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.