Father Barnabas Powell, Rector
Father Barnabas was baptized a Lutheran as a baby, but subsequently received a non-religious upbringing. When he began exploring world religions as an adolescent, a desire for spiritual disciplines led one of his teachers to point him toward Islam. Taoism was also attractive, with its ethos of harmony toward the natural world and our surroundings. But he became convinced after reading the Bible (Sermon on the Mount, in particular) that Jesus is the Son of God and not merely one great teacher among others. An initial exploration of Christianity involved his ancestral Lutheranism, but also Tridentine Catholicism, Messianic Judaism and Pentecostalism. His search ultimately focused on a quest for the original Church of Acts, which he hoped would still possess the spiritual disciplines and ethos that initially attracted him to non-Christian traditions. In Orthodoxy, he certainly found this and more. After being received into the Orthodox Church in high school, he earned a BA in History before attending St. Vladimir’s Seminary. There he met his wife, Elizabeth (Lela), who was raised Serbian Orthodox in Toronto. Father Barnabas was ordained to the priesthood in 2005, and served a parish in Colorado before being assigned to St. Katherine’s in 2011. He and Protinica Lela have three children. They enjoy reading and hiking, and try to get outdoors into the beauty of God’s Creation whenever they can.

Deacon Athanasios
Deacon Athanasios was an Assemblies of God pastor before being baptized into the Orthodox Church in 2013 with his wife, Sarah Elizabeth, and their two children. His journey began in graduate school. While studying at Fuller Theological Seminary, he was first introduced to St. Athanasius’ text On the Incarnation. From there, his academic pursuits increasingly brought him into contact with Orthodox theology. After joining the church in 2013, he was tonsured a Reader in 2015, and a Subdeacon in 2017, all at St. Katherine’s.