Our Vicar

Fr. Paul is an Indian New Zealander and an ordained Priest from Church of South India currently in the process of transferring his canonical residence to our Diocese, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. 

Fr. Paul was born and brought up in South India and grew up with Anglican tradition. He says “I accepted Lord Jesus as my personal savior at the age of 14 at a suicide point and at that time I was convinced about His calling on me to serve His Church and the World in need of His love”. He completed Bachelor of Theology at the age of 19 in Chennai, TN, India and was sent as missionary priest to neighboring state Karnataka where he learned new language called Kannada and involved in Church planting mission for 14 years. Fr. Paul moved to New Zealand as a missionary to work among the migrant community. After serving the migrant community for 7 years he moved to US to complete his Doctoral Studies in Clinical Pastoral Education. 

Since the time he came to USA in 2008 he has been serving the diaspora Churches of South India in Tristate, Texas and Toronto. After his Masters of Divinity from Interfaith Seminary NY he did supervisory level education in the field of ACPE Clinical Pastoral Education in Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey. He is a candidate to receive his Doctor of Ministry degree from Liberty University in Chaplaincy in the Spring 2021. He is the recipient of Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethany Theological College & Seminary, India. He comes to Wantage with more than three decades of ministerial experience in various ministries including clinical pastoral education, media evangelism, church planting mission and eucharist ministries. He is the founder and visionary of several missional agencies such as Christian Life Service in India, Global Peace Mission in New Zealand, InterChristian Initiatives, InterCommunity Initiatives and Interfaith Initiatives in United States. He is trained and skilled in Chaplaincy from ACPE, Spiritual Direction from Metagem, Peace Building & Conflict Resolutionfrom Tannenbaum, Domestic Violence Intervention from Manukau, Forest Dwelling from Oblate, Mission Formation from Global Episcopal Missions Network, Relationship Enrichment from MML Leadership Training, Ethical Economy from Trinity, Christian Counselling from CWR UK & CCS, and End of Life Care from VNA NY.

He was elected by the vestry to serve the Church of the Good Shepherd as our 23rd Priest in 2019 and took charge as priest in charge from first of January in 2021. His calling and priestly ministry is well supported by his wife and two sons.