Welcome to Martha and Mary House
We
provide residential housing, with privacy, and confidentiality, for
pregnant women in crisis. We acknowledge the sanctity of life and are
grateful that the expectant Mom who comes to  us has chosen life for her unborn
child. Both she and her child are unique and precious, created in the image
of God and loved by Him. We pray she will seek the best choices for her own
future and for the child God has entrusted to her. At Martha and Mary House
we offer practical, emotional and spiritual support during this crucial
period of her life. As a Martha and Mary House 'Daughter' she will
experience Orthodox family-style living with resident House Mothers or
House Parents, and a daily schedule that includes work, study and morning
and evening prayer.
 We welcome pregnant women in crisis of all ethnic, cultural,
religious and social backgrounds. While at Martha and Mary House, they will
pursue a program of study or vocational training, be actively seeking
employment or be employed. They will share responsibility for housekeeping
duties, live by the House Rules and participate in Martha and Mary House
programs which include Bible study and Church attendance, pre-natal and
birthing classes, and career and open adoption counseling.
We
pray that each pregnant woman who comes to us may discover her God given
personal resources and how to develop them. Working with volunteers as
mentors and tutors, and local agencies, we help facilitate a healthy birth
for the babies and a healthy spiritual re-birth
for the new mothers.
Our
goal is to help our 'Daughter' recognize past choices that brought her to
the current crisis, and now to consider the best choices for her own future
and the future of her child. We teach about decision-making, choices and
consequences, courtship, purity and abstinence before marriage and the sacrament
and holiness of marriage. We study God's design for nurturing children in
the stable context of lifelong commitment of marriage with father and
mother belonging to each other. The pregnant Mom will choose what is best
for her child and set goals for herself through education or vocational
training. Birth mothers who choose a loving family through open adoption
are eligible for a Martha and Mary House scholarship to continue her
education. Our scholarhip fund is made possible by a grant from the Order
of Saint Ignatious of Antioch.
 Expectant Moms who have suffered
pregnancy loss by choice in the past, are provided post- abortion grief and
reconciliation counseling in a 12 Step program; "Sharing our
Grief". An Abortion Survivor's Anonymous support group meets at the
House .
Martha
and Mary House is incorporated as a religious non-profit institution in the
Orthodox Church in America,
Diocese of the West. Our Board of Directors is inter-Orthodox, headed by
His Grace Bishop Benjamin of San Francisco and
the West, with members from the Greek Orthodox, Antiochian Orthodox, and Serbian Church,
as well as the Orthodox Church in America. A Serbian Orthodox
parish sponsors our web site.
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