The Very Reverend Fr. John W. Morris, Ph.D. has assumed pastorship of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, Vicksburg. He was ordained by Archbishop Elia of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch in April of 1980 and is an Archpriest, the highest rank given to married clergy in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Fr. John has helped to establish missions and building programs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Shreveport, Louisiana and Sugar Land, Texas and has also done missionary work in the Philippine Islands for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Hong Kong. His vision of his assignment at St. George’s is to serve the Lord and His people and to reach out to all who want to make Christ the center of their lives.

 Fr. John is married to Cheryl Haun Morris, Ph.D. and has two grown children, Matthew of Shreveport, LA and Elizabeth of Huntsville, TX. He and his wife, Cheryl, converted to the Orthodox Church 28 years ago because, as professional historians, they wanted to belong to the Church founded by Christ. Father John grew up with a Methodist background and in fact, most of his male relatives were Methodist ministers. He left the Methodist Church as a teenager in search of a more historic connection with the ancient church and he became an Episcopalian.

 The 1970s brought about many changes in the Episcopal Church, as it was beginning to do with most mainline Protestant churches, so Father and Cheryl decided that it was time to “come home” to the ancient faith of the Orthodox Church. According to Cheryl, there are many things besides the historical validity, which attracted them to the Orthodox Church. “We wanted to belong to the Church founded by Christ; that Church which Christ promised the Holy Spirit would guide and guard so that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. We also wanted to belong to a Church where we were called to holiness, to grow in Christ, one where we were called to live up to God’s standards, and one that didn’t change with every passing fad or where people approached the faith like a cafeteria, where you pick and chose what you want to believe.”

 “We appreciate the emphasis upon family in the Orthodox Church and how children were not shut out of worship but encouraged to take part in. Another thing we appreciated was that, although we had both attended Christian colleges, and my husband had been an avid student of the Bible most of his life, we really never really understood the Bible until we became Orthodox and began studying it through the ancient commentators on the Bible, the Fathers, who were men who had been taught by the apostles or by those who had been taught by the apostles.”

 Fr. John received his B.A. from Oklahoma City University, his M.A. and Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University and Master of Theology degree from Holy Cross Orthodox Seminary, Brookline, Massachusetts, all with highest honors. From 1971-72, he was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship and studied at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. He has taught history at Southwestern University, in Georgetown, Texas, Austin Community College in Austin, Texas, The Wentworth Institute in Boston, Indiana University Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Kent State at Stark County in Canton, Ohio. He has taught courses on Church history at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, Malone College in Canton, Ohio and the Grecho Institute of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana. Fr. John has written three books on modern German history, as well as two books on Orthodox Christianity, The Charismatic  Movement  An Orthodox Evaluation, and Orthodox Fundamentalists: A Critical View. He has also written articles for many publications including The Word and The Greek Orthodox Theological Review. He also is a commentator and article contributor for the new Orthodox study Bible which is being prepared for publication and a former member of the board of editors for THE WORD magazine.

 He is a member of the Orthodox Theological Society and serves as a representative of SCOBA (all the Orthodox bishops in America) on the Orthodox-Lutheran national dialogue. Long active in ecumenical affairs, Fr. John has served as President of the Greater Huntington West Virginia Minister’s Association, and the Greater Shreveport Louisiana Minister’s Association, as well as the Board of Directors of Churches United of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Fr. John has served on the North American Orthodox Lutheran Ecumenical Dialogue since 1984. He currently represents the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese at meetings of Christian Churches Together, a new national ecumenical organization consisting of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Main Line Protestant, Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches.

 Anyone wanting to know more about our church is welcome to attend our services or Bible study and can contact Fr. John at 601-636-2483 or email FrJohn@morris.net.