Prior to becoming Orthodox, he attended Wheaton College in Illinois receiving a Bachelor of Artsin Political Science. While there he played Intercollegiate Basketball. After a two-year gap, he then attended Dallas Theological Seminary, graduating with a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies. In addition to his love of History (Colonial, the Civil War, Russian & Byzantium), the authors C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, Flannery O’Connor and G.K. Chesterton are frequently referred to and quoted in both his writing and his homilies. Most frequently, however, it will be the lyrics of Bob Dylan that will be heard. All had an influence on Fr. Jim’s journey to the Orthodox faith. Other events on that journey to Orthodoxy were meetings with Archbishop Dimitri and Fr. Peter Gillquist of blessed memory, the reading of The Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, the out-of-print book Eastern Orthodoxy by Ernst Benz and a Greek Festival tour in Dallas.