Our Church Leadership
Church Council:
President: Joe Nagy
Secretary: Popadia Julie Duesenberry
Treasurer: Janine Mentzer
Trustee: Matushka Sharon Duesenberry
Archbishop Alexander
Archbishop of Bulgarian Diocese
Archbishop Alexander (Golitzin) was born in Burbank, CA in 1948 and raised attending Saint Innocent Church, Tarzana, CA. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of Divinity degree from Saint Vladimir’s Seminary. He spent seven years pursuing doctoral studies at Oxford University in England under His Eminence, Metropolitan Kallistos [Ware]. During this time, he also spent two years in Greece, including one year at Simonos Petras Monastery on Mount Athos.
After receiving his D.Phil. in 1980, Archbishop Alexander returned to the US. He was ordained to the diaconate in January 1982 and to the priesthood two years later. In 1986, he was tonsured to monastic orders. He served OCA missions in northern California and headed the Diocese of the West’s mission committee.
In 1989, Archbishop Alexander took a teaching position with the Theology Department at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, a position that he left at the end of April 2012. While teaching at Marquette University, he had been attached to Saints Cyril and Methodius Church, Milwaukee, WI. For 22 years, he preached, taught and served at Saints Cyril and Methodius Church, and witnessed to the Gospel and to Orthodox Christian theology at Marquette University. He helped attract a dozen Orthodox Christian students to doctoral work in theology at Marquette.
In June 2010, the Bulgarian Diocese initiated a search for a candidate to succeed His Eminence, Archbishop Kirill who reposed in the Lord in 2007. “Of the 22 possible candidates reviewed in the first phase of the search, after an intensive review process, two candidates were presented to the diocese’s Fifth Congress-Sobor in June 2011,” noted the diocesan Consecration Committee Chair, Archpriest Andrew Jarmus. “Bishop Alexander was the candidate elected by the Congress-Sobor’s clergy and lay delegates.”
In October 2011, the members of the OCA’s Holy Synod of Bishops elected Archimandrite Alexander Bishop of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese.
On Saturday, May 5, 2012, he was consecrated Bishop of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese during a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at Saint George Orthodox Cathedral in Rossford, OH.
Bishop Alexander becomes the second Bishop of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese. He succeeds His Eminence, the late Archbishop Kirill [Yonchev]. Archbishop Kirill had overseen the diocese from 1964 to 2007; in 1976, Archbishop Kirill had brought the diocese under the omophorion of the Orthodox Church in America.
On March 30, 2016, Bishop Alexander was elected Bishop of Dallas, the South and the Bulgarian Diocese.
During the 2017 Spring Session of the Holy Synod, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.
Father Stephen Duesenberry
Priest
Father Stephen Duesenberry is a native of Aliquippa, PA. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1995. Following ordination, he served as a parish priest in Erie, PA for three years. Father Stephen was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy in 1999 and continued on active duty until 2021 when he retired with the grade of Captain. He made numerous deployments during his Navy career, including two deployments on aircraft carriers and three deployments to Afghanistan. His higher education background includes earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Divinity from Saint Vladimir's Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry from the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia. Father Stephen is married to Sharon Christoff of Youngstown, OH. They have one daughter, Alexandra, a teacher in the Department of Defense Education Activity school system.