Huntsville, Alabama, March 12, 2025
Photo: stmichaelshsv.org
St. Michael’s Serbian Orthodox Church of Huntsville, Alabama, is hosting its 11th annual retreat this June at the Monte Sano Lodge.
This year, retreat leaders Archpriest John Whiteford and Popadija Xenia Franck (priest’s wife and iconographer) will run seven sessions over the course of four days, June 12–15, covering topics such as the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, Scripture in the Orthodox Tradition, spiritual diseases of the modern age, holy icons and our self-image, and more.
The retreat will also feature breakout sessions, daily Matins and Vespers, and children’s activities, culminating in the Sunday Divine Liturgy and BBQ picnic.
During free time, the park offers hiking, mountain biking, disc golf, a playground, a Japanese garden, scenic overlooks, and more.
See the dedicated retreat page for information on pricing and accommodations and to register to attend.
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Archpriest John Whiteford is a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) and head priest at St. Jonah Orthodox Church in Spring, Texas. He is Dean of the Texas and Louisiana Deanery of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America. He’s a former Nazarene Associate Pastor who in November 1990 converted to the Orthodox Faith soon after completing his B.A. in Theology at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma. Fr. John is the author of Sola Scriptura: An Orthodox Analysis of the Cornerstone of Reformation Theology and the general editor of the St. Innocent Liturgical Calendar.
Popadija Xenia Franck lives in Chisholm, MN where her husband, Fr. Constantine, serves the Serbian Orthodox parish of St. Basil of Ostrog. She entered the Orthodox Church in 2009, lived around a variety of monasteries, and received her Masters of Divinity from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in 2019. She has led retreats and given talks and presentations in many Orthodox parishes across the country. Pda. Xenia is an iconographer, studying under Dr. George Kordis and Abbess Katherine (Weston). She teaches adult Orthodox education classes, chants in the church services, has a YouTube channel, bakes prosphora, sews, and likes to garden and ferment.
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