
Deacon Phillip Dage

Home Parish: St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, Detroit, MI
Seminary: St. Tikhon’s Seminary
Year & Program: 3rd year M.Div.
Deacon 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, OCA Cathedral in Detroit, MI. Phillip continues to be a member at SSPP, where he was tonsured a Reader 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 Orthodox Church (OCA), Poulsbo, WA.
Deacon Jared Ries

Home Parish: St. Innocent Church Olmsted, OH
Seminary: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Year & Program: 3rd year M.Div.
Deacon Jared was born in Kentucky before moving to Cleveland, Ohio at a young age. He was raised Protestant before converting to Orthodoxy with his family in 2008, when he was 10 years old. At his home parish of St. Innocent in Olmsted Township, OH, Jared served as parish sacristan for 4 years. He attended Cleveland State University, attaining a BA in Psychology. Jared was then in the field of social work for 2 years, where he worked in mental health case management, servicing individuals with severe mental health diagnoses. When the time came for him to consider options for graduate study, Jared 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.
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 will begin the next chapter of their lives at St. Tikhon’s 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 as a pastor in Protestant churches, a Christian Studies educator in a secondary school, as deacon-in-charge for an Anglican mission in a nursing home, and as deacon/priest-candidate in an Anglican parish. More recently, Paisios has worked as a software engineer, but after completing a diaconate course of study with Fr. Silviu Bunta and following the counsel of his spiritual father, he and his wife agreed to pursue seminary studies. As of 2022, Paisios has been married to Sophia for 13 years and they have two daughters, Candice and Zenaida. He is enrolled in the Master of Divinity program at SVS and hopes to graduate in 2025.
Deacon John York

Home Parish: Christ the Savior Church, Chicago, IL
Seminary: St. Tikhon’s Seminary
Year & Program: 3rd year M.Div.
Deacon John and Matushka Karina originally met as students at Duke University, where they completed their undergraduate education. After graduation, Dn. John moved to Chicago, IL where he completed a graduate 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.
Dn. 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 Dn. John is expected to graduate in 2024. They have three young children: Genevieve, Emilia, and Alban.
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