From July 28–August 3, seventeen young adults from the Orthodox Church in America participated in SUPRASL Summer 2026, the fifth annual international gathering of Orthodox youth held at the Monastery of the Annunciation and the Supraśl Academy in Supraśl, Poland.

The gathering brought together some 85 participants from more than two dozen countries including Australia, Palestine, and several European countries for a week of prayer, friendship, service, and creative exploration around the theme “Image and Likeness: Creation and Creators.” The theme was chosen in connection with the 130th anniversary of the birth of Saint Sophrony of Essex and his teaching on the human person as created in the image of God and called to grow into His likeness.

The OCA encouraged its young adults to participate and made scholarship funding available for one participant from each diocese. The seventeen young adults were part of a 23-member OCA group that also included His Grace Bishop Gerasim of Fort Worth, Locum Tenens of the Diocese of the South; Archpriest Gregory and Matushka Miho Ealy of Saint Paul Orthodox Church in Dayton, OH; and their children.

“SUPRASL offers something that is difficult to replicate within our normal youth and young adult ministry,” said Archpriest Justin Patterson, Project Manager for the Departments of the OCA. “These international connections can help us cultivate the future lay and clergy leadership of our Church, while also giving our young people an experience of Orthodoxy beyond the borders of the United States.”

For Orthodox young adults from North America, SUPRASL offers a distinctive experience within the Orthodox world: international fellowship, theological and cultural education, monastic and liturgical life, practical service, and the opportunity to encounter Orthodoxy in a setting far beyond one’s own local experience.

This year’s workshops approached the theme through poetry, music, photography, theology, culture, ethics, and attentive vision. Father Gregory Ealy explored the poetic structure of Orthodox hymnography, while Matushka Miho Ealy spoke about growing up Orthodox in Japan. Zoran Matić, Serbia, introduced participants to the music and spirituality of Arvo Pärt; Georgia Gleoudi, Greece, led “PhotoVoice,” a workshop on learning to see through photography; Ioanna Knights, Greece, considered how the ways in which we see shape the ways in which we live; and Athanasios Kelpis, England, led a discussion on responsibility titled “It’s Always Someone Else’s Fault.”

A distinctive feature of the gathering was a four-day iconography workshop led by Sophronia Kelpis of Essex, England. Participants painted the Icon of Christ Made Without Hands, slowly contemplating the face of Christ through patience, attention, prayer, and the repeated act of looking.

The week also included a “Human Library,” in which participants became “books” and shared their lived experiences through small-group conversations centered on listening rather than debate. Participants spent two afternoons painting the monastery fence, continuing a service project begun in 2025, and joined hundreds of local faithful for the parish feast of the Holy Prophet Elijah in Białystok.

SUPRASL 2026 was the first gathering at which a bishop participated for the entire week. Bishop Gerasim shared meals and conversations with participants, attended workshops, joined in the cultural evening, and offered a question-and-answer session on questions of faith, responsibility, and discerning the will of God.

“One of the most valuable takeaways was that participants came from so many different countries,” Bishop Gerasim reflected. “It highlighted an important point: being an Orthodox Christian does not depend on belonging to any one national culture. SUPRASL placed no emphasis on such categories, and our cultural night was an excellent illustration of this. Sharing and fellowship took place throughout the gathering, and people came to know one another gradually.”

The international character of the gathering was especially evident during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy at midnight, when hymns and responses were sung in a dozen languages. The experience provided a tangible reminder that the Orthodox Church is at once local and universal.

For Hannah Lee, an OCA participant from Dallas, Texas, the experience was transformative.

“I had an incredible time at SUPRASL,” she said. “I knew going in that it would be a great time, but wow, SUPRASL truly exceeded any expectations that I had. It truly changed me and how I interact with others.”

For Samuel Estrada of Bethesda, Maryland, SUPRASL was “a place of growth where my sense of duty, faith, and respect for diverse traditions truly took root.”

“Sharing those few days with other young Orthodox Christians from all over the world reminded me that I’m never alone,” he said. “I found a community where we can understand and uplift one another and be bound together in the love of Christ.”

The gathering also encouraged OCA participants to reflect on what Orthodoxy in North America can contribute to the wider Church.

