User:RevJCarles

Archpriest James Carles (b. 1969). James was born and raised in Bowral, New South Wales (NSW). He moved to Sydney upon completing his schooling and in 1989 he commenced employment with the Australian Public Service. He and his wife, Marie, were received into Orthodoxy at Saint Mary's Antiochian Orthodox Church, Sydney, on 5 November 1994. They joined the Russian Orthodox parish of Saint Nicholas in Fairfield in early 1996. Tonsured a reader in May 1997, Father James was ordained deacon in November 1998. In September 2001 he was ordained priest and assigned to the parish of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in Cabramatta, Sydney, with the additional responsibility of serving what was then the small Russian Orthodox community of Saint Panteleimon, Gosford. In December 2002 he was appointed to also serve the parish of Saint Nicholas, Wallsend. He relinquished his appointment to Cabramatta in August 2003 and has since then served in the Gosford and Wallsend parishes. In July 2013 Father James was awarded the gold pectoral cross for his service to the Church. In December 2013 he was elected to the Australian-New Zealand Diocesan Council for a three-year term, serving as Secretary for the final year of his term. In October 2015 Father James participated in a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia accompanying the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God to the Yekaterinburg and Ufa Metropolitanates of the Russian Orthodox Church. In November 2016 he was raised to the rank of archpriest. In 2019 he began to make regular pastoral visits to the Mid North Coast of New South Wales with the goal of establishing a community there under the protection of Saint Symeon of Verkhoturye. In May 2021 he retired from work in the Australian Public Service after 32 years and in August 2021 he commenced full-time tertiary study in law and theology at the University of Notre Dame, Australia. In March 2022 he was awarded the right to wear the palitsa. Father James and Matushka Marie have seven children born between 1990 and 2007.