Priest Phillip Dage
Home Parish: St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, Detroit, MI
Seminary: St. Tikhon’s Seminary
Year & Program: 3rd year M.Div.
Father Phillip Dage joined the Orthodox Church in 2000. Along with his mom, dad, and brother, Phillip received the Sacrament of Holy Chrismation at Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Detroit, MI. Phillip was also tonsured a Reader there in May of 2021. Following an extended mission trip to Guatemala in 2017, Phillip was inspired to offer his life more fully in service to the Holy Orthodox Church. After working as a high school economics teacher for a couple years, Phillip began his studies at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in the fall of 2021. God willing, he will graduate with a Master of Divinity in the spring of 2024.
Jarrod Huffman
Home Parish:
Seminary: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Year & Program: 1st year M.Div.
Christopher Mescher
Home Parish: St. Gregory of Nyssa Church, Columbus, OH
Seminary: St. Tikhon’s Seminary
Year & Program: 1st year M.Div.
Coming Soon
Andrew Prather
Home Parish: St. Nicholas Mission, Pella, IA
Seminary: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Year & Program: 4th year M.Div.
Andrew grew up United Methodist in the Des Moines, Iowa metro area. He attended Central College in Pella, Iowa, double majoring in Religion and Computer Science. While at Central, he discovered the Orthodox Church and started attending St. Nicholas Mission. He became a catechumen in 2010 and was chrismated in 2012. After college, he worked for 9 years in Healthcare IT, specializing in PACs. In late 2019, he felt a call to leave his home of 14 years for seminary at St. Vladimir’s, enrolling in the Master of Arts program in the fall of 2020. He transferred to the Master of Divinity program in December 2020. Andrew is engaged to Amber Bennett of St. Elizabeth Church in Poulsbo, WA.
Deacon Peter Ries
Home Parish: St. Innocent Church Olmsted, OH
Seminary: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Year & Program: 3rd year M.Div.
Deacon Peter was born in Kentucky, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, at a young age. He was raised Protestant before his family converted to Orthodoxy in 2008, when he was 10 years old. At his home parish of St. Innocent in Olmsted Township, Deacon Peter served as parish sacristan for 4 years. He attended Cleveland State University, where he earned a BA in Psychology. Deacon Peter then spent two years in the field of social work, where he focused in mental health case management, servicing individuals with severe mental health diagnoses. When the time came for him to consider options for graduate study, Deacon Peter felt called to seminary and the possibility of vocational service to the Church. He enrolled in St. Vladimir’s Master of Divinity program, starting his seminary journey in the Fall of 2021. He married Sophie, a professionally trained artist specializing in illustration and design, in October 2022, and was ordained to the diaconate at St. Vladimir’s in September 2023.
Constantine Sarsama
Home Parish: St. Matthew Church, Green Bay, WI
Seminary: St. Tikhon’s Seminary
Year & Program: 1st year M.Div.
Cole Schlafer
Home Parish: St. Nicholas Church, Mentor, OH
Seminary: St. Tikhon’s Seminary
Year & Program: 1st year M. Div.
Cuthbert Schreder
Home Parish: Holy Myrrhbearers Church, St. Cloud, MN
Seminary: St. Tikhon’s Seminary
Year & Program: 1st year M. Div.
Eugene was raised in the small town of Paynesville, Minnesota. He grew up in the Restorationist denomination called the churches of Christ, where he taught Bible classes, gave sermons, and led songs. He and Elizabeth were married after graduating high school in 2014. In 2020, Eugene received a Bachelors degree in History from St. Cloud State University. He discovered the Orthodox Church during his studies and fell in love with the beauty of the Lord’s House. In 2019, he and his family began attending Holy Myrrhbearers Orthodox Church, which was only a few blocks away from the SCSU campus. On the Sunday of All Saints in June of 2020, the Schreder family was baptized into Christ, and Eugene received the name of Cuthbert. Not long thereafter, with the help of Fr. Andrew Jaye, Eugene began to discern a call to the Holy Priesthood, and he was ordained a reader on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women in May of 2021. Having served Holy Myrrhbearers in this capacity, Reader Cuthbert, Elizabeth, and their three children began the next chapter of their lives at St. Tikhon’s Seminary in the Fall of 2023.
Paisios Winsler
Home Parish: St. Paul the Apostle Church, Dayton, OH
Seminary: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Year & Program: 2nd year M.Div.
Paisios is a member of St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church in Dayton, OH, currently living on campus at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. In the past, he has served in pastoral ministry in Protestant churches, as a Christian Studies educator at the high school level, and in diaconal ministry in an Anglican context. More recently, Paisios worked as a software engineer, but after completing a course of study with Fr. Silviu Bunta and following the counsel of his spiritual father, he and his wife agreed to pursue seminary studies. Paisios has been married to Sophia for 15 years; they have two daughters, Candice and Zenaida, and a newborn son, Oran. He is enrolled in the Master of Arts program at SVS and hopes to graduate in 2024.
Priest John York
Home Parish: Christ the Savior Church, Chicago, IL
Seminary: St. Tikhon’s Seminary
Year & Program: 3rd year M.Div.
Father John and Matushka Karina originally met as students at Duke University, where they completed their undergraduate education. After graduation, Fr. John moved to Chicago, IL where he completed a master’s degree in New Testament at the University of Chicago, and Mat. Karina moved to Atlanta, GA, where she earned a degree in nursing from Emory University. Upon finishing their respective graduate programs, Jonathan and Karina were married at Christ the Savior parish in 2018.
Fr. John worked for four years as the Assistant to the Dean of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Chicago, where he gained a broad experience in ecclesial and pastoral work—from helping couples plan their weddings, to filing baptism paperwork, to handling the day-to-day affairs of the Cathedral. The Yorks were also increasingly active in the life of their parish: serving on parish council, supporting the parish’s outreach ministries, and serving in the altar.
In the Fall of 2021, the York family left their home in Chicago and moved to South Canaan, Pennsylvania to begin their time at St Tikhon’s Seminary, where Fr. John is expected to graduate in 2024. They have three young children: Genevieve, Emilia, and Alban.
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