His Grace, The Most Reverend
Bishop John of Woodside, New York

His Grace, Bishop John of Woodside, New York, was born on November 24, 1956, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to devout Catholic parents of Polish and Western Ukrainian descent. At birth, he was gravely ill due to a serious blood condition, yet was mercifully preserved by God. His maternal grandmother, Anastasia—a pious Uniate Christian from Western Ukraine—played a formative role in shaping his early spiritual awareness and became a lasting influence on both his mother and himself.
He received his elementary education in Catholic parochial school and completed high school in the public school system, graduating in 1974. Initially drawn to journalism and social work, he pursued a major in psychology at university. However, disenchanted with the dominance of Behaviorist ideology in academic psychology at the time, he left his studies and spent four years working in a factory while undergoing a profound personal and spiritual reawakening.
During this period of interior transformation, he undertook a deliberate and disciplined reform of his entire life—socially, intellectually, and spiritually. The writings of Dostoyevsky, particularly Crime and Punishment, awakened in him a hunger for transcendent truth and confirmed in his soul the conviction that a serious spiritual life is essential to being fully human.
In 1984, after the factory closed, he moved to New York City and enrolled in nursing school, graduating in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. He specialized in psychiatric care, where he discovered a calling to minister to the suffering of both mind and soul. Around this time, he began to discern more deeply between Roman Catholicism, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic tradition, and Orthodox Christianity.
It was through divine providence that he met his future godparent while working at the hospital. On the Feast of the Holy Protection in 1989, he was baptized into the Orthodox Church by Fr. Adrian at the ROCOR parish of the Holy Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. Immediately after his baptism, he was called to serve in the parish choir, becoming its director in 1991. The following year, he was tonsured a reader by Bishop Gregory Grabbe.
In 1999, Fr. Adrian departed ROCOR and entered into communion with the Holy Orthodox Church of North America (HOCNA), a decision that Bishop John embraced wholeheartedly. Trusting in the spiritual discernment of his pastor and drawn by the spiritual sobriety and Patristic fidelity of the fathers at Holy Transfiguration Monastery, he followed without hesitation. He aided in the founding of Holy Ascension Skete, though he soon returned to New York City to continue his hospital ministry and serve at St. Tatiana’s Orthodox Church in Queens.
On August 7 (Old Style), 2005, he was tonsured a monk by Fr. Isaac at Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Three weeks later, on August 29 (Old Style), he was ordained to the Holy Diaconate by Metropolitan Ephraim at St. Tatiana’s Church. He served faithfully as a deacon until January 1 (Old Style), 2018, when he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood at St. Mark’s and returned to St. Tatiana’s to serve as its parish priest.
Having retired from professional nursing in 2020, he devoted himself more fully to his priestly ministry. Since 2022, he has extended his pastoral outreach through a prison ministry, regularly visiting incarcerated individuals and bringing them the Holy Mysteries with care and compassion.
Through a life marked by perseverance, humility, and fidelity to the Orthodox faith, His Grace Bishop John continues to labor quietly but steadfastly in the vineyard of Christ, offering spiritual healing, liturgical service, and pastoral care to the faithful entrusted to him.