Her Beatitude, Metropolitan (Vladychitsa) + Olga Archbishop of the Great Lakes and All America First Hierarch of the Universalist Orthodox Church From an early age, Her Beatitude has been involved in Eastern Orthodoxy, and not long after high school entered a monastery where she was tonsured. After a period, Her Beatitude left the monastery and the canonical church for several reasons, primarily due to its stances on LGBTQIA+ inclusion and exclusionary ordination practices. Her monastic formation and devotion to the Church compelled her to pursue ordained ministry, and eventually this led to her elevation to the Episcopate. She serves the UOC as First Hierarch, Metropolitan, and Prelate. She is the first openly transgender Bishop to be consecrated according to Eastern Orthodox rubrics and traditions; as such, the full inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community in church life and structure is one of her main focuses in ministry. The consecration of Her Beatitude Met. Olga to the office of the Holy Episcopate was conferred by The Most Reverend Kristina Rake, Archbishop Primate of the American Apostolic Old Catholic Church, on June 30th, 2018.
Our Proistamenos -- The Rev. Fr. Micah Lazarus
Fr. Micah Lazarus was raised and baptized in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and was chrismated into the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in 2017 after a six-year spiritual journey. He has served in a volunteer ministry capacity in Colorado, Washington state, Illinois and Palestine, doing communications work, music ministry and teaching Sunday school youth ministry. After discerning a call to ordained ministry as a queer Orthodox Christian, Fr. Micah left the Greek church and began to serve as a psalti (cantor) and community organizer for the UOC. On January 3rd, 2020, he was ordained to the subdiaconate, and took on the ecclesial name of righteous Lazarus, the friend of Christ. In 2020, Sdn. Micah became Proistamenos (presiding clergyman) of St. Photini UOC. On June 10th, 2021, he was ordained to the holy diaconate, and to the priesthood on June 20th, 2021 (the Feast of Holy Pentecost). Fr. Micah holds a Bachelor's degree from Knox College in Creative Writing and Religious Studies, and a Master's of Divinity from Seattle Pacific University. He is passionate about liturgy, Christological studies, queer theology, community organizing for social justice, ecumenical dialogue, and bringing the treasure of Eastern Orthodox faith to meet the needs of the contemporary world.