The Very Rev. Fr. Sterry David Mahaffey, Jr. has been assigned as the Acting Rector at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, 980 Bridle Path Road. 

Fr. David comes to Bethlehem from Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, Pottstown, PA, where he served as Rector for nearly 3 years. He is currently an adjunct lecturer at two schools of higher education; Alvernia University, Reading and Philly, where he lectures in Moral Theology, Philosophy and Ethics, and St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Seminary in South Canaan, PA, where he teaches courses in Doctrine, Comparative Theology, and Philosophy, and also at the Seminary’s Diaconate Program in Philadelphia.  

Fr. David serves in several capacities in the Orthodox Church, and especially in the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania.  He is the Dean of the Philadelphia Deanery (which includes Bethlehem area parishes), as treasurer of the St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Seminary Alumni Association, a past auditor of both the national and diocesan churches, and as staff writer and editor for the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania’s publication, Your Diocese Alive in Christ. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Scranton with degrees in Philosophy and Theology, and returned to earn a Master of Arts in Theology.  He was a founding member and first secretary of the Northeast PA Chapter of Alpha Sigma Nu Alumni, a Jesuit Honors Society.  He also is a member of the honor societies Phi Sigma Tau (philosophy); Phi Alpha Theta (history); Theta Alpha Kappa (theology); and Alpha Sigma Lambda (adult learners).

Fr. David replaces the former Rector of St. Nicholas, Archpriest Dimitri Oselinsky and interim Pastor, Archpriest James Mason.  October 4 was his first Sunday in Bethlehem.  Following the Divine Liturgy, a luncheon was served in honor of the incoming pastor.

Fr. David is a widower, having lost his wife to cancer in 2007 while at his previous pastorate.  Fr. David and his late wife, Matushka Karen, both grew up in rural towns in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania:  Fr. David from Mahaffey; and Matushka Karen, from Burnside.  He has four grown children:  Nikolas, of Dunmore, PA; Sterry Michael, Seth, and Kyra, of Pittston, PA.  His wife was cared for during her bout with cancer at the Lehigh Women’s Cancer Center in Allentown, so he is no stranger to our area.

Fr. David was raised in the Methodist faith, which he served in various capacities. He became an Orthodox Christian in 1975 and pursued religious vocations shortly thereafter, training first in the Late Vocations Program of the Diocese of Western Pennsylvania, Orthodox Church in America, after which he served as a deacon in that diocese for over 12 years. When he felt the calling to do more in the Orthodox Church, he and his family prayed and agreed that Fr. David should go to seminary, not an easy decision for a man with a wife and four young children.  He and his wife, Karen, felt it was the Will of God and went ahead with their plans. At the time, they were living in Clearfield, PA, where Fr. David was the sales manager for a new car dealership, and in 1991, they sold their home.  His wife and their four children moved in with her parents back in Burnside, and Fr. David went off to St. Tikhon’s Seminary where he earned a Master of Divinity Degree. In 1993, he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood and assigned as the Rector of St. Michael’s Parish in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, where he remained for 14 years until being assigned to Pottstown.

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church is a parish of The Orthodox Church in America.