Matushka Carrie Foley appointed program lead of Clergy Wives Ministry
Matushka Carrie Foley has been appointed as program lead of the Clergy Wives Ministry. She will begin her work on November 1. In this role, Matushka Carrie will guide the continued growth of this vital ministry, which provides encouragement, fellowship, and resources for the wives of clergy across the Orthodox Church in America.
She succeeds the volunteer committee that has nurtured the Clergy Wives Ministry in recent years. The Office of Pastoral Life expresses deep gratitude to Matushka Valerie Zahirsky, Matushka Alexandra Safchuk, Matushka Jennifer Levine, Matushka Wendy Cwiklinski, Matushka Miho Ealy, and Matushka Lela Powell for their dedicated work, vision, and commitment in establishing and sustaining this important effort.
Matushka Carrie studied cross-cultural missions, fine art, and literature, and graduated magna cum laude from Piedmont University. She spent a decade managing offices while helping to establish St. Timothy’s Orthodox Church in Toccoa, Ga. Through the years, Matushka Carrie has served as parish council treasurer, taught church school, led sisterhoods, organized deanery campouts, led youth group, and sung soprano in several choirs. Since 2004, she has worked as a freelance graphic designer, with SVS Press among her notable recent clients.
She later worked 15 years as director of marketing and operations for a financial advisory firm in Greensboro, N.C., leaving in 2020 to care for her adult son with disabilities. That same year she launched an Airbnb management and design company. Matushka Carrie is a writer and speaker, recently presenting at the Gathered As One Body disability conference. She brings both pastoral sensitivity and practical experience to her new role. Alongside her husband, Archpriest Christopher Foley, Matushka Carrie helped plant and has served Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Kernersville, N.C., where Father Christopher has been parish priest for 19 years.
“The work of a clergy wife is like that of a womb. It is often hidden. It makes space for others to grow. It is a place of loving sacrifice, deep communion, and hidden wonder. And, with patience and humility, her mysterious work can become her deepest joy as she delivers Christ to this weary world,” said Matushka Carrie. “I see my new role as akin to that of a birth doula. It will be my greatest honor to serve the clergy wives of the Orthodox Church in America as they carry Christ into the world through their ministries. I know that nurturing, encouraging, and listening to them is vital to the spread of the gospel in North America. My patron saint, St. Salome the Holy Myrrhbearer, was a midwife at the birth of Christ. And it is my hope that by St. Salome’s prayers, I’ll be made worthy to serve my sisters as they labor in the fields that are so white for harvest at this moment.”
“Matushka Carrie Foley brings a wealth of experience as an entrepreneur, women’s group leader, director, mother of four, and clergy wife that uniquely prepares her for this work,” said Director of the Office of Pastoral Life Archpriest Nicholas Solak. “Her leadership will strengthen the Clergy Wives Ministry, ensuring that this vital expression of care, connection, and encouragement continues to grow and to support clergy families across the Church with intention.”
The Office of Pastoral Life invites the faithful to remember Matushka Carrie, her family and all clergy wives of the Orthodox Church in America in prayer as this new chapter of ministry begins.
About the Clergy Wives Ministry
The Clergy Wives Ministry of the Office of Pastoral Life builds community among clergy wives who share a unique and often unseen vocation in the life of the Church. Through retreats, online gatherings, newsletters, and gestures of connection such as cards and prayers, the ministry nurtures faith, resilience, and mutual support. This same spirit extends to clergy widows, who gather online for fellowship and encouragement. By strengthening clergy wives and widows, the ministry affirms their vital role in parish life and supports the health of clergy families, which in turn fosters the health of parishes across the Orthodox Church in America.
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.