Charleston Chancery, 4407 Kanawha Ave. SE, Charleston, WV, 25304-1734
724-787-9832 (phone); 304-346-0146 (fax, marked "ATTN Bishop THOMAS")
Welcome to the Diocese of Charleston, Oakland, and the Mid-Atlantic, part of the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America. The Diocese of Charleston is led by His Grace Bishop THOMAS and includes more than 30 churches and missions in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Click here for a directory of all the parishes in the Diocese of Charleston.
Click here for an informational PDF for our Diocese, and click here for the make-up and deans of our deaneries.
Click here to learn more about Bishop THOMAS.
Click here to see Bishop THOMAS's schedule.
To contact Bishop THOMAS electronically, email bpthomasjoseph@gmail.com.
On March 9, 2010, His Grace Bishop THOMAS visited St. Paraskevi Monastery in Washington, Texas for the feast day of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. It was His Grace's first visit to the Monastery. Fr. Joseph Huneycutt, who serves at St. George Church in Houston, Texas, accompanied His Grace.
For more pictures, please visit Fr. Joseph Huneycutt's blog.
Click above for more photosIn the afternoon of Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010, His Grace, Bishop THOMAS, celebrated the Sunday of Orthodoxy service with His Grace, Bishop TIKHON of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania (OCA) at the Church of St. Nicholas (OCA) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Numerous area clergy and laity celebrated this service together, including a proclamation of the common faith of the Orthodox Church, as well as the traditional anathemas which Orthodoxy levels against dangerous, heretical doctrines. Five different SCOBA jurisdictions were represented among the clergy, including (besides the two bishops) eighteen priests and five deacons.
Sayidna THOMAS presented a homily before the service in which he stressed that Orthodox Christians are icons of Christ, that each of us is an ambassador of the Kingdom of God in this world, no matter our circumstances. After the liturgical service, the clergy and faithful heard a short presentation on the work of the Lehigh Valley Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood which sponsored the event and then together shared a Lenten meal.
On February 21, 2010, His Grace Bishop THOMAS visited Holy Ascension Mission in Devon, Pennsylvania for Sunday of Orthodoxy.
The Mission of St. Andrew the Apostle, Lewes, Delaware was blessed by a visit from His Grace Bishop THOMAS the weekend of December 5th–6th.
At Vespers Saturday evening Sayidna encouraged us to continue to reach out to our community with the message of Orthodoxy. We had several visitors with us at Vespers and for refreshments following.
Sayidna celebrated the first Hierarchical Divine Liturgy for St. Andrew Sunday morning with a full Church (the Grange Hall) and beautiful choir. Subdeacon Joseph Kavchok of St. Philip, Souderton, Pennsylvania and Subdeacon Jason Flowers of Holy Ascension, Frazer, Pennsylvania assisted. Our seminarian from Saint Vladimir's, Adrian Budica, was elevated to Subdeacon. Our parishioner Jack Berberian became a Reader. Refreshments for all followed at noon at the home of parishioners. After the mealtime, the youth gave an enthusiastic presentation on the life of St. Nicholas for all attending.
Bishop THOMAS writes:
Beloved in Christ,
God bless you. A blessed Feast of the Nativity of our Lord to you.
On December 3rd, I had the great pleasure to visit The King's Jubilee, a ministry that is supported by our Church of St. Philip in Souderton, Pennsylvania and that has been supported by the Archdiocese in the past through Food for Hungry People. Attached, you will find their Christmas 2009 report. It contains a nice summary of my visit with them in December. I support this ministry and encourage you to do the same. Again, a blessed Feast of the Nativity to you and to your families.
From The King's Jubilee Christmas 2009 report:
On Thursday, December 3, as planned, we commemorated St. Nicholas by giving away at least three one dollar coins to each of our “customers”. Some also went to the children who were helping us serve. We were able to give away $300 of your money in praise of the Trinity and in honor of Holy Bishop St. NICHOLAS. May God bless you.
Another bishop visited us that evening. Bishop THOMAS had arranged to be picked up at the Philadelphia Airport by Fr. Noah and delivered directly to where we serve in center city Phila. They arrived just as we were giving out the last of the hot food. We were giving out the blankets and clothes, the last of the coins and the sandwiches.
Bishop THOMAS was so excited to witness this that he got on his cell phone and called a few people that he thought would enjoy being part of it. On the way home, we stopped at Amir’s Sunoco (formerly Sammy’s). It took him a while to get out of the van, because he was busy dictating an e-mail about TKJ to go out to all the priests in the diocese.
