Thriving in Ministry: Strengthening the Hearts of Our Clergy and Their Families
By Archpriest Nicholas Solak, Director, Office of Pastoral Life
On Stewards Sunday, November 9, the faithful of the Orthodox Church in America are invited to support the work of the Church’s Departments and Offices. Each serves a vital role in the life of the Church. Among them, the Office of Pastoral Life exists to strengthen the spiritual, emotional, and relational health of our clergy and their families. One of its most impactful efforts is the Thriving in Ministry program.
A Growing Ministry
The Orthodox Church in America’s Thriving in Ministry program began in 2018 with support from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. It was created in response to a simple but pressing question: How do we help our priests and their families not only serve faithfully but truly thrive in their ministry?
Since then, Thriving in Ministry has grown into a national network of clergy and clergy wives who meet regularly in small, facilitated peer groups. These groups offer a space for connection, reflection, and shared learning rooted in Christ and the lived experience of parish ministry.
We are now in our second Lilly Endowment grant, known as the Sustainability Grant, designed to help the program achieve long-term financial sustainability—reflecting the shared responsibility of the Orthodox Church in America, its faithful, and benefactors.
At the Heart of the Program
From the beginning, Thriving in Ministry has included clergy wives alongside clergy, recognizing that both share in the vocation of parish life. Each peer group—whether clergy or clergy wives—meets regularly for prayer, open conversation, and mutual encouragement.
Members explore themes such as balancing pastoral work and family life, sustaining spiritual vitality, managing change, and finding renewal in ordinary rhythms of parish life.
Though rooted in the Orthodox Church in America, the program welcomes participants from other Orthodox jurisdictions, making it a truly pan-Orthodox ministry of mutual support and shared wisdom.
The Moment We Are In
Across the Orthodox Church in America, many parishes are experiencing strong—even remarkable—growth: new families are discovering the Church, parish life is expanding, and opportunities for ministry are multiplying.
This moment of growth is a tremendous blessing, but it also brings new demands on our clergy and their families. We rely on our priests and their wives to steward that growth with wisdom, steadiness, and pastoral care.
That is precisely where Thriving in Ministry shows its greatest value. These peer-learning groups provide priests and clergy wives with the relationships, reflection, and support they need to respond to this welcomed surge in parish life with resilience and grace.
The Impact
More than 200 priests and clergy wives are currently participating in Thriving in Ministry, and over 100 peer group meetings have been held across the Church this year alone.
Participants describe these gatherings as spaces to share the joys and challenges of ministry with others who understand those realities firsthand. In this shared understanding, they strengthen their pastoral insight, deepen their confidence, and renew their sense of purpose in serving Christ’s Church.
As one priest reflected, “Our group has helped me stay grounded and clear in my ministry. Hearing how others approach similar challenges gives me fresh perspective and new energy for the work God has placed before me.”
Looking Forward
The success of Thriving in Ministry has laid the foundation for future initiatives in clergy vitality and ongoing formation within the Orthodox Church in America. The lessons learned—about connection, balance, and resilience—are helping shape how the Church supports her clergy and families in every stage of life and ministry.
Your generosity on Stewards Sunday helps make this possible. Each gift strengthens the work of the Office of Pastoral Life and helps sustain programs like Thriving in Ministry—which nurture the heart of our Church by caring for those who serve.
To learn more and join a Thriving in Ministry peer-learning group, visit https://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, National Clergy 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.