Two presentations hosted by the St. Juliana Society (SJS) in the fall 2015 term provided the future clergy wives at St. Vladimir's with much food for thought and discussion. On Monday evening, October 26, a large group of women turned out to join in a mini-workshop offered by Matushka Amy Bozeman. Matushka and her husband Fr. David Bozeman (SVOTS '12) lead the community of St. Nektarios Orthodox Mission in Waxahachie, TX.
As an experienced labor and delivery nurse, an educator, doula, writer, editor, and mother of teens, Mat. Amy wears many hats. Her workshop focused on how women can identify and intentionally work through the expectations that they bring to seminary life. She emphasized the need for women to establish healthy patterns of self care, including the setting of appropriate boundaries that will be important later in the nurture of clergy family life.
L to R: Mat. Amy, Mat. Thekla Hatfield, Mat. Robyn HatrakOn Monday, November 9, Matushka Dennise Kraus of Holy Trinity Church in East Meadow, New York spoke to the SJS women on the topic "Pregnancy, Loss and the Orthodox Church: Praying for and ministering to families who have experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth." Matushka and alumnus Fr. Martin Kraus are the parents of five children ages 1–19. The couple experienced two miscarriages before and during their years at St. Vladimir's; this motivated Mat. Dennise to assemble prayers for the loss of an infant, and to prepare guidelines to help those who seek to minister to bereaved couples.
View the Service after a Miscarriage or Stillbirth from the Orthodox Church in America