“It was really encouraging to me to see how interested people are in Orthodoxy in America,” said Hannah, a participant from Billings, Montana. “It made me feel that we have something real to offer the Orthodox world, even if we are younger and smaller.”

For Nathan of Falls Church, Virginia, the gathering’s importance was particularly evident in the connections it created among young people from places where the Orthodox Church is small.

“I really appreciate SUPRASL’s vision of being a place for people who fall between the cracks—if there’s not a strong Church in the country where they live, or if there’s simply no youth ministry in the church they attend,” he said. “I saw a lot of people at SUPRASL coming from countries that don’t have a large Church, and that was something really special.”

Father Gregory Ealy’s participation connected the gathering with an earlier generation of OCA international youth ministry. Father Gregory participated in an OCA-sponsored youth camp in Moscow in 1992 and in the SUPRASL Summer Institute, the forerunner of today’s gathering, in 1998.

“These events have left a lasting impression on me,” Father Gregory said. “It was great to see that the same spirit and connections people forged back then are still being made today. If the experiences that affected me so positively are now affecting others in the same way, I think it points to great things ahead for the Church. Honestly, I was very, very encouraged by everything.”

Founded in 2022, SUPRASL creates spaces of encounter where Orthodox Christian young adults from around the world can experience the unity of the Church as a lived reality and be formed to serve Christ and His Church. It offers young Orthodox Christians the opportunity to see one another not simply as representatives of jurisdictions, nationalities, or cultures, but as fellow members of the Body of Christ. SUPRASL works with the blessing of Orthodox hierarchs around the world, but does not belong to any one local Church and maintains constructive relations with the leaders of all Orthodox Churches.

Perhaps most importantly, it offers young Orthodox Christians the opportunity to see one another not simply as representatives of jurisdictions, nationalities, or cultures, but as fellow members of the Body of Christ. Commenting on this workshop leader Georgia Gleouid noted, “what united them was not a shared nationality or profession. It was something far more difficult to define: a desire to encounter one another beyond labels, assumptions and first impressions.”

Drawing on the teaching of Saint Sophrony, Archdeacon Joseph Matusiak, Director of SUPRASL, told participants at the beginning of the gathering that every human being is “an unrepeatable mystery—not a category, not a stereotype, not a profile, not a role: a mystery.”

That conviction shaped the week at SUPRASL and, for many of the young people who participated, may prove to be one of its most lasting gifts.

To learn more about SUPRASL, including its new residential gap-year initiative, The Meadow, and how to become involved, click here.

Download a PDF of SUPRASL’s Impact Report and Proposal for Further Development, a participant list, and verbatim excerpts from the Focus Group.

The OCA Department of Liturgical Music and Translations is pleased to offer a brand new class intended for church choir directors—“Vocal Technique for Choirs.” The full title of the course explains its intent and scope: Teaching Your Choir to Sing Well: Beautifying Worship Through Improved Choral Tone.

This course presents, in accessible, non-technical terms, a physiologically and acoustically based approach to teaching choir members to produce a more beautiful, healthy, and unified choral tone in support of Orthodox worship.

The course consists of nine video sessions, complemented by weekly Zoom sessions with the instructor. Participants will explore the three principal components of the singing voice and learn practical exercises designed to strengthen and develop each one. Particular emphasis will be placed on techniques that choir directors can apply directly in rehearsals with singers of varying levels of experience. The final video will demonstrate these techniques in practice through a vocal warm-up and voice-building session conducted by the instructor with his own Orthodox church choir.

About the Instructor:

Ray Romanos Herman is Director of Music at St. Ephraim Orthodox Mission in Longview, Texas. He holds degrees in Voice Performance and Pedagogy, with specialized training in the science of the singing voice, and has served as a church music director for 30 years.

Tuition: $375

This new class expands the lineup of the Music Department’s popular introductory online courses for the benefit of church singers and conductors. In addition, intermediate- and advanced-level conductors have the opportunity to take private lessons with Dr. Peter Jermihov.

