Archpriest Gabriel Weller
Father Gabriel Weller our Archpriest was ordained by Bishop GEORGE with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan HILARION. Father Gabriel was born here in the Shenandoah Valley. He spent many of his early years in Va. Beach but returned to the Valley in 1979. After many failures in life, He gave his life to the Lord and became very active in the protestant church. He had been a church leader in the United Church of Christ and the Methodist Church since his late twenties, serving in many capacities including Deacon, Elder, Church President, Youth Pastor and also served as Certified Lay Speaker, Choir Member and Youth Leader. He attended Seminary at Eastern Mennonite University with the encouragement of his pastor, but before completing his studies became frustrated with a growing perception of liberalism and other issues in the Protestant Churches he had known. He encountered Orthodox Christianity through his wife and her brother, Archpriest John Moses. He came to realize he could not go back to Protestantism because of the lack of True worship. He has served in the Altar continuously since his baptism, and was the Warden of All Saints of North America for two years. He was ordained to the Diaconate by His Grace Bishop Gabriel Chemodakovon before the feast of the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Creating Cross, and was ordained to the Priesthood at the Feast of the Adoration of the Cross by His Grace Bishop George Schaefer. His wife is Matushka Tatiana and has lived all her life in and around Waynesboro Va. |
Archpriest John Moses
Father John founded the former All Saints of North American Russia Orthodox Church in nearby Middlebrook and was an active blogger in Ramblings of a Redneck Priest. Father John led the All Saints congregation into a single, combined church on October 12, 2013. Fr. John reposed on July 25, 2019 and here is a summary of his life and work. May his memory be eternal.
Fr Richard Reed
Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), assigned Rev. Fr. Richard Reed to Holy Myrrhbearers Christian Orthodox Church in January 2019. Fr Richard was received into ROCOR, and was ordained to the diaconate and to the priesthood, in June of 2012 by Bishop Jerome, as a Western Rite Priest. In 2013, he was assigned to St Joseph Of Optina Russian Orthodox Church in Virginia Beach, VA, an Eastern Rite parish, and became their Rector, before being reassigned to Holy Myrrhbearers in 2019. Fr Richard is married to Matushka Mary Magdalene (Carol). They have two children who are married and have twelve grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He is Retired Navy, having served first with the US Army Reserves, and then as an enlisted Naval Hospital Corpsman. In 1986, he received a commission as a Medical Service Corps Officer. His duties included serving as a Hospital Corpsman and a Health Care Administrator in a variety of commands with the US Navy and Marine Corps; in such places as Okinawa, several duty stations in California, Texas, various commands in the Tidewater area of Virginia and at Camp Lejeune, NC. |
He was also with a USMC Surgical Support Hospital in Desert Storm/Shield. Fr Richard has a Masters of Health Administration from MCV, and a Masters of Divinity from Logos Christian College and Graduate Schools and a MDiv from Holy Resurrection Orthodox Seminary. He has also completed five units of Clinical Pastoral Education and has served as a Chaplain in hospitals and hospices from 2001 - 2011. Fr Richard also served as a Missionary in Southern Sudan in 2002 and on a medical team, as a surgical technician, in Honduras in 2003.
Father Deacon Nektary
Father Deacon Thomas