The Faith Leader: A career of helping began at early age

The Very Rev. Nicholas T. Graff

Pastor, St. John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church, Jacksonville; executive director, St. Photios National Shrine, St. Augustine; president, Orthodox Christian Association of Medicine, Psychology and Religion.

Age: 49.

Education: Bachelor’s degree, Hellenic College; master’s in divinity, Holy Cross; doctorate in ministry, Catholic University of America; clinical pastoral education and clinical psychodrama certification, Johns Hopkins, with clinicals at Spring Grove State Psychiatric Hospital in Baltimore; post-doctoral work at Christ Church in Oxford, England.

Q: How did you find your calling?

I was pretty clear what I was going to be doing with my life from the time I was 3 years old. I had the divine liturgy of St. John Chrysostom pretty much memorized in the original Byzantine Greek by the time I was 5. I guess I was kind of born to it.

Q: Did you ever consider or pursue another line of work?

Not really, but I would tend toward the helping professions.

Q: What is most rewarding about your ministry?

I have always been deeply rewarded by becoming a trusted member of the families that I serve. There is a quiet effect that one may have from time to time. You are there for all the most important events in that family’s life, from birth to death. It is a privilege that must be cherished.

Q: What is most frustrating about your ministry?

I find the most frustrating thing in ministry is being faced with fundamentalism of any variety. I believe that a fundamentalist is simply someone who has stopped thinking. I much prefer people who have questions. People with too many answers tend to be bullies or bores.

Q: What book are you reading or recommending lately?

I tend to keep a couple of them going at a time. Currently I am struggling though Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization. I am also reading Children Playing Before A Statue of Hercules, a book of short stories edited by David Sedaris.

Q: What is your favorite saying, motto or verse of Scripture?

“I believe, Lord, help me in my unbelief.”

The Faith Leader is a weekly feature profiling men and women, lay and ordained, who are leaders in First Coast religious communities. To recommend someone, e-mail Times-Union religion writer Jeff Brumley at jeff.brumley@jacksonville.com. Please include the daytime phone number and e-mail address of the person you are recommending.