Our Woman of the Week is Spyridoula Fotinis! She is just starting out in her career and we asked her to tell you about herself. You see her here headed to the UN for work:
“I’m in a new exciting, chapter of my life. In May, I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree from CUNY - The City College of New York in International Studies and Sociology. I love living in New York City because I see so much sociology and international culture. It blows my mind all the time. You might see me walking the street with a huge smile on my face if I hear someone speaking another language.
“I work full time for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in the Department of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations (a mouthful!) as the Programs Coordinator. I work in our mandate of Church and Society. Part of my job is to represent the Church at the United Nations which means I work on social issues and bridge our work at the UN with the Church. I’m really excited about our current work on homelessness, mental health, human trafficking, and the environment.
“I grew up in New Jersey as a GPK (grand priest kid - my grandfather is a priest) and lived fully in the life of the Church and in the Greek community. There are definite moments in my life that God allowed for my faith to deepen and He continues to give me so many opportunities to serve the Church. My senior year of High School I went on an OCMC mission trip to the Orthodox seminary in Nairobi, Kenya. Life changing. My life continued to be shaped and changed by the personal and spiritual growth of CrossRoad, my incredible experience in OCF (Orthodox Christian Fellowship), getting involved in YES, (Youth Equipped to Serve) and now co-organizing Orthodoxy on Tap NYC among of course being an active member in my parish of St. Spyridon in Washington Heights and helping spearhead the young professionals group.
“When I’m not in church or at something church-related, I love to explore NYC and travel abroad. I also love to bake. My roommate jokes that she always comes home to a new creation on the stove. In high school, I was an entrepreneur and owned my own cake decorating business. It’s called StarDazzle Cakes by Spyridoula and you can check it out here on Facebook. In my free time, I’m slowly exploring gluten-free and dairy- free baking. One day, I really hope to re-start my business!” Axia!
We asked Woman of the Week Spyridoula Fotinis to tell us more about her young adult ministry work:
“I do believe that where there’s a will there’s a way, conditional on God’s will and grace. One of the more “grassroots” ministry I am apart of is Orthodoxy on Tap NYC (OOT). OOT is also a ministry in Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and California.
“When I moved to NYC, I spoke to my parish priest about starting an OCF chapter. He offered another idea. In Paris (where he is from), they would do monthly Pan-Orthodox vespers and dinner for all young adults. We continued to chat and slowly brought in another priest I was friends with because I knew he had tried to start OOT before. The three of us had a meeting and decided, what the heck, let’s try it!
“In January 2018, we found a venue at the Olive Garden in Times Square and advertised on Facebook and in our parishes. We had over 60 people from NYC, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania attend. It was incredible and it was clear that we needed to keep the energy and momentum going with another event.
“Orthodoxy on Tap NYC is now nearing its second birthday. At each event, we have a speaker present on an Orthodox topic for 40 minutes and the rest of the time is spent in fellowship. We’ve had speakers including Fr. John Behr, Dr. Albert Rossi, Khouria Laila Ellias, Fr. Nicholas Belcher, Leah Libresco, Dr. Christos Durante, Steve Christoforou and two archbishops, Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and Archbishop Michael of the Orthodox Church in America.
“During fasting periods, we have untraditional events. With the facilitation of Dr. Vasiliki Tsigas-Fotinis we teamed up with the women’s group of St. Spyridon’s to make offering bread (prosfora) with over 40 young adults. We pinched pierogis and played Orthodox trivia. With the help of Fr. William Bennett, we squashed grapes (with foot gloves and clean feet!) and made wine for Holy Communion. We presented our first bottle to His Eminence Archbishop Michael in gratitude for his talk 🙂
“Through OOT NYC we’ve learned that God really works miracles. You can start an OOT near you! What’s important is to pray, be motivated and willing, and have a small, supportive team with at least one clergy member who will ask the blessing of their bishop (shoutout to Fr. William Bennet and Fr. Nicolas Kazarian and our OOT team). People will support you! We run completely on the donations of participants and parishes.
“In NYC in December? Join us for our next event - a live podcast recording with Steve Christoforou and Christian Gonzalez for their podcast, Pop Culture Coffee Hour. Check it out here: https://facebook.com/events/632348913963646/?ti=icl”
Woman of the Week Spyridoula Fotinis (seen here as a YES volunteer on the Greek island of Spetses) spoke to us about her morning routine: “I ‘kind of’ love mornings. Specifically, when I don’t press snooze three times and then feel like I have to rush to catch the train. “But if all goes well, I wake up, plod into the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face and then go back to my room. I sit in front of my icons and spend some time in silence, followed by morning prayers. After prayers a small frenzy occurs as I start my oatmeal on the stove, ask Siri for the morning news and weather, get dressed, pack my bag for the day and spin out the door to catch the 8:32 train. Sometimes I make it (without being the target of any pigeon droppings!) and sometimes I don’t. And when I don’t, I remind myself that there is beauty in having time and peace to start my day and I’ll get where I need to be eventually, so all is well and there’s no need to stress :)”
Thank you, Spyridoula!