Archpriest Joel Wilson

Father Joel is originally from Indiana and joined the Orthodox Church in 2002. He and his wife (Presvytera Tessi) were married in 2007, relocated to St. James in 2014, and have a beautiful and ever-growing family with eleven children (Mara, Winifred, Liam, Edmond, Ethel, Damian, Alfred, Georgianna, Anysia, Matthias, and Séamus). Fr. Joel graduated from St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary with a M.Div. in 2012 and is the founding priest here at Annunciation.

A Brief Biography

Fr. Joel was born and raised in Crawfordsville, IN. Originally part of the Baptist Church, his family joined the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC) in 1986. In the summer of 2002, their entire community of St. Stephen the First Martyr converted to Orthodox Christianity and joined the canonical Orthodox Church in America under the direction of the late Archbishop Job.

Procession with Tikhvin Icon

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science from Indiana University, during the summer of 2004 Fr. Joel joined Archbishop Job in Chicago to serve as his subdeacon for the return trip of the Tikhvin Icon to Russia and until the end of 2004.

In 2006 Fr. Joel met his wife-to-be, Presvytera Theressa (Tessi), who was a catechumen living in Texas at the time. With Archbishop Job’s blessing, Fr. Joel moved to Texas to be with her where they both attended St. George the Great Martyr. They were married that next spring at St. Anthony the Great parish in San Antonio and had their first child at the end of January, 2008.

In 2009, just after having their second child, they moved to Pennsylvania to attend St. Tikhon’s Seminary. During seminary, Fr. Joel was blessed with an opportunity to travel to Greece and visit the monasteries on Mount Athos with a professor and several classmates. Fr. Joel and Prsv. Tessi had their third child in April of 2011 and Joel was ordained to the Holy Diaconate by His Grace, Bishop Matthias on the Feast of St. Herman, Dec. 13, 2011.

After graduating from seminary with a Master of Divinity in May, 2012, Fr. Joel and family moved to St. Thomas the Apostle community in Springfield, MO where they also had their fourth child. With the blessing of Bishop Matthias, Fr. Joel and family worked to establish a new community in Rolla, MO for a year and a half. After nine months of visits to Rolla, holding Typika prayers every Saturday, the new community was given the name of Annunciation, and His Eminence, Archbishop Alexander (Golitsin) ordained Fr. Joel to the Holy Priesthood on Dec. 8, 2013.

Thanks be to God, because of a miraculous series of donations and a matching donation campaign in the spring of 2014, Fr. Joel and family purchased a home with just under six acres of land and moved to St. James, just outside of Rolla. The church community met in their home for ten years as they labored to grow the mission.

In 2024, the mission was able to purchase land from a neighbor, and after a second series of miraculous donations, in 2025 they completed construction and moved into a multi-purpose building on the new church property.

In August, 2025, Fr. Joel & Prsv. Tessi had their eleventh child, then in November of 2025, Holy Annunciation received Parish status within the Diocese of the Midwest.

Fr. Joel serves on the Diocesan Council for the Diocese of the Midwest. He was also elevated to the rank of Archpriest during the Divine Liturgy on June 4, 2026 by His Eminence, Archbishop Daniel.

Fr. Joel & Prsv. Tessi are very grateful and feel very blessed to work alongside the faithful to grow the community here at Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, by God’s grace and providence.