Reaching beyond the parish during the pandemic with Fr. Luke Veronis of Saints Constantine and Helen Church in Webster, MA

Authors

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  Fr. Chris Metropulos

  Shaped by a life of service to Christ’s Church, Fr. Christopher has dedicated himself to using all the tools God has placed at his disposal to spread the light of Orthodoxy across the United States of America and around the world. Speaker, Radio Host, Professor, Founding Father of the Orthodox Christian Network (OCN), Pastor, Leader of 12 Pilgrimages to the Holy Land and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Author, Father, Grandfather and Defender of the Faith. As founder, host, and executive director of the Orthodox Christian Network he shepherds a dynamic and rapidly expanding ministry bringing joy, hope, and salvation in Jesus Christ to close to 1 million people a month in more than 190 countries. A nationally known radio personality, Fr. Christopher co-hosted the groundbreaking, internationally televised Epiphany Celebration of Tarpon Springs, Florida in January 2006, presided over by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and seen on the Hallmark Channel. He was also featured in a 2012 television broadcast on TLC entitled “4 Weddings.” In May 2014, he offered live English commentary from Rome via Radio Vaticana and EWTN for the worldwide televised broadcast of the historic meeting of Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem. In November 2014, he returned to Rome to provide the English commentary on a second Radio Vaticana/EWTN worldwide televised broadcast, this time on the occasion of Pope Francis’ visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul in celebration of the Feast Day of St Andrew. He worked alongside a team of professionals from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America on these broadcasts. Currently serves as Vice President, International Association of Digital Media Orthodox Pastoral Care. Fr. Christopher holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Hellenic College of Brookline, Massachusetts, a Master of Divinity Studies Degree from Brookline’s Holy Cross School of Theology, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His dedication to the family unit drove Fr. Christopher to be certified as a Family Mediator by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Florida. Fr. Christopher has also studied extensively at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. He has served the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese for more than 40 years.  He has held many different assignments as: Representative to the United Nations and United States Missions; Assistant Priest St. Demetrios Cathedral, Astoria, NY; Dean of the Assumption Cathedral in Denver, CO; Pastor of the Archangel Michael Church, Roslyn, NY; Pastor of the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Ft Lauderdale Florida, President of Hellenic College Holy Cross School of Theology,  Dean of Admissions and Registrar of the Hellenic College and Holy Cross School of Theology; member of the Archdiocesan Council; President of the Archdiocesan Presbyter’s Council for two consecutive terms; and council member of the Metropolis of Denver and the Metropolis of Atlanta. He also served as Vicar of the South Florida Conference from 1998-2011. In the summer of 2008, he was elevated by His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios to the rank of Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the blessings of the Holy and Sacred Synod, the highest honor bestowed on a married clergyman. Fr. Christopher and his late wife, Presbytera Georgia Mitsos, have six children and four grandchildren. With the blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros and Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco he was appointed as Interim Pastor of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose, Ca in October 2021.

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  Fr Luke Veronis

  Fr. Luke A. Veronis has served as a Greek Orthodox priest for 26 years. For the past 16 years he has pastored Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Webster, MA. Simultaneously he directs the Missions Institute of Orthodoxy Christianity at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, where he teaches as an adjunct instructor at both Holy Cross and Hellenic College. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Orthodox Christian Mission Center. Fr. Luke has been involved in the Orthodox Church’s missionary movement since 1987. Together with his wife Presbytera Faith, he served as a missionary in post-communist Albania for ten and a half years, and in East Africa for eighteen months. He has led nine short-term mission teams from his church to work at Project Mexico, building homes for the poor in Tijuana, Mexico, as well as annually offers a course since 2010 at HCHC which includes a mission practicum to Albania. His published works include Sharing the Light: Meditations on the Good News of Jesus Christ; Go Forth: A Journal of Missions and Resurrection in Albania, Lynette’s Hope: The Witness of Lynette Katherine Hoppe’s Life and Death, and Missionaries, Monks, and Martyrs: Making Disciples of All Nations.

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