Rev. Andrew Gall to be elevated in rank

Staff report

SHARON, PA.

The Rev. Andrew Gall, pastor of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 389 Clark St., will be elevated to the rank of very reverend on Sunday. His Grace, Bishop Daniel, will make a pastoral visit to the parish and serve a Hierarchal Liturgy at 10 a.m.

Bishop Daniel is president of the Consistory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.

Father Gall was born and raised in Campbell, Ohio, and graduated from Memorial High School in 1965. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1967-1971. In 1974, he graduated from Youngstown State University with a bachelor’s degree with majors in philosophy and religious studies and minor in history. He and the former Marlene Hunt were married in 1976 at Holy Trinity Romanian Orthodox Church and lived in Liberty.

Encouraged by his father confessor, Roman Braga, in September of 1981, he went to St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theology Seminary and graduated in 1983. In February of 1988, he was ordained to the Diaconate in St Andrew’s Memorial Church in South Bound Brook, N.J., and in June of that year, he was ordained into the priesthood of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA at St. John the Baptist Church.

His ministry took him to the Eastern Orthodox Foundation, near Indiana, Pa. where he was mentored by the Rev. George Hnatko. He was assigned to St. Nicholas UOC in Monessen, Pa., and after five years he asked for a leave of absence because of a family illness. During this time, Father Gall served many Orthodox parishes between Cleveland and Pittsburgh when a priest was sick or on vacation.

Metropolitan Constantine called Father Gall as a missionary to St. John the Baptist in 2005 and he has served ever since. The church will celebrate its 90th anniversary June 4, 2016.