Father Jon Braun
Fr. Jon grew up in Berkeley, California, the son of a Presbyterian minister. He began his college education at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. A year later he transferred to San Jose State University and graduated from there in 1954. He attended Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, for two years and finished his theological education with a Masters of Divinity from North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago in 1957. He served as a youth minister for several years at the Pasadena Evangelical Covenant Church and Park Avenue Covenant Church in Minneapolis. He taught Bible and coached at Minnehaha Academy, a high school of the Evangelical Covenant Church, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for two years.
From 1960 to 1968 he was on the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ. During that time he opened campus ministries on more than a dozen campuses in the Southeastern United States. He was the Southeastern Regional Director for Campus Crusade and later the National Field Coordinator for Campus Crusade for Christ. During those years he spoke to many thousands of college students all across the United States and Canada. The Campus Crusade years were very fruitful and effective with respect to collegiate evangelism. It was also during those years that many life-long relationships were established that would prove extremely important for his remaining ministry.
Fr. Jon was part of a group of several Campus Crusade for Christ staff members who in late 1966 became concerned with the purpose and work of the Church. They had found great difficulty in getting those who responded to Christ on the campus into a church, even though a sincere effort was given to this task. Believing their ministry needed to be conducted in the church itself, rather than in a para-church movement, a number of staff members left Campus Crusade in 1968 to pursue ministry in the church. They scattered to the four winds for a few years.
Then in 1973 seven former Campus Crusade staff members, of whom Fr. Jon was one, began a very conscious and deliberate trek back to historic Christianity. They divided up responsibilities to study the history, worship, theology, practice and the church=s use of the Scriptures after the period of the writing of the New Testament. They soon astonished to learn that their university and seminary training left great gaps in the history of the church from the end of the Book of Revelation up until the time of the Protestant Reformation. This was especially true of the Eastern part of the Church.
These seven men had begun their inquiry into the history of the church with the assumption that Jesus chose well when He selected the Twelve Apostles and that the Twelve and all the Apostles did well in establishing the church. The specific interest of Fr. Jon and his associates was to find out exactly what they established and then to be in historical continuity with that church. Particular attention was given to the first three Christian centuries.
These seven were scattered around the United States, but the met at least four times a year to share their work. And as they studied, they developed churches that functioned as did these early churches and found them to be very effective. In the course of their study they also recognized that the historic church in an undivided Christendom called itself Orthodox.
Lacking knowledge of the Orthodox Church and assuming the it no longer existed, they determined to resurrect it and formed a denomination called the Evangelical Orthodox Church. However, it was precisely at this time they began to meet both clergy and writers from the historic Orthodox Church, a Church that most assuredly still existed and had about 300 million members world wide. Their conclusion was obvious: become part of that Church. That conclusion culminated into their being received into the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in 1987. At that time some two thousand of their people became Orthodox Christians and a significant of their clergy were ordained to the priesthood. Since then many more of their people have come to the Orthodox faith.
After becoming an Orthodox priest, Fr. Jon served as the Director of the Department of Campus Ministry for four years for the Antiochian Archdiocese, establishing Orthodox campus ministries around the United States. He then served in the Department of Missions and Evangelism for three years planting new churches. In 1994 he came to San Diego to plant a new church and remained as the founding pastor at what is now St. Anthony Antiochian Orthodox Church where he has remained as pastor.
Fr. Jon has authored three books and numerous articles. He was a major contributor to the notes for the New Testament of the Orthodox Study Bible and is contributing the notes for the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament of the Orthodox Study Bible.
The Brauns have been married for 49 years, have five sons and 14 grandchildren.
Deacon Thomas Nassif
Deacon Tom Nassif was ordained a sub-Deacon and then ordained to the Diaconite on August 29, 1999. He is one of the founding members of St. Anthony’s Orthodox Christian Church in La Jolla, and served as Chair of the Parish Council for the first four years of the church’s life.
Deacon Nassif became President and CEO of Western Growers – a 75 year old trade association representing 90% of the fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts in California and Arizona on February 11, 2002. His diverse leadership experience in addition to his background as a labor attorney for the agricultural industry makes the Former U.S. Ambassador a natural choice to lead the fresh produce industry into a new era.
Thomas A. Nassif was part of the Reagan administration that came from California to Washington in 1981. His first position was in the Office of Protocol where he was Deputy and Chief of Protocol (A) for the White House. He became Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian affairs in 1983 and in 1985 was named by President Reagan as his ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco.
Prior to leaving California, Ambassador Nassif was a partner in the law firm of Gray Cary Ames & Frye specializing in agricultural labor law. He represented the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers association and numerous growers and shippers in the Imperial Valley, Central Valley and Arizona. He was one of the attorneys who tried the first case before the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. He went on to represent growers and shippers in their elections, contract negotiations, arbitrations, unfair labor practice hearings and multi-employer bargaining. He left his law practice in 1981 to join the Reagan Administration.
Since returning from Morocco, he served as Chairman of Gulf Interstate Engineering in Houston, Texas, an oil and gas pipeline company, President of Los Alamos Land Company developing industrial and commercial business parks on the U.S./Mexican border, and Managing Partner of Aequitas International consulting, an international business and political consulting company.
Ambassador Nassif received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from California State University – Los Angeles and his Juris Doctorate from California Western University, School of Law in San Diego, California. He is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Alumni award from the School of Business and Economics, California State University, and honorary doctor of Law from California Western University School of Law in San Diego. He was decorated by the late King Hassan II of Morocco and the President of Lebanon for his work on Middle East issues. He was honorably discharged from the United States Army in 1968, is married and has two adult children.
Sub-Deacon Nicholas Shadeed
Sub-Deacon Nicholas Ferszt
Choir Director Valerie Yova