Father Joseph was born in South Korea and came to the States when he was fourteen.

Moving certainly has been a part of his life. He finished high school in Anaheim, California. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and worked in Seattle as a tutor before he went to Yale-Berkeley Divinity School in New Haven.

After graduating from the seminary, he went to Seabury-Western in Evanston where he received a certificate of advanced theological studies. Before he moved to Garden City, he was serving as a clergy resident participating in the Foundations of Spiritual Leadership at the Historic Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia.

As a cradle Episcopalian, he has served in various ministry settings. He served at Saint Martin’s Korean Episcopal Church in Philadelphia as a director of faith formation and as a youth director at St. Joseph/Trinity in Flushing. He also served as a port chaplain at Seamen’s Church in Newark and completed his field education at St. Augustine’s in Wilmette, Illinois and his Clinical Pastoral Education requirement as a hospital chaplain in Olympia, Washington.

He is canonically resident in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island and was ordained deacon by Bishop Walker at this Cathedral in 2003 and as priest by Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the historic Christ Church in 2004. His father is a retired bishop of Tae Chun, South Korea.