Reverend Father Mansour Azar
Reverend Father Mansour is the Pastor of our Church since November 1, 2024
Born in 1957 at Beit-Miri, Lebanon, from an Orthodox father and a Maronite mother, was baptized at the famous Antiochian Orthodox monastery of the Theotokos, Saydnaya in Syria. Married to Randa Al Khoury in 1992 they have two children Antione a Physician and Nicole a Dentist.
Khourieh Randa is graduated BA in economics and finances, she is a talented Iconographer.
Father Mansour attended school at the Catholic Frères Schools till Bac.II in Math & Physics. After graduation from the High Technical Engineering School of Electronics, he joined the Balamend University of Theology for a while in 1982 when Father Michel Najim was the dean, he was consecrated to the Sub-diaconate by Metropolitan George Khodr, he then continued his studies with Saint Serge Institute of Orthodox Theology in the French language by correspondence, and in the mid-1980s he joined the Antiochian House of Studies and graduated from Saint Stephen’s courses of studies in Orthodox Theology in August 2003. He then earned the Masters of Arts Degree in Applied Orthodox Theology in February 2008, with V.R. Father Michel Najim as guiding professor. The theme of the thesis was “The Rebirth Experience, the Awareness of Grace and the Assurance of Salvation in the Spirituality of Saint Symeon the New Theologian.”
In 2016 he joined the PhD program at the Antiochian House of Studies. He successfully finished the two years intensive courses and researches and he stll has to write his final PhD thesis.
While he was completing his studies in Orthodox Theology, he built a very competent CV as an Electronic Engineer. He started for two years as a TV broadcasting studio engineer in Lebanon. He then joined Philips Medical Systems and got specialized in X-Ray equipment and especially in the Computerized Tomography Scanners, where he worked at the company’s factory in Holland as a Factory System Engineer and provided technical support for hospitals using those systems all throughout Europe.
He was appointed in Amman, Jordan as the director of the service department for a Philips Medical Systems agency, where his career flourished for 18 years as Sales and Operation Manager with over 35 engineers and technicians working under his leadership in the sales, services and project management fields. Her Majesty Queen Noor honored him with the Key of Honor to the King Hussein Cancer Center for which he served as the project manager for 5 years and where he succeeded in organizing the twinning program between the South West Cancer Center, or Rotterdam (one of the leading centers in cancer treatment worldwide), and the King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman. Under his leadership, medical staff from top doctors to nurses and technicians had to be trained either locally or in the Netherlands in order to cope with the twinning program that was financed by the government of the Netherlands under the supervision of Philips Medical Systems with the aim of curing some types of cancer by using bone marrow transplantation.
Receiving The Key Of Honor from the chief of the Royal Court
The key of honor
During his stay in Jordan he was active in the Church’s activities and with the local priests where he continued to provide his support in such matters as training the Sunday school teachers and giving theological lectures in Churches’ family meetings all over Amman, whenever he was invited by the Church pastors. He also continued to write theological articles that were published in the Archdiocese periodicals.
In 2005, he ended his 18-year career in Jordan and came back to Lebanon with the intention of joining priesthood. He joined His Eminence Metropolitan Georges Khodr, and was elevated to the holy Deaconate in the same year. In 2007 he was elevated to the Priesthood and was appointed as full member in the Ecclesiastical Court of First Instance of the Archdiocese.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan asked him to start up a center to provide extensive marriage preparation for couples preparing for marriage. First, he studied most of what was being taught in many places all over the world. Then, using his expertise in leadership and teamwork, and together with his wife who is a specialist in Conflict Resolution and Communication Skills, they started a consulting committee consisting of married priests, judges, lawyers, businessmen, and teachers all along with their spouses, and together they put the plans and themes to be taught at the Marriage Preparation Center. Together with his wife they wrote down the material of the courses and produced them into PowerPoint slides to be used in centers all over the Archdiocese. After laying out the material of the courses, they started training an executive team of 16 priests for six months, each of which specialized in one or two themes, and worked together on assimilating the material.
The original logo of St. Nicholas Marriage Preparation Center, Mount Lebanon
The Saint Nicholas Marriage Preparation Center started in 2008 and provided a mandatory counseling course consisting of four sessions to the about 600 couples who were getting married every year in our Archdiocese. The results were remarkable and exceeded many of our expectations. As of June 2013, the center has served 3127 couples.
His work at the ecclesiastical court gave Father Mansour additional knowledge and skills in dealing with post-marital problems and in providing counseling to married couples.
In September 2013 father Mansour was received in the Antiochian Archdioceses of North America and was appointed as Assistant Pastor for Saint George Church Phoenix, Arizona, and in July 1, 2017 he was then appointed as Pastor of St. George Church in Upland, California, he served there untill August 31st, 2024.
Fr. Mansour is assigned as Pastor for St. George San Diego as of November 1, 2024 and he is still fulfilling his duties as the Pastor of this Church.
Fr. Mansour has a personal website at: https://abounamansour.org/
He has also developped a website for Khourieh Randa at: https://traditionalorthodoxicons.org
Reverend Deacon Maxim Najim
From his youth, Rev. Fr. Deacon Maxime Najim was theologically formed by his father, the world-renowned theologian and Great Economos, the Very Reverend Father Michel Najim. Deacon Maxime Najim was ordained to the office of the Holy Diaconate in December 2008, on the feast day of St. Nicholas of Myra the Wonder-worker, by the hands of His Eminence, Metropolitan Joseph. After his ordination, he served at St. Nicholas Cathedral until the Summer of 2009 when he was assigned to serve Saint George Antiochian Orthodox Church in San Diego, CA. Deacon Maxime holds a Master of Arts degree in Orthodox Theology, accredited by the Government of Lebanon through the University of Balamand. His graduate-level study of Orthodox Christian Theology centered around the Church Fathers and a study of St. Ephrem the Syrian’s theological approach to Holy Scripture and its applicability to modern pastoral teaching. Deacon Maxime also holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and is a published author both in theological works and software engineering.