Parish Clergy

Rev. Fr. Stephen Mathewes, Pastor

Fr. Stephen grew up in Virginia and Maryland, the son of an Episcopalian priest. By the early 90′s his father and mother had become very dissatisfied with the direction of the Episcopal Church, and began to search for an expression of Christianity that proclaimed the Truth of the Gospel and maintained the worship of the original Church. By God’s providence, they were brought to this True Church—the Orthodox Church. In January of 1993, Fr. Stephen and his family—including his older sister and brother—were chrismated into the Orthodox Church (Antiochian Archdiocese), and quickly his father was ordained as an Orthodox priest. With the blessing of His Eminence, Metropolitan PHILIP, the family and several other “convert” families founded Holy Cross mission outside of Baltimore, MD. They celebrated their first Divine Liturgy on Valentine’s Day. An 11-year-old Stephen served as an altar boy.

Fr. Stephen earned his B.A. in Musicology, and worked as a piano tuner, before enrolling as a seminarian at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in 2009. Fr. Stephen was ordained to the Holy Diaconate by Metropolitan PHILIP at the end of his first year, and to the Holy Priesthood by Bishop ANTOUN (who had ordained his father 18 years before) at the end of his second. In 2012 Fr. Stephen graduated with a Masters in Divinity, “with highest distinction”, and he and his family were assigned to serve the Orthodox faithful of the Tri-Cities. Fr. Stephen and his wife, Jocelyn, have three children.