The Kingdom of God & the Common Good:

an Orthodox Approach to Law, Justice, and Mercy

Webinar

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026

12:00 - 1:00pm ET

Dr. Dylan Pahman, author of The Kingdom of God and the Common Good, will join OCAN to discuss an Orthodox Christian approach to law, justice, and mercy.

Other Christian traditions have developed their own modern social thought to address contemporary economic and social problems since the industrial revolution. But what about the Orthodox Tradition? From the Old Testament, to the Gospel, to Byzantium and beyond, Dr. Pahman will show how our Orthodox faith has shaped the development of law throughout history and still has much to offer for the "least of these" among us today.

Join us for this first webinar of 2026 to explore how the Orthodox tradition provides a framework for thinking about important social issues of our time. Register below for this free presentation.

Dylan Pahman is founder and president of the St. Nicholas Cabasilas Institute for Orthodoxy & Liberty, and a research fellow at the Acton Institute. He is author of The Kingdom of God and the Common Good (Ancient Faith, 2025) and Foundations of a Free & Virtuous Society (Acton Institute, 2017). In 2025, he completed his PhD in theology from St. Mary's University, Twickenham, London, on the basis of his published works on Orthodox Christian social thought and asceticism. He is husband to Kelly and father to four children: Brendan, Aidan, Erin, and Callaghan.

national orthodox Attorney Retreat

"Law, Calling, & Renewal of the Soul"

Save the Date!
April 24-26, 2026

St. Iakavos Retreat Center, Kansasville, WI

Join fellow Orthodox attorneys for a weekend of rest, renewal, and fellowship! Come to the beautiful St. Iakavos Retreat Center to learn together and reflect on our calling as attorneys and servants of Christ. Through thought-provoking sessions, worship, and time spent with colleagues who share your faith and vocation, this retreat offers an opportunity to (re)discover peace and joy in your work and career. The retreat center is in a peaceful waterfront spot between Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

CLE Webinar

Friday, December 5, 2025 -- 12:00pm ET

The recording of this Webinar is available to OCAN Members here.

The Orthodox Church has had a significant role in the nation's jurisprudence on church governance and property disputes. Three U.S. Supreme Court cases involved Orthodox churches: Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral, 344 U.S. 94 (1952), Kreshik v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral of Russian Orthodox Church in America (1960), and Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976). Since then, disputes arising from discord within hierarchically affiliated churches have filled the courts.

Resolving these unfortunate disagreements, which divide jurisdictions and local church communities, involve considerations of the First Amendment's Religion Clauses, nonprofit corporate governance law, trust law, and the common law governing secular voluntary associations.

This program will discuss the manner in which the law has developed to its current state and the ways in which courts have addressed intra-church disputes. It also invites a discussion of whether the U.S. Supreme Court will bring more certainty to this area of the law.

Speaker

Peter Talevich is a litigation partner in the K&L Gates' Seattle office whose practice focuses on complex commercial disputes, constitutional law, and trust and estates disputes. Peter has represented Orthodox and Presbyterian jurisdictions in church governance disputes. He solely represents higher authorities within a religious jurisdiction in these disputes. Peter has also advised several other religiously affiliated organizations on transactional matters such as gifts and corporate governance. Peter is a graduate of University of Notre Dame and Seattle University Law School and attends a Roman Catholic church in Seattle. He also serves on the Board of Regents of Seattle University, a Catholic university.

The recording of this Webinar is available to OCAN Members HERE.

CLE Webinar

August 1, 2025

Webinar Recording

Dcn. Kenneth Liu

Executive Director, Orthodox Christian Attorney Network

Whether you serve on a parish or diocesan/metropolis council, provide informal guidance to a parish, or simply want to be aware of issues that a church should know about, we welcome you to this webinar on top legal issues faced by churches. This introductory webinar provides an overview of top legal issues all Orthodox parishes should be familiar with, including: Church Governance; Parish Leader Fiduciary Obligations; Youth Protection; Clergy-Penitent Privilege; Insurance; Copyright; Property; and Liability protection.

Thoughts on Humility

for Orthodox Christian Attorneys

Speaker: Lory Barsdate Easton

Thursday, April 10, 2025

In the Lenten prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian, we ask the Lord to give us the spirit of humility. What is humility, and what does it mean to be humble as a lawyer? This webinar will discuss the virtue of humility, touching on Orthodox teachings and recent psychological research, and will explore challenges for lawyers seeking to grow closer to Christ through humility.

We will discuss some of the specific pitfalls for lawyers, including:

• the competitive and adversarial aspects of the profession,
• the encouragement to be self-promoting as "marketing,"
• the temptations of specialized knowledge, prestige, and power, and
• the dangers of stress and burnout

We also will consider some examples of humility in action in legal practice. Entering Holy Week, Orthodox Christians are brought face-to-face with the icon depicting the Extreme Humility of Christ. Join us before Lent ends to consider how our Lord Himself tolerated shame and injustice – to the grave – and what that means for us as lawyers.

Orthodox Christians and the Rights Revolution in America

Rev. Dr. Anthony Roeber

February 27, 2025

Webinar Recording

So much of American law and policy is predicated on the concept of “rights,” derived primarily from western thought. Does our Orthodox tradition have anything to contribute to the American conversation on this topic? Fr. Anthony’s presentation provides an overview of his book, Orthodox Christians and the Rights Revolution in America. His book engages the difficult question of how Eastern Orthodox people have selectively used some modern notions of rights but rejected other aspects of modern secular liberal thought. At the same time, it alerts the Orthodox to their inherited notions of “rights,” sometimes referred to as “prerogatives,” “honors,” “privileges,” and so on that remain contested both among hierarchs and in controversies between clergy and laity that have at times resulted in lawsuits in secular courts. Fr. Anthony attempts to provide a way to distinguish various kinds of rights claims before engaging the Orthodox chronological engagement with internal and external rights claims in North America. 

Speaker: The Rev. Dr. A. G. Roeber, Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History and Religious Studies, Penn State University, is currently Professor of Church History, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. He is a past president of the Orthodox Theological Society in America and most recently Co-author of  Changing Churches (2012); co-editor, Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology (2016) author, Mixed Marriages: An Orthodox History (2018); editor, Human v. Religious Rights? (2020), and author, Orthodox Christians and the Rights Revolution (2024).