Our Clergy
The Most Blessed Tikhon, Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada
His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, who is the primate of the Orthodox Church in America, was raised as an Episcopalian and converted to Orthodoxy at the age of 33.
He entered a monastic community as a novice in 1990. He was elected Primate of the Orthodox Church in America in November 2012.
His Grace VASILY, Bishop of San Francisco and the West
Bishop Vasily was born Vitaly Permiakov in Riga, Latvia, in 1977 in a family of a Russian and Ukrainian origin. At the age of 14, Vitaly was baptized into the Orthodox Christian Church.
From 2011 to 2020, Vitaly served on the faculty of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, NY, the seminary of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. In the spring of 2020, Dr. Permiakov accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Liturgical Theology at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, his alma mater. He taught courses in the seminary’s liturgical curriculum: liturgics, liturgy of initiation, and a number of advanced graduate seminars.
Dn. Vitaly was ordained to the holy priesthood on September 14, 2024 by the hands of Metropolitan Tikhon, and was assigned to Three Hierarchs Chapel. On January 17, 2025, he was tonsured to the small schema in monasticism at St Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery (South Canaan, PA) by the Abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Sergius, and given the name Vasily, after St Basil the Great.
The Holy Synod of Bishops, meeting under the presidency of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, elected Bishop Vasily to become Bishop of San Francisco and the West and his episcopal ordination was on August 16, 2025 at the diocesan cathedral of the Holy Trinity in San Francisco.
Fr. Josef Candelario
Fr Josef grew up in California and was received into the Orthodox Church while a student at UCDavis. He was ordained to the holy diaconate in November of 2022 and then to the holy priesthood in July of 2024, both by the hand of His Eminence Archbishop +BENJAMIN.
Fr Josef holds a ThM from the School of Theology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2020), and graduated from St Vladimir’s Seminary with an MA in Theology in May of 2025.
He and Presbytera Euphrosini were joined in holy matrimony in 2014, and spent five very formative years in Thessaloniki, Greece before moving back to the States.
Pres. Effy is a graphic designer and a student of iconography. Fr Josef is a student of Byzantine chant. They both enjoy reading, walking, physical exercise, language learning, intercultural interaction, and urbanism.
Fr. Nicholas Kime
Fr. Nicholas has been a priest of St. Herman’s from its establishment: as rector until his retirement in 2019, and currently as an attached priest.
Deacon Christopher Grant
Deacon Christopher spent most of his early childhood in England, but has lived in six different western states (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Nevada, and Washington). In 1999 he graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Russian, East European, & Central Asian studies. He was ordained to the diaconate in 2011 by then Bishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the West. Carol and he have been married since 1998 and have four children. His hobbies include reading and leatherwork.
Deacon Michael Hatfield
Originally from Texas, Deacon Michael, his wife, Lisa and their three children joined St Herman’s in 2012. After serving at St Herman’s as a reader for seven years and a subdeacon for three years, he was ordained to the holy diaconate on the 2025 winter feast of St Herman by the hand of His Grace +Bishop Vasily. He holds a BA (1991) and MA (1993) in Philosophy from Texas A&M University and a JD (1996) from New York University, and is a student at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, England. He is a law professor at the University of Washington.