and ministries. It is not uncommon for abbesses to have worked physically alongside their nuns to construct their monastery’s buildings. They run the businesses that support themselves and their communities. Everybody has to pitch in, whether that means baking industrial-sized batches of cheesecake, or shearing sheep, or gathering eggs, or milking the cows, or whatever the case might be.
Abbesses, like their male counterparts, also shape the direction of the monastery, taking into account the kind of monastic community they want to be and how to make that happen. In other words, the abbess in a small monastery is essentially the chief executive officer, development officer, and chief of operations combined, and also spiritual director. Under a good leader, even the smallest monastery can have an outsized effect on the communities around them.
What follows is an incomplete list of women who are or have been leaders of their monastic communities here in the US:
- Abbess Agapia (Holy Annunciation Monastery, Reddick FL)
- Mother Ambrozia (Protection of the Mother of God Monastery, Ellenville NY)
- Mother Anna (Monastery Marcha, Richfield OH)
- Mother Barbara (Our Lady of Kazan Skete, Santa Rosa CA)
- Mother Barbara (Nativity of Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ Monastery, Kemp TX)
- Mother Cassiana (Protection of the Holy Virgin Monastery, Lake George CO)
- Sister Cecilia (Our Lady of the Sign Monastery, Nuns of New Skete, Cambridge NY)
- Mother Christophora (Monastery of the Transfiguration (Ellwood City PA)
- Mother Dorothea (St. Xenia Skete, Wildwood CA)
- Abbess Efpraxia (St. John the Forerunner Monastery, Goldendale WA)
- Abbess Elisabeth (St. Elizabeth the New Martyr Convent, Mohawk NY)
- Igumenija Evpraksija (Nativity of the Mother of God Monastery)
- Abbess Foteini (All Saints Monastery, Calverton NY)
- Mother Gabriella (Dormition of the Mother of God Monastery, Rives Junction MI)
- Abbess Irina (Holy Dormition Convent, Nanuet NY)
- Mother Justina (St. Thekla Convent, Glenville PA)
- Mother Katherine (pictured) (St. Xenia Metochion, Indianapolis IN)
- Mother Michaila (St. Paisius Monastery, Safford AZ)
- Mother Nektaria (St. Paul Skete, Grand Junction TN)
- Mother Raphaela (Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery, Otego NY)
- Mother Sergia (Presentation of the Virgin Mary Monastery, Marshfield MO)
- Abbess Theadelphi (Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple Skete, Hayesville OH)
- Mother Thekla (Ss. Mary and Martha Monastery, Wagener SC)
- Nun Theodora (Convent of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Wayne WV)
- Mother Victoria (St. Barbara Monastery, Santa Paula CA)
- Eme Menet Emahoy Woletta Sellassie Black (pictured) (Kidane Mehret Kidane Selam, North Blenheim, NY)
Trustees and Directors
All nonprofits in the US are required to have governing boards. Parishes and church-related organizations are no exception. The governing boards of nonprofits have a general obligation to act as caretakers of the organization and look after the interests of all its stakeholders. There are a host of competing pressures that nonprofits face, including the economic factors that impact the institution, the financial hardship of members or students, thus increasing the need for aid. They must strive to provide a healthy environment, with appropriate facilities and an engaged staff. They must make sure the books are balanced and raise money for capital investment and continued growth, among many other duties. Some of our institutions with significant boards include the Patriarch Athenagoras Institute, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, St. Sophia Seminary, Hellenic College Holy Cross Seminary, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, International Orthodox Christian Charities, St. Basil’s Academy, and the Orthodox Christian Mission Center. To land a seat on one of these boards, it helps to have a high level of expertise working with other nonprofits, or a high-level career in business or a related industry, and the willingness and ability to commit financial resources to the organization as well as willingness and ability to commit the to meet in person (or virtually) at least once a year. It is common for someone who is a board member at one nonprofit institution to also be a board member at one or more other nonprofits. Here is an incomplete list of women, who at one point or another, have sat on church-related boards:
- Kimberly Adams-Angelos (International Orthodox Christian Charities)
- Loula C. Anaston (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Carol Aslanian (St. Nersess Seminary)
- Anne van den Berg (St. Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Jasmina T. Boulanger (pictured) (International Orthodox Christian Charities
- Helen Boyko-Greenleaf (St. Sophia Seminary)
- Helen A. Carlos (Hellenic College Holy Cross Seminary)
- Elaine G. Cladis (International Orthodox Christian Charities)