Registration links and costs are as follows:

Vocal Techniques for Choirs (9 weeks) $375
Sight Singing and Ear Training (10 weeks) $450
Basic Conducting Technique (12 weeks) $575
Intermediate and/or Advanced Conducting (8-wk. block) $600 per 8-lesson block

The Conducting Technique course will begin on Monday, September 21, concluding the week of December 14; Vocal Technique and Sight-Singing begin on Monday, September 28 and conclude in early December.

Space is limited and classes tend to fill up very quickly. Please register as soon as possible.

About the Classes

To successfully complete the courses, students are expected to commit at least three to four hours per week on required course work and practice. Information about each course can be found at the end of this announcement.

Each class consists of pre-recorded lessons that students can watch asynchronously on their own schedule, one per week. Every lesson has a homework component, and then each student is expected to meet online with a course instructor for 20-30 minutes—to ask questions and to give the instructor an opportunity to monitor each student’s progress and offer assistance as necessary.

These courses and individual lessons are meeting the needs of church singers and choir directors in the parishes. The positive feedback received includes such comments as

“I can now look at a Tone and pitch it and sing the melody… The tools I learned in the class will help me to continue to grow in my singing abilities.”

“From the point of view of one with only a little, prior musical training, I have found the course-work so far to be amazingly helpful… in an immediate way.  Right off the bat I began improving,… being able to just ‘know’ what note I needed to be reaching for based on what was written on the page.

(Conducting Technique)
“The [conducting] course content was perfect. Always challenging, yet fun! That is what made it so perfect!”

“[The conducting course] actually fulfilled goals I didn’t even know I should have—such as score analysis.”

(Individual Conducting Lessons)
“[Dr. Jermihov] identified and then corrected some bad conducting habits that I had developed over the years.  His attention to detail enables him to quickly diagnose faults and unintentional miscommunications that I was completely unaware of in [my] conducting…”

“[Studying] conducting with Dr Peter Jermihov,… I have grown both as a musician and as a conductor, gaining knowledge and conducting skills…. This would not be possible if it were not for Dr. Jermihov sharing with me his knowledge, experience, and passion for Orthodoxy and Orthodox Church music.”

Our Instructors

Deacon Harrison Russin (St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY)
Deacon Anthony Stokes (St. Maximus Orthodox Church, Denton, TX)
Protinica Michelle Jannakos (St. Luke Orthodox Church, Palos Hills, IL)
John (Tracey) Edson (St. Nicholas Church, Portland, OR)
James Nicholson (All Saints of America church , Alexandria, VA)
Daniel O’Connor (Holy Apostles Orthodox Church, West Columbia, SC)

Assisting with the conducting class will be:

Raymond Mandell (St. Michael’s Orthodox Church in Irvona, PA, and Nativity of the Theotokos Orthodox Church in Madera, PA)
Anne Schoepp (St. Lawrence Orthodox Church, Felton, CA)

Individual lessons for intermediate- and advanced-level conductors are taught by Dr. Peter Jermihov, a life-long church musician, who has served as a choir director, chanter, teacher, composer and arranger, in a number of parishes in various jurisdictions, including the OCA, ROCOR, the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. His mission as a church musician is to bring beauty and professional competence to Divine Worship.

Jermihov holds the DMA Degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Illinois at Urbana and studied orchestral conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under Ilya Musin. He is founder and artistic director of the Society of Saint Romanos the Melodist, a not-for-profit corporation devoted to the furtherance of Orthodox culture in America. For a more complete description of Dr. Jermihov’s career, please visit www.peterjermihov.com

The Basic Sight-Singing and Ear Training Class

This class is designed specifically with the needs of singers in Orthodox church choirs. The course emphasizes the mastery of basic intervals, scales, and rhythms that are encountered in liturgical hymns. In order to succeed in this course, a person needs to love to sing and be able to ‘carry a tune,’ but doesn’t need to have any prior knowledge of music theory.

The course is taught using the online Google Classroom platform, with weekly face-to-face meetings on Zoom. Topics will include intervals and scales, rhythmic notation, key signatures, and time signatures, using examples from liturgical hymns whenever possible.

