Parish Clergy

Rev. Fr. Costas P. Keares, Presiding Priest

Voice: (440) 237-8998
Email: frcostas@stpaulgoc.org

Fr. Costas was born on the island of Kos, Greece and immigrated to the United States when he was 11 years old, and settled in Lancaster, PA. He and his twin sister Eleni are the youngest of seven children.

He graduated from McCaskey High School in Lancaster, PA, in 1981. He graduated from Hellenic College in Brookline, MA in 1987 and from Holy Cross School of Theology in 1990. 

Following graduation he served as youth director at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Camp Hill, PA.  He married Nicole Bartz in June of 1992 and was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in December of 1992 by Metropolitan Maximos.  He continued on at Holy Trinity as the assistant priest and has also served the parish of St. Spyridon in Monessen, PA. 

In 2008, Fr. Costas was assigned to our parish as the third proistamenos of our community. On Palm Sunday 2019, he was elevated to the rank of Protopresbyter by His Eminence Metropolitan Savas. Father and Presvytera Nicole have two grown children, Peter and Christina.

 

Deacon Paul

Voice: (440) 237-8998
Email: deacon@stpaulgoc.org

Deacon Paul grew up as a young child in Eastern PA attending Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Lancaster, PA. In 1984, his family moved to Pittsburgh, his home town, where he attended Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Mt. Lebanon, PA. He earned an M.A. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from The Ohio State University and graduated from Miami University, Oxford, OH with a B.S. in Organizational Behavior and a minor in Arts Management. Deacon Paul married Claudine in 1999, and they have lived and worked in Cleveland since 2001.

Music is an important part of Deacon Paul’s life. As a child growing up in Pittsburgh, he sang with the Children’s Festival Chorus and Junior Mendelssohn Choir. After moving to Cleveland he sang with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for five years and is currently a member of the Baldwin Wallace University Men’s Chorus. 

It was during a week-long visit to the Hogar Rafael Ayau in Guatemala City in 2000 that Deacon Paul first felt called to serve the Church. He pursued studies in a diaconal formation program and in 2005 graduated with a certificate from the St. Stephen’s Course of Studies in Orthodox Theology, a program of the Antiochian House of Studies. The Kirschner family joined the St. Paul community in early 2021, and on November 19, 2023, Deacon Paul was received into the Holy Diaconate at St. Paul by His Eminence Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh.

Deacon Paul lives in Brecksville, OH with his wife, Claudine, and their four children.