Father Gregory S. Patsis
Biographical Sketch
Father Gregory was born here locally in the Mid-Hudson River Valley to Angelos (Evangelos) and Angelika Patsis (nèeFefe); the third of four children. Intending to stay only one year on a student-visa, Angelos and Angelika quickly changed their plans when they fell in love with this country. They were granted a permanent visa and after finishing their studies, they would settle in New Paltz where Angelos became a professor at SUNY New Paltz and chaired the Chemistry Department for twenty-five years until his retirement.
Father Gregory’s home parish was St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Newburgh where he would serve on the Parish Council just prior to his calling to the priesthood in the early 2000’s. At the seminary, Father Gregory was ordained to the Diaconate in 2005 by Bishop Dimitrios of Xanthos and was ordained to the priesthood a year and a half later in October of 2006 by Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. As a deacon, Fr. Gregory had the blessing to serve liturgies at the Chapel of St. Andrew at the Halki Theological Seminary in Constantinople, the Monastery of Vatopaidi on Mt. Athos and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Island of Patmos.
After serving different communities for the GOA, Father Gregory was granted his release from the GOA in 2017 to be accepted by His Eminence Hilarion, Metropolitan of the Eastern American Diocese and First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad (ROCOR).
With the many entrepreneurial skills obtained prior to his calling to the priesthood, Fr. Gregory has consistently applied these and other gifts to instill an evangelical zeal in the life of the communities he has served. As the perfect receptacle of the true and unblemished Apostolic and Catholic Faith, Fr. Gregory appreciates that Holy Orthodoxy is firmly founded on sound dogma that allows the Church to be “More Evangelical than the Evangelicals and More Pentecostal than the Pentecostals.” It is his firm belief in the Holy Orthodox Church that guides Fr. Gregory and gives zeal to his missionary activities.
Father Gregory is married to the beautiful and talented Presvytera Alexis (nèeNubile) who is a New York girl herself having been born in New Rochelle and raised in Larchmont in Westchester County. Among Presvytera Alexis’ many talents and interests are classical piano performance, photography and bringing people together from all parts of the planet on her community Google+ site. Presvytera Alexis and Father Gregory are blessed to have two very talented and gifted children, Evangelos and Antonios, who are a great source of blessings to them as parents and to the community that has gotten to know them.
May God bless you and may He continue to preserve your health and the health of your families!