Diana Chapdelaine was received into the Orthodox Church through the Sacrament of Holy Chrismation at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Willimantic, CT, on Sunday, January 18, 2015.
 
Diana was presented with a dyptich icon of our Lord and the Mother of God. She then thanked the community for receiving her so warmly the past seven months, and for all those, including many family members and friends, who came to pray with her today. A luncheon, hosted by the Holy Trinity community, was held in Diana’s honor at the conclusion of Divine Liturgy in the church hall.
 
Diana’s sponsor was Barbara E. Lacey, fittingly, as it was Barbara who was the first person to greet Diana when she first came to Holy Trinity in July, 2014.
 
Like most adults who come into the Orthodox Church through another Christian body, Diana’s journey has resulted in her deep faith and understanding of Orthodox theology. She is a voracious reader and estimates she has read 25 books on the Orthodox faith since the Summer of 2014 alone. Agreeing to participate in a Q&A in December (2014), her answers indicated she was more than ready for the next step in her spiritual development. Click to read ‘Journey of a Catechumen’ posted on the Holy Trinity web site.
 
Another posting on the web site is a letter written by Very Reverend Protopresbyter Constantine A. Constantopoulos, who currently lives in Athens, Greece, and he knew Diana in the mid-late 1980’s. At the end of October, 2014, on the occasion of Diana’s 50th birthday (Nov. 3), Fr Constantine emailed a letter to Holy Trinity. Fr Constantine’s offers a personal reflection of Diana. The letter is written with great compassion and sensitivity; it is reprinted with Fr Constantine’s permission.  Click to download 'Letter of Support.'
 
What makes Diana’s story so inspirational, and which has earned her much respect, is that she has Cerebral Palsy. She spent many of her school vacations from the time of her youth hospitalized to correct her gait, including the entire summer of 1972 after undergoing hip derotation surgery where she had to learn how to walk once again. She was 7 years old at the time. Diana graduated from Manchester High School, and the University of Connecticut in 1986. She majored in Spanish with a Minor in German.
 
She has traveled extensively and spent her final undergraduate year abroad living in Granada, Spain. Diana has spent her work career in the field of banking. She has been married to John Chapdelaine for nearly 11 years.