If you are thinking of taking this class, please consider whether you have a solid 3 to 4 hours per week (45-50 minutes most weekdays) to devote to this class. The new auditory and vocal skills you will be learning require consistent and extensive practice over the full 10-week period. One learner recently wrote: “I seriously overestimated my ability to devote the necessary time to the weekly exercises.”

The Basic Conducting Technique Class

The class is oriented towards beginner conductors or those who are currently conducting a choir but have not completed a formal conducting course. Topics covered include basic posture and visual communication by means of gestures; giving the pitch; preparing, starting and stopping the sound; elementary beat patterns; relationships of beat patterns to word patterns; beginning score analysis.

Familiarity with musical notation and basic music theory (key signatures, time signatures, intervals) is a prerequisite. All prospective learners will be asked to take a Basic Music Theory Assessment Quiz, to ensure that they have the theory skills to successfully complete the various assignments for this course.

If you are thinking of taking this class, please consider whether you have a solid 3 to 4 hours per week (45-50 minutes most weekdays) to devote to this class. The new physical (kinesthetic) skills you will be learning require consistent and extensive practice over the full 12-week period.

Also, each week has a homework component that involves score study and analysis—an essential skill for a choir director. As one learner reported: “Each week had a different degree of difficulty. One definitely needed time to study and practice. The course was not easy.”

Individual Conducting Lessons – Intermediate and Advanced

Weekly individual conducting lessons (50 minutes per lesson, using Zoom) are available in Blocks of four. A standard course of study consists of 16 lessons; students have the option of signing up and paying for an Initial Two Blocks (8 lessons), with additional 4-week blocks available.

Individualized objectives are determined in consultation with the instructor, and will include a range of topics, from different styles of beating, to conducting recitative and mixed meter, score analysis, and rehearsal preparation. Repertoire studied is determined by agreement and in alignment with individual objectives. Expected practice time: 30-60 minutes per day, 5 days per week.

Intermediate conductors are expected to read music, have a working knowledge of key signatures and staff notation, and be able to hear and accurately discern pitches and intervals; they should be able to sing any given part of a 4-part choral score, and have some experience directing an ensemble or currently hold a conducting position.

Advanced conductors should have completed a music degree—either an undergraduate or graduate degree, or, at the very least, be in their 3rd year of a 4-year music degree program. This presupposes the completion of the standard 2-year sequence of courses in music theory, ear-training, and keyboard harmony. Advanced conductors should have the basic ability to analyze a- score and be able to play a 4-part choral score at the piano (not necessarily at a performance level or tempo). They should have, also, conducting experience with a choral and/or instrumental ensemble.

The “Growing Spaces” grant exists to assist missions that have outgrown their current worship facilities by providing financial support as the mission relocates to a larger facility. The grant is intended to support these missions as their expenses increase, allowing the mission time to grow into and assume the full financial obligation of a larger facility.

Funding from this new initiative is designated exclusively for rent or mortgage expenses. The Growing Spaces Grant is designed to unfold over three years in descending amounts each year. Applications for both immediate awards for communities that have identified / occupied a new facility as well as provisional awards for communities in the process of identifying a new facility will be accepted.

Detailed information and application forms are available online. Applications must be submitted to the Department of Evangelization by September 15, 2026.

All applications must receive approval from the mission’s respective diocesan bishop before submission. Following review by the Department of Evangelization, recommended applicants will be presented to the Metropolitan Council and the Holy Synod of Bishops for final approval. Grants are to be used in the 2027 calendar year.

For additional information, please contact Archpriest Justin Patterson at jpatterson@oca.org.

The Growing Spaces Grant Program is made possible in part due to the generous support of the Stewards of the Orthodox Church in America. Their contributions fund the creation of programs and resources that help parishes, missions, and faithful thrive in ministry.

Eighty-five clergy have now registered for the 2026 Office of Pastoral Life Pastoral Retreat, as priests and bishops from across the Orthodox Church in America prepare to gather September 29–October 2 at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake Conference Center in Mundelein, IL.

The registration deadline is Tuesday, September 1, and clergy who are planning to attend are encouraged to register soon.

This year’s retreat, “The Fields Are Ripe for the Harvest,” will offer clergy several days set apart from the ordinary demands of parish ministry for prayer, fellowship, conversation, and reflection on the work of the Church.

