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ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN PRISON MINISTRY Hires the Very Rev. John Kowalczyk as Director of Training and Spiritual Care

Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry (OCPM), the national prison ministry of the Orthodox Church, is very pleased to announce the Very Rev. John Kowalczyk as its Director of Training and Spiritual Care. Fr. John is the rector of St. Michael’s Church in Jermyn, PA, and the Director of Field Education and Senior Lecturer in Ethics at […]

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Beyond the Bars Blog Uncategorized

#AscendingTogether Part 3: Dn. Seraphim, Volunteer Prison Chaplain

When Deacon Seraphim Blackstock began visiting men in a Florida prison, he started out, in his own words, “very arrogant”.  “I went into the prisons with the idea I was helping these guys. They’re felons. They’ve committed horrible crimes. I’m doing them a big favor.” Dn. Seraphim would soon find out that there was much […]

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Beyond the Bars Blog BTB

#AscendingTogether Part 2: What Can Prisoners Teach Us About Repentance?

“God is the life of all free beings. He is the salvation of all, of believers and unbelievers, of the just and the unjust, of the pious and the impious, of those freed from the passions or caught up in them, of monks or those living in the world, of the educated or the illiterate, […]

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Beyond the Bars Blog

#AscendingTogether Part 1: Together with Christ in Prison

Where there is real humility, all bonds are made free.” -St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent “These inmates put my prayer life to shame.” -Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver, after visiting a prison with OCPM’s Director of Training and Spiritual Care, Fr. Stephen Powley  John was sentenced to eighteen months in a medium security […]