Subdeacon Khalil G. Samara, Youth Director

Subdeacon Khalil G. Samara was born (1976) and raised in Shrewsbury, MA. Khalil was baptized and raised at St. George Cathedral in Worcester, MA. He received his B. S. from the Boston College Carroll School of Management with a concentration in Computer Science. While at Boston College, Khalil began his work with youth by spending his summers at the Antiochian Village in Ligonier, PA, working as a counselor, Head Counselor, and Assistant Camp Director. In 1995, the Youth Department of the Antiochian Archdiocese selected Khalil to serve as the first Regional Youth Director for the New England Region Teen SOYO. 

After graduation from Boston College in 1998, Khalil moved to Arlington, VA, and worked as a Systems Analyst for American Management Systems in Fairfax, VA. While in the Washington, DC area, Khalil attended Ss. Peter & Paul Church in Potomac, MD and volunteered as the Teen SOYO Advisor there. In January of 2000, the Antiochian Village was looking to hire a full time Assistant Camp Director, and Khalil was blessed with this opportunity. As Assistant Camp Director, Khalil helped to develop new programs at the Village including Winter Camp and Family Camp. In 2001 and 2002, he had the blessing to participate on two Real Break short-term mission trips sponsored by the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) to the Hogar Rafael Ayau orphanage in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and to Project Mexico in Tijuana, Mexico.

In the fall of 2002, Khalil received a blessing from His Eminence Metropolitan Philip to attend Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA. While at seminary, Khalil was assigned as the seminarian for St. George Church of Boston. After his first year, he was asked to work part-time as the Youth Director focusing his ministry on the teens of the parish. Khalil was tonsured a reader by His Grace Bishop Basil of Wichita on October 31, 2003, at Great Vespers for the feast of St. Raphael of Brooklyn. Two days later, Bishop Basil tonsured Khalil a subdeacon at his home parish,  St. George Cathedral in Worcester.  In May of 2005, Khalil graduated with a Master of Divinity from Holy Cross, and received a Certificate in Youth and Young Adult Ministry Studies from the Boston Theological Institute. His Eminence then assigned Khalil to the Antiochian Village where he split his duies between Program Director at the Village and Assistant Director of the Department of Camping with oversight of the eight camping programs in the Archdiocese.

In November of 2007, Khalil returned home to Boston to assume full-time responsibilities here at St. George Church as the Youth Director. He currently lives in Roslindale with his Labrador Retriever named Fenway. Khalil is excited to be back in Red Sox nation  and to be working with the young people of St. George again!