450 Memorial Drive, Chicopee, MA 01020 Fr. Jacob · (413) 244-0543 Divine Liturgy · Sundays 9:00 a.m.
Saint Philaret of New York, the New Confessor

The Parish

Our Clergy

His Eminence Metropolitan Demetrius of America in monastic riassa and klobuk, wearing a panagia and holding his staff

His Eminence Metropolitan Demetrius of America

Ruling hierarch of the Diocese of Boston · President of the Eparchial Synod of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of America

The Diocese of Boston extends throughout New England, so His Eminence is this parish's own diocesan bishop, not only the presiding hierarch of the jurisdiction.

He was born Victor Kiriacou on 15/28 November 1974 in Toronto, Canada. After time in the Holy Land and on Mount Athos he entered the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration in 1994 and was tonsured with the name Demetrius. He was ordained deacon in 1999, priest in 2005, and to the episcopacy in 2006. In September 2012 he was received into the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece and elected Bishop of Boston. He was elected Metropolitan of America on 6/19 February 2014 and enthroned that May at the Cathedral of St. Markella in Astoria, New York. He is abbot of the monastery he founded in 2015, and is assisted by His Grace Bishop Christodoulos of Theoupolis.

MonasterySaint John of San Francisco Orthodox Monastery
151 Heron Road, Cobleskill, NY 12043
saintjohnsmonastery.org
Telephone(518) 254-7283
Emailinfo@saintjohnsmonastery.org
ChanceryHoly Metropolis G.O.C. of America
106 Elm Street, Cobleskill, NY 12043 · (518) 254-5170
JurisdictionChurch of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of America
Fr. Jacob Wojcik in black kamilavka and riassa

Fr. Jacob Wojcik

Rector of the parish

I was raised Roman Catholic in Russell, Massachusetts. After high school, I began searching for the one true church of our Lord, after experiencing the modernism and secularism of the Roman Catholic church. Through friends, my first introduction to Orthodoxy was in the new-calendar Greek Archdiocese, but once again, here also I experienced the same. After some time in the Greek Archdiocese I visited a traditional (old calendar) Orthodox monastery and became a catechumen.

I was baptized into the Church on Holy Thursday in 1993 at Holy Transfiguration Monastery. On the Sunday of the Paralytic in 2003 I was ordained a Deacon at the church of St. Mark of Ephesus and served at St. Philaret Church for 16 years. On the feast-day of St. Botolph of Boston in June of 2019 at the Monastery of St. John of San Francisco in Cobleskill, NY I was ordained to the holy priesthood by Metropolitan Demetrius of America and am now the rector here at St. Philaret’s.

I am now retired and blessed to have my wife, Alexandra, my son and two daughters and seven grandchildren support my ministry in the church.

Telephone(413) 244-0543
Emailfrjwoj@gmail.com
Parish450 Memorial Drive, Chicopee, MA 01020

Our Jurisdiction

The Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of America

The GOC of America is the traditionalist Orthodox Church serving the faithful of North and South America on the old (Julian) calendar. It has its roots in the Diocese of Astoria, founded by Metropolitan Petros (Astyfides) in 1954.

It now comprises two Metropolises — America and Toronto — and two dioceses, Etna and Portland, and Boston, shepherded by five hierarchs under the presidency of His Eminence Metropolitan Demetrius of America.

The Church of the GOC of America is an autonomous Eparchy whose Mother Church is the Holy Synod of the Church of the GOC of Greece, under the presidency of His Beatitude Archbishop Kallinikos of Athens and All Greece. Its bishops are also members of that Holy Synod.

This parish belongs to the Diocese of Boston, which extends throughout New England.