St. Mary Church
Staff & Leaders

Father Theodore Pulcini

Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, Fr. Theodore Pulcini was educated in the public schools of Aliquippa, PA, graduating from high school in 1972. He attended Harvard College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, graduating in 1976 with a B.A. (scl) in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. During the 1976-77 academic year, he traveled in Europe and the Middle East as a Harvard-Sheldon Fellow, studying various Eastern Christian communities abroad. He then moved on to the University of Notre Dame to do an M.A. in Scripture, which he completed in 1979. He returned to the Boston area to do further study in theology and patristics at Holy Cross Orthodox School of Theology and at Harvard Divinity School, being awarded a Th.M. from the latter school in 1982. He earned a D.Min. (in individual counseling and catechetics) from the Catholic University of America in 1985 and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994. Fr. Pulcini taught briefly at St. Vladimir=s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, NY, before returning to Pennsylvania to assume a professorial position in religion at Dickinson College in Carlisle. His teaching responsibilities focus on the examination of Biblical texts in their historical, social, and comparative contexts. He also specializes in Islam, early Christianity, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. His research interests include the relations between Islam and Christianity, both past and present, and the dynamics of minority religious communities in the American context. He initiated and serves as director of the Dickinson Summer Program in Jerusalem. Fr. Pulcini was ordained to the diaconate on 4 December 1983 and to the priesthood on 29 April 1984. Both ordinations took place at St. George Orthodox Church of Boston, with Bishop Antoun (Khouri) ordaining. Since his ordination, he has served the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese as interim pastor of St. George Church of Cleveland, OH, as assistant pastor of St. Luke Church of Garden Grove, CA, and as pastor of St. George Church of Lowell, MA. While completing his Ph.D. studies, he served at St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church in New Castle, PA. Since assuming his position at Dickinson, he has served as pastor of St. Mary Orthodox Church in Chambersburg. His book Exegesis as Polemical Discourse: Ibn Hazm on Jewish and Christian Scriptures was published by Scholars Press in 1998. He has also published in the Journal: Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, St. Vladimir=s Theological Quarterly, the Journal of American Ethnic History, Commonweal, New Theology Review, In Communion, and elsewhere.