Welcome Abouna Ghassan & Khouriye Amal!

In March we announced the joyful news that His Eminence Metropolitan +JOSEPH had appointed Fr. Ghassan Haddad of Lebanon to serve as our assistant priest effective 1 July.  Due to unavoidable COVID circumstances his arrival here was delayed.  We officially welcomed Abouna Ghassan and Kh. Amal to St. George on Sunday 13 September at the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Holy Cross with His Grace Bishop +JOHN presiding. Their combined experience and exceptional talents are a welcomed addition to our pastoral ministry and community life as we continue to work together to ‘build up’ God’s holy church.

Video Links from Fr. Ghassan's welcome:

Matins & Divine Liturgy - Sunday, September 13

Bishop JOHN's sermon and welcome

Procession of the Cross

Abouna Ghassan, Metropolitan Silouan, Khouriye Amal

Father Ghassan Haddad: Born on December 5th, 1965, Father Ghassan attended several schools in Beirut, Lebanon during his formative years. From 1983 to 1987, he majored in Mathematics and Electronic Telecommunication at the Lebanese University. He studied theology at the Theology institute of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Beirut, from 1991 until 1993. He received a degree in History from the Lebanese University in 2005. He was appointed as sub-deacon on January 17th, 1994 and was ordained to deacon on May 11th of the same year. He was then ordained as priest at the Ain Dara Orthodox parish about 4 months later, on September the 4th. In addition to his role in Ain Dara, he became priest of the St. Elias Aghmid Orthodox parish in 1996. In 1996, he also became the principal of the Orthodox School of Ain Dara. He was also assigned the responsibility of rebuilding (or restoring) several churches of Mount Lebanon, namely the church of St. Peter and Paul of Saoufar in 2000, Our Lady of Deliverance of Deir al Kamar and St. Elias Church in Ramlieh in 2005, St. George of Btater in 2010 and St. George of Kfarmatta in 2011. He served as priest for all the aforementioned churches up until he left Lebanon in 2020, except for St. George of Kfarmatta, which was assigned to another priest in 2015.

Khouriye Amal Haddad: Born in Ain Dara, Lebanon, on January 29th, 1976. She worked as a French teacher at the Orthodox School in Ain Dara, from 1995 to 2020.She received a French teaching degree from the French Ministry of National Education and Research in France having completed extensive coursework and on-the-job training in Lebanon and in France. Khouriye Amal is also a Byzanitne chanter, having performed with the choir of the School of Ecclesiastical Music of Mount Lebanon (SEM) and the Antiochian Kithara Byzantine Anthems Choir.

 

 

 

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