OFFICE OF EVANGELIZATION & RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

OFFICE OF EVANGELIZATION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

“The educational mission of the Church as Mother and Teacher is to proclaim the path to salvation and to promote growth in Christ. The Church forms and educates her children through the liturgical life; she leads them into the depths of the Christian faith through catechesis, and nurtures them with the Word of God as well as Body and Blood of Christ.” - Christ Our Pascha 953

The Office of Evangelization and Religious Education serves the Eparchy by promoting in-depth understandings of the Church’s Call to Educate her children. The Office of Religious Education does this through a number of ways including overseeing and developing materials for people of all ages, while facilitating Online Religious Education. For specifics about Faith Formation programs please our specific areas of focus.

Adult Education: Adult education, in our parishes, is admittedly quite diverse at this point. While your parish priest may choose to use several methods and/or texts for adult education, the two most common methods will focus on our Greek-Catholic catechisms as seen below.

The Light for Life series was created for all Greek-Catholics by GWU (God With Us). Christ our Pascha (COP) was created for the Ukranian Catholic Church, but is quite applicable for all Greek-Catholics, e.g. Ruthenian, Melkite, etc. “Becoming Byzantine” is a video series that supplements COP. 

  • Light for Life: a Catechetical series made for Greek-Catholics: HERE

  • Christ our Pascha: Ukranian Catechism (PDF): HERE

  • Becoming Byzantine (YouTube): HERE

Children’s Education: There are three primary methods that are used in educating our children in our church (all can be found below):

The classical method of education is primarily through God With Us. In this method, resources for each grade level are provided for catechists or parents and students. This material is covered with our children in the parish or at home.

Byzimom provides hands on education, and can be applied to any grade level/multiple grade levels. Parents may choose to educate their children at home and/or meet with a community once a month for dynamic educational experiences. This program can also be supplemented with GWU material, and vice versa.

Finally, CGS (the preferred method of the Eparchy of Phoenix), is a Montessori-like approach to education. It requires intensive training of our catechists but is well worth it if a parish has the dedication and resources.  

For information on catechetical material, video courses on Eastern Catholicism, and more, go to  God With Us  

GOD WITH US

BYZIMOM

Catechesis of the Good Shepard

Eparchial Board of Directors

Rev. Nathan Symeon Adams
Director of Religious Education and Evangelization 

Fradams@ephx.org

Rev. Nathan Symeon serves as Administrator at Our Lady of Wisdom in Las Vegas, Nevada, and as vice-chairman of the Eastern Catholic Eparchial Directors of Religious Education. He is also the Director of Religious Education and Evangelization for the Eparchy of Phoenix. He is currently working on an STL at St. Mary of the Lake Pontifical University in Dogmatic Theology. He completed a DTS with Youth With a Mission in Queensland Australia. He also received his Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical Theology from Calvary Chapel Bible College, in Murrieta, CA.; a Master of Christian Thought (MACT) from Reformed Theological Seminary, in Oviedo, FL.; a Master of Divinity (M. Div.) from the Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley, CA.; a certificate in Anglican Studies and a Master of Sacred Theology (STM) from Nashotah House Seminary in Nashotah, WI. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from SS. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA. with a Master of Arts in Theology (MAT). He and his wife have been married for 18 years and have five daughters. You can join Fr. Nathan on his podcast at SEARCHERS OF THE LOST: ORTHODOX-CATHOLIC PODCAST

Rev. Michael O’Loughlin
Assistant Director of Evangelization  

Froloughlin@ephx.org 

Father Michael O’Loughlin was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM and grew up a faithful Roman Catholic.  He discovered the Byzantine Catholic Church, along with his parents and four siblings, when he was in in high school.  He attended the Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh and was ordained a priest for the Eparchy of Phoenix in 2005.  He has served on Eparchial committees for vocations, youth and young adult, and evangelization.  Father Michael is very passionate about sharing the beauty of the faith with those he encounters in his daily life, especially the unchurched.  He has shared his love of the church in various media programs and currently has a podcast with Mother Natalia of Christ the Bridegroom Monastery called ”What God is Not” on YouTube.  He serves as the pastor of St. Mary’s Proto-Cathedral in Los Angeles and a Byzantine Catholic Outreach in Santa Paula, CA. 

Rev. Daniel Dozier, MA, MATS 
Assistant Director of Evangelization  

Frdozier@ephx.org 

Fr. Daniel Dozier is a Byzantine Catholic priest and pastor of St. George Byzantine Catholic Church in Olympia, WA. He is a father and grandfather and the son of a Ukrainian Catholic deacon. In 2008, he was ordained at St. Josaphat Cathedral in Parma, OH, and was ordained a priest in 2020 at St. Stephen Cathedral in Phoenix, AZ.   

He is an Associate Professor of Sacred Scripture at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh, and an Academic Associate of Catholic Leadership at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also a member of the Eastern Catholic Eparchial Directors of Religious Education (ECED), under the authority of the Eastern Catholic Associates of the USCCB.   

He has a B.A. in Theology from Franciscan University, an M.A. in Organizational Leadership from Bethel University and an M.A.T.S. in Biblical Exposition from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. He is both a retreat and conference speaker and a published author and co-author, including the books 20 Answers on Eastern Catholicism (Catholic Answers), The Twelve Great Feasts of the Messiah and the Mother of God (Eastern Christian Publications), The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: Classics Made Simple (TAN Books), and Orthodoxy and Catholicism: A Comparison (Co-authored with Dave Armstrong), as well as articles in Eastern Churches Journal and Sophia Journal. He is also a regular columnist for Our Sunday Visitor’s Deacon Digest.  

Father Daniel is also the co-host of the Becoming Byzantine Christ Our Pascha series in partnership with the Eparchy of Phoenix and the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute.  

You can access the 20 Answers on Eastern Catholicism HERE.

You can access the Becoming Byzantine podcasts HERE.