The Very Rev. Fr. Alexander F. C. Webster, Ph.D.,
an archpriest in the Orthodox Church in America, was born in 1951 in Jersey City, NJ, and raised as a devout Roman Catholic. He converted to Holy Orthodoxy on 4 October 1975. He was elevated to the Subdiaconate by Metropolitan Philip, Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, in Boston, MA, on 17 April 1977; ordained to the Diaconate by Bishop Christopher, Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Eastern America, in Monroeville, PA, on 19 September 1982; and ordained to the Holy Priesthood by Bishop Christopher, Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Eastern America (with then Bishop Maximos of the Greek Archdiocese in attendance), in Sewickley, PA, on 21 September 1982. Fr. Alexander’s previous full-time parish pastorates include Protection of the Holy Mother of God Orthodox Church in the Romanian Episcopate of the Orthodox Church in America, Falls Church, Virginia (1988-2005); St. Andrew Orthodox Parish on Ft. Ord, California [active-duty military community (1986-1988); and St. Mary Serbian Orthodox Church, Clairton, PA (1982-1986).

Fr. Alexander holds a B.A. degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania (1972), an M.A. in history and education from Columbia University (1975), an M.T.S. from Harvard University Divinity School (1977), a Graduate Certificate in International Security Studies from the University of Pittsburgh (1985), and a Ph.D. in religion / social ethics from the University of Pittsburgh (1988). He is currently enrolled (via the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill) in the Graduate Certificate Program in Emergency Management and Homeland Security at George Mason University (with completion of the 15 credits expected in December 2011).

 He retired from the U.S. Army on 1 June 2010 as a chaplain in the rank of colonel after more than twenty four years of service, the last five of which, back on active-duty at Ft. McNair, D.C. and Ft. Belvoir, VA, included twelve temporary duty tours in harm’s way in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Kuwait, Qatar, and Kyrgyzstan.  Previous assignments ranged from a battalion chaplain on active-duty with the 7^th Infantry Division (Light) at Ft. Ord, CA, to Division Chaplain, 29^th Infantry Division (Light), at Ft. Belvoir, VA.

After his military retirement, Fr. Alexander served from July to December 2010 as a full-time Collegiate Traveling Professor of History and Government for the University of
Maryland—University College in Okinawa, Japan. Previously he held adjunct or sabbatical replacement faculty positions with The George Washington University Undergraduate Honors Program (2002-2009), American  University (1998-2002), Hood College (1996-1997), George Mason University (1993), and Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) (1989-1998). In addition he served as Professor of Moral Theology and Academic Dean at St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary in South Bound Brook, NJ (1993-1996) and held a half-time position as a Research Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. (1988-1993).

Fr. Alexander is also the author of hundreds of
scholarly articles and op-ed essays, as well as four books on Orthodox Christian social ethics: The Virtue of War: Reclaiming the Classic Christian Traditions East and West [co-authored with Dr. Darrell Cole of Drew University] (Salisbury, MA: Regina Orthodox Press, 2004); The Pacifist Option: The Moral Argument Against War in Eastern Orthodox Theology (Lanham, MD: International Scholars Publications, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 1998); The Price of Prophecy: Orthodox Churches on Peace, Freedom, and Security (2d. rev. ed.; Grand Rapids, MI, and Washington, D.C.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company and Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1995); and The Romanian Legionary Movement: An Orthodox Christian Assessment of Anti-Semitism (Carl Beck Papers No. 502; Pittsburgh: Russian and East European Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh, 1986).

He and his wife, Matushka Kathleen - also a former Roman Catholic born in Jersey City, NJ, who has served as a special education teacher at Cougar Elementary School in Manassas Park since 1989 - have four grown children and two little granddaughters and live in Ashburn, VA - separated from Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox, only by geography.