Everyday Orthodox

On Everyday Orthodox, meet Katrina Bitar! Katrina has dedicated her life to serving Christ through work with young people. After graduating from St. Vladimir’s Seminary, she became the Director of Youth Equipped to Serve and worked for years as a summer camp director. Katrina's heart for service, for people, and for Christ is apparent in everything she does and we think you'll enjoy getting to kno...

On Everyday Orthodox, we'll be live with Kassiane, the dynamic force behind Ancient Faith Ministries' Chinese Language Division. We'll talk about life in China and in North America, and about what it means to her to be to creating Orthodox materials in Chinese.

On Everyday Orthodox, we will be live with Nazo Zakkak, the composer of the groundbreaking Mandarin Chinese Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom album commissioned and produced by Ancient Faith Ministries' Chinese Language Division.

On Everyday Orthodox, we talk with Zeina Livanos. Zeina is the author and creator of Zeina's Table on Instagram. She not only shares recipes but her life as a recipe collector, Orthodox Christian, wife, artist, and soon to be mother of 5.

This week on Everyday Orthodox, join us for an interview with icon carver and chanter, Dn. Romanos (Ron) Slockett. He is an Orthodox convert at St. Elias in Austin, Texas, is married to Sh. Jessica and has three children.

Mena was born into the Coptic Orthodox Church in Assiut Egypt, and moved to Puerto Rico and then to New York. He and his family now live in Massachusetts, where he and his wife are currently raising their young kids.

Meet Josh David Jordan! Josh began his career as an actor before transitioning to work behind the lens. When his short film, Sam and Gus, won several film festival awards, he decided to write/direct his full-length feature film, This World Won't Break, which won 14 festival awards, received distribution, theatrical release, and on every platform. Josh directed Joshua Ray Walker's hit single and di...

Meet Dr. Ioana Popa! Join Elissa for a visit with Dr. Popa, a National Board Certified Life Coach, with a host of additional qualifications that help her provide support and healing to families, those who are grieving, and more.

Lee Kopulos has been an active contributing member of several parishes throughout his adult life, and works in prison ministry as well as missions and outreach.  He and his wife Linda have been married for 54b years, and have three adult children.

Meet Fr. Steven Clark! The son of a Baptist Preacher, Steven studied music and thought a lot about theology -- specifically, what was meant by "The Word of God." When the U.S.S.R. Russian Choir under Alexander Shvesnikov released their recording of the Rachmaninov Vespers, he loved everything about it -- and especially the hymn's understanding of the Word. This led him from Florida to Russia and e...

Meet Deacon John Ma'ae. He's a Southern California native, born and bred, who serves his parish at St. Barnabas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Costa Mesa, California, while also working for the past 12 years as the Cathedral Secretary at St. Steven Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Alhambra, California.

Christian Gonzalez is the Director of Ministry at Orthodox Youth Ministries (OYM), the Assembly of Bishops’ new – and unanimously approved – Orthodox Youth and Young Adult Ministries Agency.” He is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds multiple degrees from Wheaton College, Azusa Pacific University, and Luther Seminary. Well known for his work developing training materials like “Effec...

Voula Asimacopoulos is a Greek Orthodox woman and a primary care physician in the Chicago area. We’ll ask about her experiences in the Church as a divorced mother.

oin Elissa for a live conversation with Corina Gheorghiu! Corina is a licensed Marriage Family Therapist in CA and a holistic life coach trained in a variety of psychosomatic modalities. Her main interest is the integration of the Orthodox psychotherapy of the deep heart, as the fathers of the ancient church taught us, and also validated by neuroscience, epigenetics, and some modern methods of psy...

Meet Elizabeth Gatling! She's a project coordinator, a librarian, a mom — and a contributor to the new book, The Grace of Being There: Single Mother Saints in Our Lives.

Dr. Rebecca Hernandez is both Native American (Mescalero & Warm Springs Apache) and Mexican American. She is a convert to Orthodoxy and shares about her journey to the church.

Meet Eric! Eric lives near Seattle, WA, and has had a number of careers: newspaper reporter, Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, homeless shelter financial manager, non-fiction writer, preemie-parent advocate, and fiction writer. The past few years. he has been a stay-at-home dad and written Voice in the Storm. He likes bicycling around Washington state, and landscape photography, too.

The Founder and President of the University of St. Katherine joins Elissa to learn about his life and what led him to start this unique university in Southern California founded on Orthodox Christian principles.

Meet Elise Photini, an Ancient Faith blogger and Elissa's guest on Everyday Orthodox this week! Elise Photini is raising her “littles” (no longer quite so little) on her own in the Pacific Northwest, where she works as a hospice nurse with half her heart, while the other half of her heart floats between writing and speaking on raising resilient, strong children and healing from trauma.

Jennifer Anna Rich lives on a small farm near Portland, OR, with her husband, horses, sheep, chickens, cats, and dog. She tends the garden, makes parchment from her Saint Croix sheep skins, and runs Oblation Papers & Press with her husband, designing handmade paper goods. Jennifer is the author of Prayer Spa: Ancient Treatments for the Modern Soul.

Hope founded Families Together in 2017 after her first experience as a foster mom almost led her to turn in her license. Four years (and four kids) later, Families Together is matching isolated families with helpful, friendly volunteers through the Neighbors program in Colorado, California, Texas, Illinois, and Michigan. The Neighbors team matches up volunteers to help combat our nation's mental h...

Shereen Marcus is a wife and mother of two boys who works a full-time job as a Veterans Law Judge for the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. She's also an advocate for reforming Youth Ministry in Orthodox churches in North America. Starting with new ideas, writing abilities, and a knack for “kid-silliness,” Shereen did independent research into various youth ministry efforts and methodologies and began w...

Meet Esteban Picornell! He's an Orthodox Christian, born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After first encountering Orthodox Christianity during the years when he lived in the greater Boston area, he returned to San Juan, where he spends his days between church (he likes to chant) at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in San Juan and work, workouts, neighbors, and family

Born and raised in the former Yugoslavia, Fr. Serafim moved to America in 1995 because of the war. At the monasteries in Ocala, FL, he met Elder Ephraim and realized his won monastic calling. After attending Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY, he became a hieromonk in 2008 at the New Gracanica Monastery in Illinois, where he still lives. Join Elissa as she visit with Fr. Serafim about his jo...

Fr. George was a reconstructive dentist, but reinvented himself after 28 years, retiring and earning a PhD in Orthodox Theology and History. Ordained as a deacon in 2003, he became an advocate for people living with developmental disabilities, and then, after his retirement, was finally ordained a priest. Fr. George and Presbytera Ria have been married for over fifty years, have two grown, married...