Father Timothy Robinson, Greek Orthodox Priest
By Russell Nichols | From December 2007
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After seminary in 1985, he struggled to find a suitable ministry and before long, Robinson and his wife spent the next five years falling away from church. He got a job working for Xerox Corp. in Oakland.
"I felt in some ways that I was betraying God," Robinson says. "This was the heart and core of my life and suddenly I don't know what to do with it. I began to get more and more desperate spiritually. I was praying 'God, help me find you.' "
One day, a customer came into Xerox shopping for a copy machine and told Robinson about an Armenian Orthodox Church in the area. The customer did not buy the copier ("I was a lousy salesman"), but did get Robinson to come to the church. And once again, something about the traditional and ceremonial approach to Christianity at the Eastern Orthodox Church spoke to him. In 1991, he joined the church and became an active member over the next few years, serving on boards and committees and singing in the choir. Then God, he says, started prodding him again to fulfill his purpose as a pastor.
In 1996, he started classes at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston. After ordination, Greek Orthodox priests receive placement assignments. An anxious Robinson did not know what was to come next. But a chaplain from the Oakland church spoke to Robinson and offered words of wisdom that stuck.
"He took my scattered head and set me on the right track," Robinson recalls, "He said 'Don't be anxious about anything. Stop worrying about being a priest and just worry about being holy."
Continued...
"I felt in some ways that I was betraying God," Robinson says. "This was the heart and core of my life and suddenly I don't know what to do with it. I began to get more and more desperate spiritually. I was praying 'God, help me find you.' "
One day, a customer came into Xerox shopping for a copy machine and told Robinson about an Armenian Orthodox Church in the area. The customer did not buy the copier ("I was a lousy salesman"), but did get Robinson to come to the church. And once again, something about the traditional and ceremonial approach to Christianity at the Eastern Orthodox Church spoke to him. In 1991, he joined the church and became an active member over the next few years, serving on boards and committees and singing in the choir. Then God, he says, started prodding him again to fulfill his purpose as a pastor.
In 1996, he started classes at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston. After ordination, Greek Orthodox priests receive placement assignments. An anxious Robinson did not know what was to come next. But a chaplain from the Oakland church spoke to Robinson and offered words of wisdom that stuck.
"He took my scattered head and set me on the right track," Robinson recalls, "He said 'Don't be anxious about anything. Stop worrying about being a priest and just worry about being holy."
Continued...
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Tags: father, timothy, robinson, spirit
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