The Story of Uncut Mountain Press

Fr. Peter is the founder and current head of Uncut Mountain Press (founded in 2000), the founder and head of The Orthodox Ethos, and the founder and first editor of “Divine Ascent, A Journal of Orthodox Faith” (begun in 1995). Fr. Peter was also the host of the podcast, Postcards from Greece.

Fr. Peter is the author of The Missionary Origins of Modern Ecumenism: Milestones Leading up to 1920, as well as The Ecclesiological Renovation of the Second Vatican Council: An Orthodox Examination of Rome’s Ecumenical Theology Regarding Baptism and the Church, which was released in November 2015 and is available here. It is also available in Greek.

Fr. Peter is also the translator of several books, including The Life of Elder Paisios (co-translator) and the Epistles of Elder Paisios, The Truth of our Faith (vols. 1 & 2) by Elder Cleopa and Apostle to Zaire: The Life of Fr. Cosmas of Grigoriou, as well as the best-selling children’s book From I-ville to You-ville.

Fr. Peter Heers was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up near San Francisco. The son of an Anglican priest, in 1992 his parents and much of his father’s parish converted to the Orthodox Church. In 1996 he came to Thessaloniki, Greece, in order to visit Mt. Athos, returning in 1998 to begin the Theological School of the University of Thessaloniki. Fr. Peter has undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees in Dogmatic Theology from the Theological School of the University of Thessalonica, all completed under the tutelage of Professor Demetrios Tselingides.

He has lived in the Thessaloniki area for 19 years where he was married to a Thessaloniki native (and blessed with 5 children) and ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in 2003, in the Diocese of Kastoria. In 2014 he was made Protopresbyteros and Spiritual Father of the Diocese of Ierissou and Agion Oros. He was the rector and spiritual father of the parish of the Holy Prophet Elias in Petrokerasa, a small village in the mountains outside of Thessalonica, Greece, from 2006 until 2017.

From January 2017 until May 2018, Fr. Peter was the instructor of Old and New Testament at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, New York, and continues now as a Lecturer of Ecclesiology in the Certificate of Theological Studies Program. From May 2018 until December 2019, Fr. Peter was the Headmaster of Three Hierarchs Academy In Florence, Arizona. He is a regular speaker to parish groups in the United States and Canada. Fr. Peter Heers currently resides outside of Coolidge, AZ.

Born on his family farm in Central Illinois, John always had an interest in Scripture, theology, and history which God used to lead him to Holy Orthodoxy. He was baptized into the Body of Christ at Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church in Yakima, Washington, in 2010. After some years he was asked by several clergy to enter into the Antiochian House of Studies, at which his projects focused on catechetical work, culminating in a catechetical analysis of the Wisdom of Sirach in the form of daily readings during Great Lent. After spending about a year of struggle at St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery in Arizona and Philotheou Monastery on Mt. Athos, he received a blessing to return to the world, marry, and finish his Master’s work by writing a thesis entitled: Orthodox Catechism in a Neo-Pagan World: Catechizing Today’s Idolatrous World Following the Example of our Holy Fathers. The text is soon to be published by the Antiochian House of Studies Press. In October of 2020, John became the Assistant General Manager at Uncut Mountain Press. Shortly thereafter he became a senior editor at The Orthodox Ethos. Through the miracles of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, John was married to his wife, Eleftheria, in February of 2022. He is now tasked with the launch of the new Uncut Mountain Press website and book releases, while also developing, editing and publishing articles based upon or by the saints, elders, and ascetics of our time for the benefit and upbuilding of the faithful.

Bishop Alexis né John F. Trader was born in Dover, Delaware, and has lived in Greece since 1996. He is the author of Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy: A Meeting of Minds (Peter Lang, 2012), as well as Let us Pray to the Lord (Precious Veil, 2014). In 2019, Fr. Alexis took up residence at the Monastery of Saint Tikhon in South Canaan, Pennsylvania and was made auxiliary bishop to Metropolitan Tikhon for Stavropegial Institutions on January 25, 2020. He is the translator of Patristic Theology by Fr. John Romanides, published by Uncut Mountain Press in 2007.

