Fr. Wayne is available to speak on: Church History, Outreach, Family, Faith and Crisis Situations. Learn more »

Biography

Pastor of St. Barnabas Orthodox Church in Costa Mesa, CA, Fr. Wayne has a long background in Christian outreach ministry, including both Evangelical outreach and Orthodox Christian ministry work. In addition to his responsibilities as Pastor of St. Barnabas Orthodox Church, Fr. Wayne Wilson has served as a Chaplain with the Fountain Valley (CA) Police Department for 10 years. 

He is trained as a Critical Incident Stress Debriefer for law enforcement, is a member of the International Conference of Police Chaplains, and has been active with the Orange County Chapter of MADD for over six years, actively working with the Police Department in the “Every Fifteen Minutes” Program for Orange County High School Students. He has also been a motivational speaker for the MADD parents’ seminars.

His weekly ride-alongs with the Police Department provides an opportunity to not only assist those in immediate need at the time of a police call, but have also earned him repeated recognition by the Police Department for his varied community services and his service to members of the Police Department itself.

In addition, Fr. Wayne has been instrumental in developing and overseeing the Church’s weekly Food Kitchen outreach program that has served over 7287 meals to needy and homeless in the central Orange County area for over five years.

As part of his commitment to Orthodox Christian outreach, Father Wayne was active for five years in the Orange County region with the Campus Ministry program for the Antiochian Archdiocese, and taught classes on Christianity to second year medical students at UCI Medical School. These classes not only addressed historical Christian teaching, but also worked to answer immediate questions that the medical students had relating Orthodox Christian teaching to modern medical and ethics questions.

Background

As a former evangelical Christian, Fr. Wayne was a student leader with Campus Crusade For Christ. His leadership included leading Bible studies, conferences and other outreach programs.

Prior to his conversion to the Eastern Orthodox faith, Fr. Wayne was an active leader in the former Evangelical Orthodox Church. He was one of several former EOC leaders that traveled to Istanbul for an audience with the Ecumenical Patriarch in 1986. He was chrismated and ordained a Priest in 1987, and elevated to Archpriest in 1997.

Education

Father Wayne graduated in 1970 from Cal State Fullerton with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration/ Marketing, Advertising . He attended UCLA and Talbot Seminary, where he studied Greek and Church History

Family

Father Wayne has been married to his wife Lynn for 32 years. They have one son, Peter, who is currently attending college.

Topics

Lecture/Conference topics include:

• Orthodox Christian Outreach
• Church History
• Family Relationships
• Dealing with Crisis Situations
• The Orthodox Faith