Oakland, Pennsylvania, December 20, 2024
Photo: antiochian.org
Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the episcopal consecration of His Grace Bishop Thomas of Oakland, Charleston, and the Mid-Atlantic of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. He was consecrated on December 5, 2004, by His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch in Damascus, Syria.
The anniversary was celebrated on Thursday, December 12, with an evening Divine Liturgy at St. George Cathedral in Oakland, Pennsylvania, reports the Antiochian Archdiocese.
The celebration gathered the clergy and faithful of western Pennsylvania. It also doubled as the 20th anniversary of the Church of St. George being named a cathedral.
Following the service, Sayidna Thomas was honored with a Lenten meal provided by a local Middle Eastern restaurant. Archpriest Joshua Makoul, dean of the cathedral, offered a reflection on His Grace’s strong relationship with his clergy and parishes.
“The evening concluded with Bp. Thomas reflecting on the ways God has blessed him, at times in surprising ways, with all that he has needed to serve Christ’s Body on behalf of our beloved metropolitans over the years,” the Archdiocese writes.
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Photo: antiochian.org
Of Arab-American heritage, Thomas Joseph was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1953. He attended John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, graduating in 1970. He went on to college at William Paterson College, graduating in 1974. After college, he worked in the Department of Community Improvements in Paterson, then served as a teacher for the Paterson Board of Education. When the Antiochian Village camp opened in the late 1970s, he was recruited by Fr. John Namie to serve as one of the original camp counselors from 1979 to 1982.
In the fall of 1979, Thomas began part-time study at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, and was made a subdeacon by Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) of Blessed Memory in July of 1982. He continued his studies until the spring of 1983, when he was assigned to Virgin Mary Church in Yonkers, New York.
In 1984, Metropolitan Philip assigned him to St. George Church in Houston, Texas, where he served as Director of Christian Education and Youth Services. While in Texas, the Archdiocese also assigned him to oversee Christian Education and then later teen activities for the churches in the Southwest Region (now the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America). In July of 1988 Thomas was ordained to the diaconate by Archbishop Michael (Shaheen) of Toledo.
On August 28, 1994, Bishop Antoun (Khouri) ordained Dcn. Thomas to the priesthood, and Fr. Thomas served as assistant pastor at his parish in Houston until August of 1996, when he was appointed pastor of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Pinellas Park, Florida, near St. Petersburg.
Between 1996 and his consecration to the episcopacy, Fr. Thomas served in multiple capacities aside from his work as a pastor. He was an appointed member of the Archdiocese Youth Department Board; Spiritual Advisor to the Teen SOYO (Society of Orthodox Youth Organization) Southeastern Region; Chairperson of the Tampa Bay Orthodox Clergy Association; former Director of Programs in Pastoral Bioethics for the International Academy of Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine in the United States; Speaker at Braunels, Germany, and at City University of Hong Kong on Bioethics; author of published articles on Christian Bioethics; Speaker at Antiochian Village and third session camp priest for many years; and past President and Vice President of the Tampa Bay Council of Orthodox Churches. In July 2002, Fr. Thomas was granted a Master of Arts degree in Applied Orthodox Theology jointly from the Antiochian House of Studies and the St. John of Damascus School of Theology of the University of Balamand in Lebanon.
On February 15, 2004, Fr. Thomas was elevated to the rank of archimandrite by Bp. Antoun, and on December 5, 2004, he was consecrated to the episcopacy by Patriarch Ignatius IV (Hazim) of Antioch in Damascus, Syria.
Bishop Thomas was enthroned as Bishop of Oakland and the East at St. George Cathedral in Pittsburgh (Borough of Oakland), Pennsylvania, on May 6, 2005. In August of 2006, he graduated summa cum laude with a Doctorate in Education from California Coast University. His Grace also sits on the editorial board of the journal Christian Bioethics, which is published by Oxford University Press. In 2005 and 2017, Bp. Thomas gave the commencement address at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania.
Throughout his ministry, His Grace has authored a number of published articles. He has also given presentations for the St. Tikhon’s 2016 Continuing Education program including “Instructing your Spiritual Children for Salvation Through Faith in Christ Jesus: The Role of the Pastor in the Lives of Young People” and “Introduction to Orthodox Homeschooling.”
In 2006, the Church of St. George in Charleston, West Virginia purchased a chancery for the diocese, and in October of that year St. George was elevated to a cathedral, thus adding another see to the diocese. The diocese is named the Diocese of Oakland, Charleston and the Mid-Atlantic.
His Grace’s residence is at the diocesan chancery in Charleston.
In addition to his duties in the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, Bp. Thomas also served as the locum tenens of the Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest from December 2010 to December 2011. Within the Archdiocese, His Grace assists Metropolitan Joseph in overseeing the Antiochian Village, the Christian Education Department, the Youth Department, the Antiochian House of Studies, the Department of Prison Ministry, the Department of Homeschooling, and the military chaplains of the archdiocese.
Since 2011, he has also chaired the Committee for Youth of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America. He is also the episcopal liaison for the Assembly to the Orthodox Christian Education Commission (OCEC).
From May 2014 to 2018, His Grace served as Assistant to the President of the Balamand University in charge of Student Recruitment in North America. In May 2015, His Grace was elected to the Board of Trustees of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. In 2017, St. Tikhon’s awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Divinity.
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