Following a Moleben prayer service in honor of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, patrons of the Byzantine Catholic Seminary, Metropolitan William of Pittsburgh conferred a diploma upon Fr. Nathan Adams as a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the Seminary on May 10, 2019. Board members, faculty, alumni, staff, family, and friends were in attendance as Fr. Nathan received his diploma. Alumnus, Fr. Stephen Casmus, delivered a brief address. A luncheon honoring the graduate was held after the service in the Seminary refectory.
Prior to his entrance into the Seminary, having been employed in security, as a college instructor, a dairy farm worker, and an outreach intern at a mega church, as well as training for the priesthood in the Anglican Church, Nathan Adams was received along with his wife, Ali, into the Byzantine Catholic Church at Holy Resurrection Monastery in 2013; they had been married in 2004, and are now parents to five girls, aged 10, 8, 5, 3 and 1.
The completion of Fr. Nathan’s fourth and final year of theology at the Seminary gives occasion for us to rejoice in his persistence along a sometimes long and winding path. The father of five daughters, he said regarding his wife, Ali, “When we first met each other and got married we both desired to be missionaries. So this is really the fulfillment of what we’ve long been training for — to bring the Word of God to the world. This is an opportunity I believe that Christ has decided to give us out of his great kindness, that is, to be a part of what he is doing to bring his name and his presence to others.”
The Seminary extends its congratulations to Fr. Nathan, Ali, and their children, and assures them of our prayerful support as he assumes his first pastoral assignment at St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Parish and School in Cleveland, where he is set to begin after they move from Pittsburgh in early June.