Father Calinic Berger was born in Detroit, Michigan and baptized by his maternal grandfather at the St. Simion Romanian Orthodox Church. As a child and as a teen he attended the Antiochian Orthodox Church of the Redeemer in Los Altos Hills, California where he formed the desire to serve God as a priest. Having graduated from Santa Clara University in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, he later enrolled in the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, graduating in 1994. Following seminary, he enrolled in the doctoral program in Patristics and historical theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, completing his PhD in 2003. In between and during his theological studies, he worked as an electrical engineer in the semiconductor industry.

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Fr Calinic has served as Visiting Professor of Dogmatic Theology at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, and currently is the Adjunct Professor of Dogmatic Theology at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, in Brookline. Before coming to St George, he served as the pastor of Holy Cross Romanian Orthodox Church in Hermitage, Pennsylvania (2006-2015),  and as associate pastor of St Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles (2015-2020). He was appointed the associate pastor of St George in August, 2020. We are pleased and most blessed to welcome him into our community in Wichita!