- Olga Stepowyj Coffey (St. Sophia Seminary)
- Roula Demertzis (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Karen Dilimetin (St. Nersess Seminary)
- Stephanie Duncan (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Georgette Farag (St. Athanasius and St. Cyril Coptic Orthodox Theological School)
- Joan Farha (St. Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Catherine R. Fuller (St. Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Lorraine F. George-Harik (International Orthodox Christian Charities)
- Patricia Georgiou (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Nancy Gilbert (St. Tikhon’s Seminary)
- Rosalind Halikis (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Tatiana Lapchuk Hoff (pictured) (St. Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Ana S. Iltis (St. Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Lila Kalinich (International Orthodox Christian Charities)
- Christine Karavites (of blessed memory, Hellenic College Holy Cross Seminary, St. Basil’s Academy)
- Hariklia Karis (Hellenic College Holy Cross Seminary)
- Carol Kassouf (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Nancy Kohudic (St. TIkhon’s Seminary)
- Helen Lambros (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Anne Glynn Mackoul (International Orthodox Christian Charities, St. Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Gayle F. Malone (International Orthodox Christian Charities)
- Elsie Skvir Nierle (of blessed memory, St. Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Melanie O’Regan (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Bessie Papailias (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Teresa A. Polychronis (Orthodox Christian Mission Center)
- Christina Shaheen Reimann (St Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Kassandra Loucas Romas (Hellenic College Holy Cross Seminary),
- Nina Stroyen (St. Tikhon’s Seminary)
- Ms. Elizabeth Symonenko (St. Sophia Seminary)
- Amy Terrill (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Carla Thomas (pictured) (St. Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Melody (Monica) Thompson (St. Vladimir’s Seminary)
- Alexandra Turkington (Patriarch Athenagoras Institute)
- Nicole Vartanian (St. Nersess Seminary)
- Gayle Woloschak (Orthodox Christian Mission Center; Center for Advanced Studies in Religion and Science)
- Kathryn B. Yatrakis (Hellenic College Holy Cross Seminary)
Parish Council Leadership
The lay leadership that we most often encounter in our church lives is probably at the parish council level. And parish council president is probably the role we most think of when we think of lay leaders, and, in recent times, women have increasingly found themselves elected to this role.
Here’s a short, very incomplete list from about five years ago to today. Note that some of these roles have a different title than “president”, but are the highest council role for a layperson:
- Judy Blebea (St. Demetrios, Saginaw MI)
- Olga Bookas (St. Demetrios, Bristol CT)
- Patricia Bouteneff (St. Gregory the Theologian, New York NY; Holy Trinity, Yonkers NY)
- Helen Y. Carey (St. Nicholas, St. Louis MO)
- Stacy Christensen (Holy Martyr Peter the Aleut, Calgary AB Canada)
- Marianna Colyer (St. Nicholas, Oxford UK)
- Xanthippi Darzentas (Holy Apostles, Indianapolis IN)
- Taisia Fedorov (Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, Albany NY)
- Veronica Gatrousis (St. Basil, Stockton CA)
- Felicia Karsos (Holy Trinity, Westfield NJ)
- Almaz Kebede (Beaata LeMariam, Harlem, NY)
- Anna Kinniburgh (St. Haralambos, Peoria AZ)
- Rebecca Magaziner Matovich (St Mary Magdalen, New York, NY)
- Ann Marie Mecera (pictured) (St. Gregory of Nyssa, Columbus OH)
- Delores Minor (Holy Mother Queen of All, Lexington KY)
- Martha Noukas (Pokrova Protection of the Mother of God, Houston TX)
- Mary Winstanley O’Connor (St Mary, Cambridge MA)
- Elena Paolercia (Holy Trinity, Yonkers NY)
- Georgia Parafestas (St. Spyridon, Worcester MA)
- Angela Ryan (St. Nicholas, Murrieta CA)
- Olivia Sintros (Transfiguration of our Savior, Lowell MA)
- Nikki Sobkowski (Archangel Gabriel, Williamsburg MI)
- Heidi Surunis (All Saints, Canonsburg PA)
- Adrienne Thieke (St. Elizabeth the Wonderworker, Gainesville FL)
- Victoria Wilcox Statkevicus (Holy Trinity, Yonkers NY)
- Sophia Zarvos (Zoodohos Peghe, Bronx NY)
- Margo Ziogas-DiBenedetto (Transfiguration, Lowell MA)
Let’s not forget that there are many other women on parish councils who are doing effective leadership work, as a friend from South Carolina reminded me: “We have three women on our parish council but none of them are President or Treasurer. They are all hard workers and give important insight and direction for our parish.” In my own former parish, seven of the ten council positions were held by women. You might notice a similar trend in yours.
Next week: Theologians, liturgists, and homilists.
Patricia Fann Bouteneff is president of Axia Women.