Fr. Gabriel and his wife Matushka Laura, along with their 4 children, have been serving at the parish of St. Mary Magdalene since 2016. A graduate of St. Tikhons seminary, he was ordained to the priesthood in 2015 after 10 years working in finance for J.P Morgan Chase.

Fr. Gabriel’s favorite thing to do is to travel. He organizes pilgrimages for his parish to Mt. Athos, Jerusalem, and monasteries throughout the eastern United States. It is through many of these experiences, witnessing miracles and venerating incredible relics, that his love for Christ and the Church continues to grow.

Fr. Gabriel’s favorite Saint is St. Paisios of Mt. Athos. He loves the way the Saint uses everyday imagery to explain the spiritual life to the faithful in a simple way…a trait that Fr. Gabriel has tried to emulate in his ministry.

After many years of prayer, training, education, spiritual formation and development, Fr. Nathaniel was ordained to the Holy Priesthood through the Ancient Rite of the Laying on of Hands by His Eminence, Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, Warren Ohio, on September 30, 2018.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio and a life-long member of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church of Warren, Ohio where he faithfully served as an altar server, reader, and subdeacon for many years, Fr. Nathaniel is a 2018 graduate of Christ The Saviour Seminary. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Communication from Kent State University.

Fr. Nathaniel and his wife, Pani Nicole, who were married on April 28th of 2018, began their ministry at St Mary’s Church in Endicott, NY on October 15th, 2018. They welcomed their first child, Euphemia, in 2021 and their second child, Sabina, this past August!

Georgia and her husband Philip have been married for 30 years!! Together they love caring for and raising their seven children, as well as welcoming and giving hospitality to students and families in their community at Holy Cross Hellenic College where they reside in Boston, MA.

Georgia is very active in womens ministries. She has been facilitating women’s groups for the 30 years of her marriage and mentoring women throughout that time. She strongly believes that taking time to read, pray, and connect spiritually and emotionally with other women is life-transforming and miraculous in every phase of life and vocation we may find ourselves in.

Georgia’s life experience and loves are diverse! She homeschooled her seven children for many years, makes frequent pilgrimages to women’s monasteries, is an avid reader of spiritual books, and has spoke at various retreats, conferences, and parishes throughout North America. She is a lover of the Twelve Steps and strongly appreciates connecting the Twelve Step model and Orthodox Spirituality.

Fr. Seraphim is the associate pastor of St. Michael Orthodox Church in Louisville, KY. Fr. Seraphim went on to pursue and complete his Master of Divinity at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and graduated in the Spring of 2017. He was ordained to the Holy Diaconate the day after graduation in Boston on May 21, 2017 at the Holy Cross Chapel by His Eminence, Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco, and then to the Holy Priesthood a few weeks later in Las Vegas at the Parish of St. John the Baptist on June 18, 2017. Fr. Seraphim and his wife Presvytera Olenka have four children.

The Ramos family enjoys many activities in their free time: hiking together with their dog Jordan, Pickle Ball, board games, sports, puzzles, reading, and dinners with guests.

Abbess Aemiliane, of the Sacred Monastery of St. Nina, in Union Bridge, MD, is a native Kansan. While doing her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she encountered Orthodoxy and monasticism in the person of her Spiritual Father, Elder Dionysios who came to celebrate and hear confessions at Holy Cross/Hellenic College in 1982 with the blessing of Elder Archmandrite Aemilianos of Blessed Memory, and at the invitation of the ever-memorable Archbishop +Iakovos.

The day after her graduation from Harvard she left for Greece to be baptized and became a nun. She was the first of the original Sisters of the Monastery of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Thebes, Greece, with its founding Abbess, Eldress Diodora.

In 2012, she returned to the United States when the Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia, ILYA II — who had been inviting Archimandrite Dionysios to visit Georgia and collaborate with him since 1995 — established the Sacred Monastery of Saint Nina under the omophorion of Metropolitan Dimitri of Batumi, then ruling Hierarch of the Georgian Apostolic Orthodox Church in North America, with Nun Aemiliane as Abbess.

Fr. Justin has been an Orthodox Christian priest since 2005 and pastor of St. Athanasius since 2006. Originally a native of Jacksonville, Florida, he joined the Orthodox Church as a college student at the University of Florida in the late 1990s. He met his wife, Tamara, in a Russian history class at the university and she also became Orthodox through the ministry of the Orthodox College Fellowship (OCF) in Gainesville.

Fr. Justin’s priestly formation includes one year (2002-2003) at St. Tikhon’s Seminary in Pennsylvania and two years (2003-2005) at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York. He and Matushka Tamara both graduated from St. Vladimir’s in 2005 with their MDiv and MA, respectively. The Pattersons have two sons, John-Patrick (b. 2004) and Ian (b. 2007.)

Since December 2006, Fr. Justin has served as pastor of St. Athanasius Orthodox Church (at that time a “mission” but now a “parish”) in Nicholasville, Kentucky, as part of the Diocese of the South of the Orthodox Church in America. In the years he has served St. Athanasius, Fr. Justin was able to shepherd the community through a building program, from a storefront-type existence into a proper church.

Steven Christoforou is Director of Operations & Community Engagement for FOCUS North America. A graduate of Yale University, Fordham University School of Law, and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. Steve is passionate about helping people see and serve Christ in their neighbor.

Steve spent 9 years as the founder and leader of Y2AM and is perhaps best known for his work on “Be the Bee,” “Pop Culture Coffee Hour,” and “Effective Christian Ministry.” In his current role with FOCUS, Steve is working to expand programs and capacity to reach more people with life-saving food, occupation, clothing, understanding, and shelter. He’s leading the development of new local outreach initiatives and, God willing, the establishment of new FOCUS Centers across the country.