The community of Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Christian Church in Butte, Montana was honored to receive His Grace, Bishop Maxim as this year’s keynote speaker at the 5th annual Orthodox MontaNIKA Conference. This year’s conference theme was “Therapeia” (Healing), where speakers and workshop instructors spoke on what healing and therapia look like from an Orthodox context. This year’s speakers not only included His Grace Bishop Maxim, but also the Rev. Vasileios Thermos, M.D., Ph.D. from Athens, Fr. Panayiotis Tekosis from St. Herman’s Serbian Orthodox Church in Kalispell, and Fr. Turbo Qualls from St. Mary of Egypt Serbian Orthodox Church in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to the talks presented by the main speakers, we had many distinguished workshop instructors that provided a more intimate setting where each instructor presented a therapeia theme and worked with individuals in a group to provide Orthodox solutions to the healing of our soul, mind, and body. The workshop instructors included His Eminence, Metropolitan Jonah, Protopresbyter-Stavrophore Fr. Russell Radoicich, Archpriest Andrew Moore, Fr. Turbo Qualls, Deacon Ananias, Gill Orr, Sarah Barry, Charlene Colwell, and Gary Metz. The conference also had many wonderful sponsors, including but not limited to, Hellenic College Holy Cross and the St. Paisios Brotherhood.

The 2025 Orthodox MontaNIKA Conference was the largest of all the MontaNIKA conferences. This year the conference had 175 registered participants, two Hierarchs, ten Priests, two Deacons, one Subdeacon, six Readers, and six nuns in attendance. The conference commenced with a beautiful banquet dinner Thursday evening. Friday and Saturday were dedicated to talks and workshops. Friday evening a local professional bluegrass band played for all the attendees. Saturday evening closed with an evening Vespers service and another amazing banquet dinner. However, the culmination of all the joys and blessings of the conference really ended with the Divine Hierarchical Liturgy on Sunday morning with His Grace Bishop Maxim presiding with His Eminence Metropolitan Jonah, together with all the clergy and people. Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church had over 250 people, which included the conference participants and local parishioners, in attendance for Sunday’s Hierarchical Liturgy! This was truly a historical event, and it was evident that the Holy Spirit truly descended upon this community and everyone from around the entire country who attended the conference and services.  The parishioners of Holy Trinity, together with all the clergy and attendees, are forever grateful to His Grace Bishop Maxim for bestowing this divine blessing upon them all.