The retreat will feature Mother Christophora, Abbess of Holy Transfiguration Monastery, and Archpriest John Parker, Dean of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, who will lead participants in reflection on the opportunities and challenges of faithful pastoral ministry today.

A highlight of the gathering will be the celebration of the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos on October 1 at the New Gracanica Monastery in Third Lake, IL. The retreat schedule will also include morning and evening prayer, shared meals, time for informal fellowship, workshops, and opportunities for clergy to reconnect with brothers in parish ministry from across the Church.

The Office of Pastoral Life encourages clergy who have not yet registered to join the growing number already planning to attend.

Registration closes Tuesday, September 1, 2026.

For registration, the complete retreat schedule, travel information, and other details, visit the Office of Pastoral Life retreat page.

For additional information, contact the Office of Pastoral Life at director@opl.oca.org.

About the Office of Pastoral Life
The Orthodox Church in America’s Office of Pastoral Life supports the well-being of clergy and their families, the foundation of parish life across North America. Believing the health of the Church is inseparable from the health of her clergy, the Office offers programs that build resilience, connection and pastoral joy. Programs include Thriving in Ministry peer-learning groups, Financial Health Initiatives, quarterly Synaxis Gatherings, Retreats and Clergy Wives Ministry. In partnership with bishops, dioceses, parishes and our generous donors, the Office of Pastoral Life helps create sustainable conditions in which priests, deacons and their families of the Orthodox Church in America can flourish spiritually, vocationally and personally through every season of parish ministry.

From August 14-16, 2026, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon presided at services in Washington, DC, Bethesda, MD, and Berlin, MD, to celebrate services for the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.

On Friday evening, August 14, His Beatitude presided at the Festal Vigil at St. Nicholas Cathedral. Concelebrating with His Beatitude were Archpriest Alessandro Margheritino, Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America and Dean of St. Nicholas Cathedral, Archpriest David Bozeman, Secretary of the Orthodox Church in America and Associate Priest of the Cathedral, and Archpriest Valery Shemchuk, Associate Priest. Also serving was Protodeacon Peter Ilchuk.

On Saturday morning, August 15, His Beatitude presided at the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at St. Mark Orthodox Church in Bethesda, MD. Concelebrating with His Beatitude were Archpriest Gregory Safchuk, Rector of St. Mark Church and Dean of the Washington Deanery, and Priest Nicholas Roth. At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude blessed flowers and herbs in honor of the feast.

Later that day, His Beatitude traveled to Berlin, MD, for the patronal feast of Christ the Savior Orthodox Church. Before Great Vespers on Saturday evening, the parish community gathered for a picnic and lamb roast in honor of the parish feast day and His Beatitude’s archpastoral visit.

On Sunday, August 16, His Beatitude presided at the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy for the parish’s patronal feast of the Icon of Christ Not-Made-By-Hands. Concelebrating with His Beatitude were Archpriest Alessandro Margheritino, Archpriest John Parsells, Rector of Christ the Savior Church, Archpriest Joseph Oleynik, Archpriest Gary Breton, and Protodeacon Gregory Moser.

His Beatitude gave the homily where he reflected on the parable of the talents (Matt. 18:23-35) and how we too can easily become like the unforgiving servant. He said, “When someone offends or hurts us by his words or actions, we must not condemn him or become angry, but we must use this as an opportunity to show him the same love and compassion that God has shown us … In this way, we see the humanity of our neighbor, we show compassion and love for him, while humbling ourselves at the same time.”

Read the full text of His Beatitude’s homily

At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude congratulated Fr. John on the 20th anniversary of his ordination to the holy priesthood and his 20 years of service at Christ the Savior Church. His Beatitude also congratulated Protodeacon Gregory on the 39th anniversary of his ordination to the holy diaconate.

Christ the Savior Church is currently marking its 26th year. During the visit, His Beatitude saw the growth of the parish community, which is planning to build a larger church on its property.

Following the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude, the clergy, and the faithful gathered for the annual parish photograph. The celebration concluded with a festal meal in honor of the parish feast and His Beatitude’s visit.