Our Clergy
The Very Rev. Fr. Donald (Nectarios) Hock has served as Pastor of St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska since 1992. His background and spiritual journey to Orthodoxy began as a Roman Catholic and later as an Evangelical Christian. Fr. Don & his wife Maggie began their ministry as Evangelical missionaries in western Europe and returned home from the field to begin a thirteen year journey which culminated in entering the Holy Orthodox Church in 1987 with a group of Evangelicals who were seeking the fullness of the Orthodox Faith.
Father Don holds a B.A. in Organizational Management from Concordia University and an M.Th. from Creighton University. He has also studied at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. Over the years he has served in various capacities in the Antiochian Archdiocese and the Diocese of Wichita, including Spiritual Advisor for the Department of Youth Ministry and the Fellowship of St. John the Divine; the Diocesan Presbyter’s Council, and currently as Dean of the Great Plains Deanery in the Wichita Diocese. He has authored articles for the Word and Again magazines and the Orthodox Study Bible project, and has prepared catechism lessons for use throughout the Archdiocese. In October, 2010, Fr. Don experienced the glorious blessing of travelling to India with OCMC as a missionary teaching catechetical seminars to the Orthodox faithful and other seekers there.
Father and his wife Kh. Maggie have been married for 38 years and have served Christ together throughout their married life. They have five children (one reposed in Christ) and six grandchildren.
Fr. Peter Maris was ordained a priest by His Grace Bishop THOMAS on Christmas Day in 2021. He completed the three-year St. Stephen’s program in 2010 and served as Deacon for 11 years at Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Linthicum, MD, while also working as a network engineer for a telecom company in northern Virginia.
Although he was baptized and chrismated in the Greek Orthodox Church as an infant, his family worshipped as Protestants in the Chicagoland area for many years. Before “coming home” to Orthodoxy on Lazarus Saturday 2007, Fr. Peter received his Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was engaged in pastoral ministry for 13 years.
His pastoral experience includes second generation ministries in both Korean and Chinese contexts, pre-marital counseling, writing and teaching catechism, instruction in Scripture, small group ministry, and preaching. He met his wife and partner in ministry, Khouria Jeanine, at Moody Bible Institute and they married in Omaha in October of 1989.