Leadership

Metropolitan SABA (Isper)

His Eminence, the Most Reverend Saba Isper is the Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East and the Holy Synod of Antioch elected His Eminence to lead the Archdiocese during its extraordinary session on Feb. 23, 2023, in Balamand, Lebanon.

His Eminence will lead and oversee the Archdiocese's parishes, missions, departments, institutions and organizations in the United States and Canada from the headquarters in Englewood, New Jersey. The auxiliary bishops aid him in his administration across the continent.

Metropolitan Saba was born in Latakia, Syria in 1959. He holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Tishreen in Latakia, and a bachelor's degree in theology from the St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology in Balamand. His Eminence is fluent in Arabic and English.

Prior to his election as Metropolitan of North America, His Eminence cofounded The Hauran Connection with the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America. This charitable project enhances Orthodoxy in this ancient Christian land in the face of strife. More than $1 million has been raised since 2007.

Developmental projects and charitable endowments for the Bosra Archdiocese under Metropolitan Saba include a medical clinic in As-Suwayda, dormitories for 150 university students in As-Suwayda and Daraa; 48 studios for retirees in The House of Love; the Bethany Spiritual Retreat Center in Kharaba; Bread for All that distributes food to the poor regardless of religion; ongoing agricultural projects; and The Good Samaritan, a multifaceted charitable organization for parishioners displaced or affected by the recent Syrian war.

His Eminence was ordained a priest in 1988 and elevated to the dignity of archimandrite in 1994. He pastored St. Michael the Archangel Church in the Archdiocese of Latakia until 1998. During that time, Metropolitan Saba edited and published the Orthodox Christian magazine Farah geared toward children and families.

In 1998, Metropolitan Saba was elected and consecrated as an auxiliary bishop to His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius IV of thrice-blessed memory. In 1999, His Beatitude and the Holy Synod of Antioch elected him as metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Bosra, Hauran and Jabal Al-Arab in Syria.

Simultaneously with his pastoral and episcopal duties, from 1995-2006, His Eminence served as instructor of Pastoral Care and Introduction to the Old Testament at the St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology in Balamand.

His Eminence established a publishing house in the Bosra Archdiocese, the Al-Arabiya magazine for adults, and continued issuing Farah for children. An English version has been produced since 2010. Metropolitan Saba authors weekly articles on his Facebook page and has written on various topics in Al-Noor, Patriarchal and Al Arabiyamagazines. He has authored a number of books in pastoral life and theology.

Metropolitan Saba has also translated a number of titles from English to Arabic, including works by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev and Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko.

His Eminence's patron saint is St. Saba (Sabbas) the Sanctified, commemorated on Dec. 5.

Fr. Jeremiah Vollman

Fr. Jeremiah is the pastor of our parish. He is from a small town in Northern California. Through his upbringing he was involved in Christian activities and leadership, in his adolescence he considered that he might be interested in church ministry “someday,” and hid this consideration in his heart.

Fr. Jeremiah attended Simpson University, a private Christian school, where he was a student of Bible and Theology. During this course of study his involvement in various ministry activities continued; he became involved in campus worship ministry, was involved in serving the homeless, and reaching out to youth and young-adult counter-culture. He was also involved in leading weekend retreats for groups of college students seeking to apply spiritual disciplines to their lives in an effort to cultivate a more profound ‘intimacy with God.’

The communal context of the learning environment provided opportunity for reflection upon the communal nature of the church, especially from a biblical perspective, and the obvious discontinuity between the “Ecclesia” of the New Testament and the church that he had experienced in his upbringing. In his studies he began to naturally develop a stronger incarnational and, therefore, sacramental view of the Church of Christ, often writing on the themes of the “present reality of the Kingdom of God,” and the call of Christians to an inextricable unity by virtue of life in Christ lived out by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

During his latter years in college he attended a conservative Episcopal church, and also became best friends with the woman who was to become his wife—now Kh. Kara Vollman. After graduating from college they moved to Seattle where he continued working with youth and also embarked on self-directed studies in the history of Christianity in an attempt to discern where he belonged in the midst of the complex lineage leading up to contemporary Evangelicalism. These toilsome and prayerful studies resulted in an interest in the Orthodox Church, the reading of various Orthodox writers, and eventually the pursuit of becoming Orthodox.

By grace, Fr. Jeremiah and Kh. Kara became inquirers at St. Paul Orthodox Church, where they were catechized and received into the Holy Orthodoxy on Lazarus Saturday, 2007. Over the years Fr. Jeremiah was especially drawn to the liturgical life of the Church and became a cantor, choir member, choir director, and acolyte. Fr. Jeremiah was tonsured as a Reader in 2009, was elevated to the Subdeaconate on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, 2013, completed his education with the Antiochian House of Studies in 2014, was ordained to the holy diaconate in August 2015, and to the Holy Priesthood in Febuary 2017, at the hands of His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH.

In his words: “As we continue this sojourn of life on earth, I can humbly and sincerely state that I have no greater desire than to be a servant of the people of God, to bow low and to wash their feet, to become an agent of grace as a pastor, teacher, and steward of the Holy Mysteries. From the moment I fell in love with our Lord he enlarged my heart, such that I find no greater joy than that which comes from seeking to do the will of our Lord – serving Him, whose very body is the Church.”