NEW YORK – At the conclusion of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy for the Feast of Saint Thomas, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Patriarchal Vicar of the Metropolis on New Jersey, announced the appointment of Very Reverend Archimandrite Christoforos Oikonomidis, presiding priest of the St. Thomas community in Cherry Hill, NJ, as the new Chancellor of the Metropolis of New Jersey.

Fr. Christoforos Oikonomidis was born in Piraeus, Greece in 1982. In 2002 he was ordained Deacon by His Grace Bishop Damaskinos of Diavleia, later Metropolitan of Didymoteichon, and he served as the Archdeacon of the Metropolis of Nikaia for five years. He was ordained in 2007 to the Holy Priesthood by Metropolitan Alexios of Nikaia and he was assigned as Head Priest at the Church of Prophet Elias in the municipality of Agia Varvara, outside Athens, which Parish he served for eight years.

He is a graduate of the Ecclesiastical High School of Athens and of the Theological School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and completed the courses of the Masters Program in the School of Theology of the University of Athens in Liturgical Studies, under the direction of Professor Dr. George Filias, and he was recently assigned his Masters Thesis subject: ‘The Service of Monastic Tonsure in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of Dionysios the Areopagite.’

In January 2021 he enrolled in the Masters of Theology Program of the Holy Cross School of Theology of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Fr. Christoforos arrived in the United States of America, In May 2015 and on August 1, 2015 he was assigned to the Saint Thomas Greek Orthodox Church, in Cherry Hill, NJ, by Metropolitan Evangelos of Sardes, former of New Jersey. He immediately fully immersed himself in serving the parish, which is comprised of over 650 families. He focused his pastoral interest in two sectors: Liturgical revival and the precious Youth of the Parish. In May 2019 he undertook the Renovation project of the Church, which he successfully completed in October 2019, and thus transformed Saint Thomas Church into a beautiful Byzantine Church, which is a beacon of Orthodoxy and Hellenism in South Jersey.   

On Sunday, May 9, 2021, at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy on the Feast day of St. Thomas, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America announced Fr. Christoforos’ appointment as the new Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey.