Support Special Olympics! AV5K October 1st!

The Annual AV5K is happening in less than a month at the Antiochian Village Running Trail! Sign up to run the only wooded trail 5K in the Valley and support The Special Olympics!

The first 150 registrants will get a free wicking running shirt, and the top three finishers in each age category will receive medals! If you don't want to run, walkers are always welcome in the event!

Stick around after the race for some great door prizes from local businesses and snacks prepared by our famous kitchen at Antiochian Village!

Registration starts at 9:00am, and the race will begin promptly at 10:00am.

For more information call Barli at 724-238-3677.

10% Off Holiday Parties for 2012!

Just announced: If you book your office Holiday Party at Antiochian Village by September 15th you will receive 10% off! Small, medium and large office parties are all welcome! Come celebrate the holidays with your coworkers in the mountains, with the famous food of our Chef Tim!

To take advantage of this limited time offer, call The Antiochian Village Conference and Retreat Center at 724-238-3677, and ask for Zach!

"Real Summer!" Day Camp a Success!

Recently the Antiochian Village "Real Summer!" Day Camp finished it's inaugural week. The program consisted of a five-day camp offering environmentally friendly activities ranging from outdoor involvement to the arts.

Attendees to the camp enjoyed learning about fish and fishing, PH levels in the local water level, aquatic insects and animals, and birds of prey outdoors. These activities organized, by Program Development Director Barli Ross, allowed the kids to engage the natural world in a way that isn't always afforded to our youth.

Indoors the attendees created a mural to liven up a wall in one of the Village's multi-purposes rooms. Under the direction and guidance of Mosaic Artist Jennifer Wagner, the kids reused pieces of old glass, cutting the different colors to the sized and shapes that they needed to create this piece of art which includes representations of the gazebo and pond.

With the success of this first year you can look for information to come about more programs like this one next year!

Mosaic Class and Day Camp Registration Still Open!

There are still a few spots left for Antiochian Village's Mosaic Art Classes, and "Real Summer!" Day Camp!

The mosaic class is open to anyone at any artistic level, who is interested in making eco-friendly stained glass mosaic artwork. Artist Jen Wagner will be conducting the classes, held at Antiochian Village each evening next week. Each participant will end the week with a piece of mosaic art!

During the day "Real Summer!" Day Camp will be happening at the Antiochian Village Conference and Retreat Center, for children ages 8-12. The camp will feature indoor arts activities and outdoor environmental activities, all focusing on sustainability and environmentalism.

To register for the Mosaic Classes, or to register your son or daughter for "Real Summer!" Day Camp, call The Village at 724-238-3677, and ask for Barli.

Ligonier Relay for Life- AV Team a Success!

It was a rainy weekend in the Ligonier Valley, but that didn't stop hundreds of people from flocking to Weller Field for the annual Relay for Life.

The Theme this year called for each team to choose a Holiday then dress up and decorate their booths accordingly. Antiochian Village chose "The First Day of Hunting Season" with the slogan "Hunting for a Cure."

Donning orange hunting vest or fuzzy antlers, the AV team took the team lap on Friday, and then stood along the side of the track and cheered alongside the other teams for the survivor's lap.

AV's booth offered a rubberband-gun shooting range with little deer, each with the name of a different cancer. Winners were awarded a deer-shaped cooked made by Darci... and many contestants came back repeatedly for the sweets.

AV's team successfully raised over $1500 this year. Last year the Ligonier Valley Relay for Life was the 2nd highest per-capita fund-raising' Relay' in the nation.

House of Studies Counseling Program in Full-Swing

Recently, Zach Simons sat down with Dr. Ron Moslener to talk about the Antiochian House of Studies "Pastoral and Marriage and Family Counseling Program, which takes place at Antiochian Village. -


“It’s a crazy story,” remembers Dr. Ron Moslener with a smile, “It came to me in the middle of the night.”

We are sitting in an office on a brilliantly sunny May afternoon at Antiochian Village.  I’ve caught Ron in a brief window he has between teaching and getting to the dining hall for lunch.  He is here for two weeks, conducting classes in his “Pastoral Marriage and Family Counseling Certificate Program,” part of our Antiochian Orthodox house of Studies.

A few years ago, while talking with a priest, Ron was lamenting the fact that Pastoral Counseling  was not addressed sufficiently by many seminaries.

“They listed [Pastoral Marriage and Family Counseling] as one their top three issues in my surveys,” he recalls, referring to research he conducted exploring those issues pastors and other church workers see the most.  His realization of this issue lead him to propose the certificate program to the Orthodox house of Studies.  And he is certainly the man to do it.  Ron’s full-time job is teaching, what else, a Masters Program in Counseling at Geneva College.

“We realized there was no way for clergy to commit to a 60 credit-hour, $40,000 degree in the field,” he says, but that didn’t eliminate the need for formal, guided training.

The program runs two years, and meets in two-week sessions at Antiochian Village Conference and Retreat Center.  The five students in the inaugural class have classes that are not simply lecture-based, but will have hands-on approach as well.  They will apply what they have learned and review counseling sessions (confidentially, and with permission) as a group.  Programs like this one are important to help equip clergy to better serve in their parishes.

The program is open to clergy of all denominations, and people who deal with these issues in their professional work at churches. For more information on getting involved in the Orthodox House of Studies, you can contact Antiochian Village at 724-238-3677.   AV

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Seen at The Village!

In what we are hoping will become a recurring series on the blog, we present to you our first "Seen at The Village!" post, highlighting fun images captured at Antiochian Village.

This edition features a men's group who had an early Spring afternoon off at The Village, and decided to play a game of pick-up basketball at The Antiochian Village Sports Complex. Click on the images to see high resolution versions of the images!