What is Marriage Encounter?

The Orthodox Marriage Encounter Weekend Is a positive and personal experience for a couple, which offers them a technique of loving communication that they can use for the rest of their lives. It’s an opportunity for couples to look deeply into their relationship with each other and with God. Also, it is a time to share their feelings, their hopes, fears, joys, and frustrations.

Orthodox Marriage Encounter is an expression open to all happily married couples regardless of faith, race, age, education, or financial status.

Orthodox Marriage Encounter is not a retreat, nor is it a Marriage clinic or sensitivity course. It is not a time to look at the past, but rather to look at your future together. The Weekend offers a positive and simple experience which enhances the relationship between husband and wife.

Who is Marriage Encounter For?

Orthodox Marriage Encounter is for any couple who wants to enrich their Marriage. The Weekend is designed to expand and deepen the joys a couple share together whether they’ve been married for a short time or for many years.

What Happens at a Marriage Encounter?

An atmosphere is created on the Weekend in which the couple can concentrate exclusively on one another. A series of talks are given by a team of trained couples and a Priest and his wife. Each talk gives a husband and wife the opportunity to look at themselves as individuals, and to look at their relationship with each other, with God, and with others. Orthodox Marriage Encounter starts with the love you have for your spouse and helps you to build, expand, and deepen that relationship. The Weekend shows you the way to do this and provides you with the means - the rest is up to you! The only talent one must have to make an Orthodox Marriage Encounter Weekend is the talent to love, and a desire to make a good Marriage even better.

Does the Weekend Respect the Couple’s Privacy?

Yes! Orthodox Marriage Encounter emphasizes communication between husband and wife through a Weekend experience, which is free of everyday distractions and tensions. You concentrate on your spouse to such an extent that you are hardly aware of the other couples who are on the Weekend. The presentations are given to the group as a whole. After each presentation the husband and wife have time in the privacy of their room for their own personal sharing, using the communication techniques they are learning on the Weekend. There are no group discussions.

How Does the Weekend Enhance a Marriage?

The fundamental differences between Marriages that are good, average, or poor, is the level of communication between husband and wife. In all Marriages, there are times when couples take each other and their relationship for granted. The Weekend presents each couple with the opportunity to get off the “Modern World Treadmill,” to stop and to take a fresh look at their Marriage and their priorities. The communication techniques used, allows and encourages couples to explore the important areas of their life together in a spirit of love and understanding. The Weekend experience offers every couple the insights, but also the confidence to enrich their Marriage and to strengthen their love for one another. For many couples ‘their Weekend’ is one of the most significant experiences of their lives.

The Weekend is presented by three Orthodox couples and an Orthodox Priest and his wife. It is Orthodox in its theology of Marriage as a sacrament of the church, but all couples of all faiths can benefit from it and are encouraged to attend. A certain number of spaces are reserved each Weekend for people of other faiths.

When and Where?

Orthodox Marriage Encounter Weekends are held at hotels and retreat centers in northern and southern California. Please call
Fr. John and Presvytera Elaine Alexandres (909) 793-8168 if you have any questions. About two weeks before the Weekend you will receive a welcoming letter with directions to the hotel and further information.

How Long Does the Weekend Last?

The Weekend begins on Friday evening at 8:00 PM and ends on Sunday at about 5:00 PM. Meals are provided on the Weekend.

What Does a Marriage Encounter Weekend Cost?

A $25.00 NON-REFUNDABLE REGISTRATION fee confirms your food and lodging. At the end of the Weekend, each couple is given a blank envelope and asked to make a donation. No one is ever refused the opportunity to attend a Weekend because of the lack of funds. Please make checks payable to Orthodox Marriage Encounter, (a nonprofit organization).

Created by Sister Seraphima Dingman

Joachim and Anna (the parents of the Theotokos)