Biography

Fr Steve was born in 1953 to a godly family in the Reformed Church. He earned a BRE, Bachelor of  Religious Education, at Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids, MI where he and his wife Susan met. From there he studied his first two years of seminary at the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi and transferred his last year to Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI where he was awarded his M.Div. He was then ordained at his home church in Allendale, MI. 

He began his pastoral work as an Associate Pastor at Community Reformed in Clearwater, FL. After a couple of years, he and Susan were appointed as missionaries of the Reformed Church to work with the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico to begin a church planting assignment among the native Tzeltal Indians in Amatenango, Chiapas, Mexico. They worked closely with Christians from neighboring tribes while they studied the local Indian language and culture. After seven years, the work was left in the capable hands of Tzeltal Christians who with God’s blessing established a thriving church in Amatenango. 

During their seven years in Amatenango, Fr. Steve took post graduate studies in missiology at Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission. He then continued studies at Calvin  Theological Seminary while serving as pastor at Servants Community Reformed Church for  seven years. 

Fr. Steve and Kh. Susan became Orthodox Christians in 1998 when they were received at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Grand Rapids, MI under the pastorate of the Archpriest Fr. John Estefan. After a few years, Fr. Steve was awarded a certificate of Orthodox  Studies from the St. Stephen’s Course in Orthodox Theology under the Antiochian House of  Studies. He was ordained a priest in 2003 and was sent as a missionary to Ecuador for two  years. After this, he and Kh Sue came home to St George where he served as priest for a partial year and was then sent to serve a mission parish in Ann Arbor MI for several years. Then they returned to the Grand Rapids area where he served for several years alongside Fr Gregory Hogg in Dorr and then as Sr. priest at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Muskegon, MI. 

During this time he began working to establish Saint Willibrord Orthodox Mission in Holland, MI  and after ten years he retired in 2021. He was assigned as Emeritus Priest by Bishop Anthony  to Saint George in Grand Rapids, MI. On September 17, 2023, Bishop Anthony elevated Fr. Steve to be an Archpriest.

Deacon Andrew has served at St. George’s since his ordination to the Diaconate, on September 18, 2022. He was ordained by His Grace Bishop ANTHONY (then Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest). Dcn. Andrew was raised and currently lives in Grand Rapids, MI with his wife Shamassy Meggan. Dcn. Andrew and Sh. Meggan have three children: Madeline, Milo, and Ezra. 

Having been raised in a Roman Catholic family, he found his spiritual home in the Holy Orthodox Church, where he was received through the Sacrament of Holy Chrismation during the Spring of 2001. This took place at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church, also in Grand Rapids. Since that time, Dcn. Andrew has served the Church in various ways, that ultimately culminated in enrolling in the St. Stephen’s Course at the Antiochian House of Studies, from where he graduated in 2020.