Father Samer Youssef was assigned to the Church of the Redeemer by His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP in January 2000. This occurred upon the retirement of Father Tom. Father Samer is originally from a suburb of Damascus, Sehnaia, in Syria. Sehnaia is not far from the place where St. Paul, on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians, was blinded and the voice of Jesus said to him “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:3-6). Father Samer graduated in 1997 from Holy Cross School of Theology with a Masters of Divinity Degree. He was assigned to St. Nicholas Cathedral in Los Angeles, where he directed the youth program. He was ordained to the Diaconate by the Laying on of Hands of His Grace Bishop JOSEPH in 1998, and to the priesthood by His Beatitude Patriarch IGNATIUS IV on 25th of July, 1999 at the Archdiocese Convention in Chicago (St. George, The Shrine of the Weeping Icon). After the arson that befell the Church of the Redeemer, Fr. Samer was invited to the Unites States House of Representatives in 2002 as a Guest Chaplain to offer an opening prayer and serve as a witness of forgiveness. In 2017, he received his Doctorate of Ministry from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Fr. Samer is married to Khourieh Julianna and they have three children: Dimitry, Damian and Dominic.