Desiring to live the Orthodox Christian Faith as fully and radically as possible, in 1988 he entered the Monastery of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk in Eastern Pennsylvania, and he taught courses in patristics, the spiritual life, and the order of Divine Services in the Orthodox Seminary adjacent to the monastery. In 1996, he went to the Monastery of Karakallou on the Holy Mountain of Athos, located on a remote peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea, where he worked in the kitchen and was later ordained to the diaconate, the priesthood, and eventually made a father confessor. In 2005, he became the serving priest at a dependency of Karakallou, the Monastery of Saint Demetrios, Nea Kerdyllia, Greece. It is situated high on a hilltop overlooking the Aegean towards Mt Athos, a pastoral place where shepherds can often be seen passing by with their flocks and where visitors can see the restoration of an ancient Byzantine church, where Liturgies were celebrated clandestinely during the Ottoman occupation.

He began his education studying Chemistry and religious studies at Franklin and Marshall College (BA), Divinity at the University of Chicago (MA), and Orthodox theology at Saint Tikhon’s Theological Seminary (MDiv), and he completed his studies in theology at the University of Thessaloniki (PhD). In addition to his own published works, he has also translated a number of books including: Anestis Keselopoulos’s Passions and Virtues According to Saint Gregory Palamas (2004), (2008) Dionysios Farasiotis’s The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios (2008), and Elder Isaac’s Elder Paisios of Mount Athos (co-translator, 2012). He has also written the foreword to Greece’s Dostoevsky: The Theological Vision of Alexandros Papadiamandis (August 2011).

In 2020 he was elevated to become an OCA bishop of Bethesda, auxiliary to the Metropolitan for Stavropegial Institutions; Locum Tenens of Sitka and Alaska.

Fr. George Dokos is the translator of the three-volume series of the works of St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite published by Uncut Mountain Press in 2006-7.

Fr. George is the rector of St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis (since 2014). He is married to Presbytera Christa and they have four children. He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Minnesota (1995), a Master of Divinity from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (1999) and a PhD from the University of Thessaloniki (2010). Fr. George was ordained to Holy Diaconate (12-9-2001) and Holy Priesthood (4-28-2002) by Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver. He served Holy Trinity GOC in Dallas, TX (2001-04), Transfiguration GOC in Sioux Falls, SD (2007-08), and Sts. Peter & Paul GOC in Boulder, CO (2008-14).

Fr. Iakovos Henson studied classical languages at Kenyon College, USA; holds an MA in theology from the Cambridge Theological Federation; and in 2016 completed his PhD in Dogmatic Theology at the Theological School of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. He is presently translating The Ascetic and Hesychastic Athonite Tradition by Elder Efthymios of Kapsala (in English, entitled Athonite Fathers of the 20th Century) for Uncut Mountain Press, due out in 2022.

Father Christopher Moody is an orthodox priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. He currently serves as an Active Duty Army Chaplain. He is a graduate of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, 2010, (magna cum laude). He is a graduate of the Army Command and Staff College, Chaplain Captain Career Course, and Officer Basic course. He will be assigned as an Army ethicist. His most recent civilian pastorate was Holy Trinity, GOC, Holyoke, MA. His translations include The Procession of the Holy Spirit, co-translator Gregory Heers, and The Triads, unpublished.

Rev. Nathan K. Williams received his BA in theology from Holy Trinity Seminary in 2005, then went on to receive an MA in Russian from Middlebury College Russian School the following year. In 2017 he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Alexander Nevsky Church in Richmond, Maine, where he now serves as assistant priest. For the past 15 years Fr. Nathan has been working as an independent Russian to English and English to Russian translator and interpreter. His published translations include Flavian and other books by Archpriest Alexander Torik, The Law of God and numerous other works by Rev. Daniel Sysoev, What God has Done For Our Salvation by St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, and more.

Gregory was born and raised in the environs of Thessaloniki, Greece. Having studied Ancient Greek and Latin for five years and Russian for two, he remains a lover of history, etymology, and languages. An occasional poet in the English language and amateur chanter in the Roman (Romaic) style, Gregory is also a translator and editor for Uncut Mountain Press and the author of the article “The Unbroken Continuity of the Roman Empire”, which was published as well in the magazine “Orthodox Heritage” (Vol. 17, Issue 05-06) as on the weblog “Orthodox Ethos”. Other works of his include the editing of St. Gregory Palamas' 'Apodictic Treatise on the Procession of the Holy Spirit' and 'Common Prayer with the Heterodox' and the translation of Noetic Prayer as the Basis for Mission and the Struggle Against Heresy as well as of various articles on Orthodox Ethos.