Our Clergy and Staff

Our Clergy and Pastoral Staff

Welcome Father Gregory Gilbert, Presiding Priest 

 

Father Gregory grew up as a Southern Baptist in eastern Tennessee, but encountered the ancient faith of the Orthodox Church while attending Davidson College in North Carolina. He majored in the classics and found himself fascinated with the writings of the early church fathers and the descriptions of Christianity in their day, which he could read in Koine Greek, their native tongue.

After college, as a teacher of Latin at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, Fr. Gregory began attending services at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. There, he observed church practices that he now recalls as "shocking” to him: seeing believers venerating objects, hearing chants from the first millennium, and listening to sermons that lasted a mere 15 minutes (instead of the usual hour!).

As he began tentatively practicing Orthodox rituals and learning more about church history, he felt his faith growing. He eventually came to believe in the Orthodox Church's authenticity. Then, he came St. Vladimir's Seminary, but mainly as an intellectual pursuit, since he still planned to become a college professor.

During his first day here on our seminary campus, he surprised himself by kissing an icon in Three Hierarchs Chapel. "That was the moment,” he said, “that I knew I'd crossed the Rubicon.” Eventually, Fr. Gregory converted to the Orthodox faith, along with his wife, Rachel; they were chrismated in 2002, on the Feast of St. Nicholas in the Seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel.

After completing his seminary studies, Fr. Gregory traveled throughout Greece and then earned a doctorate in Greek and Latin studies at the Catholic University of America. He was ordained a deacon, and then elevated to the priesthood in 2015. Father Gregory and Presvytera Rachel are raising their five children to speak Greek and English.

Bobby Koykas