For the new bishop of the Antiochean Orthodox Christian Archdiocese

Born in Indiana and raised a Roman Catholic, His Grace Mark Maymon is the first convert to be elevated to the rank of bishop in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. He will oversee the diocese’s nearly 50 parishes in 10 states, which include St. George Cathedral and St. Elias Church in Sylvania. Bishop Mark, who was consecrated in a ceremony in December in Damascus by Patriarch Ignatius IV, now oversees one of the largest and oldest dioceses in the United States. It encompasses parishes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

The new bishop of Toledo and the Midwest Diocese attended Indiana University South East, then transferred to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla. He graduated from Oral Roberts with a bachelor of arts degree in biblical literature and a minor in business administration in 1985.

He then went on to complete a master’s degree in biblical literature from Oral Roberts, graduating with honors and earning the distinction of the Old Testament Student of the Year.

It was during his studies at Oral Roberts that Bishop Mark says that he first became interested in Eastern Orthodoxy and he converted from Catholicism after joining the faculty at Oral Roberts.

More knowledgeable folks please correct me, but the Antiochean Orthodox group, while it has European roots, is the more Western end of Orthodoxy in America, not in traditional practices, of course, but in membership, having, for example a major influx of former evangelicals as a part of its membership in the late 1980’s. It’s Frederica Mathews-Greene’s church.