Father Peter Pearson

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Born and raised in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Peter is the oldest son in an Irish Catholic family who began to paint Byzantine icons at the age of twelve and headed off to seminary two weeks after high school graduation. Graduating from Saint Pius X Seminary and the University of Scranton in 1979 with a B.S. in Human Services with a minor in Philosophy/Theology, he went to Saint John‘s School of Theology in Boston, Ma, for graduate studies in Theology.

In the early 80‘s Peter decided to take some time off to “grow up” and so he moved to Washington, DC where he worked as a researcher on Capitol Hill, then at a large law firm as a litigation and immigration paralegal, and finally started his own company dealing with the embassies representing the needs of American citizens.

While in Washington, he studied iconography with a Russian icon painter in Bethesda, MD., design at the International Institute of Design, and theology at Georgetown University.

In 1991 he sold his business and left Washington for Saint Vincent Archabbey, a Benedictine monastery in Latrobe, PA, where he took monastic vows and resumed seminary work, completing his M. Div. (magna cum laude), with a heavy concentration in liturgical studies and design of spaces for worship. Around the same time, he began to work as a full-time iconographer and teacher of Byzantine icon painting. Peter has studied under several master iconographers from the United States and Canada and now teaches throughout the United States. His books, A Brush With God and Another Brush With God, were published by Morehouse Press and icons done by Peter grace the walls of churches, monasteries, seminaries, and private homes around the world.

He was ordained a priest in 1996 and for ten years served the Dignity Community of Pittsburgh (GLBT Catholics) as its pastor. He was received into the Episcopal Church by Bishop Paul Marshall (Diocese of Bethlehem) in 2004. Since 2005, Peter Pearson has served as the rector at Saint Philip‘s Episcopal Church in New Hope, PA. He is a vowed member of the Community of Solitude, an ecumenical monastic community, and serves as the novice mentor for several new members of the community. Peter is the dean of the Bucks Deanery consisting of the seventeen Episcopal parishes in Bucks County. He continues to paint, teach, write, and consult on the design of worship spaces.