Fr. Lazarus Bambang Sucanto

Fr Lazarus Bambang Sucanto was born from a mixed family of Sino-Javanese family in Yogyakarta on September 30th 1961. Born as the first of 11 siblings, he has learned about the importance of responsibility and loyalty from a very young age.

In his teenage years he was very active in Pencak Silat martial arts and then got very involved with a local Pentecostal church. This led to his enrollment in a Protestant Seminary named STII Yogyakarta in 1983. It’s here, when he was still a 2nd year Protestant Seminarian, he got to know Orthodoxy from his classmate and close friend, Yohanes Bambang and became interested in becoming Orthodox and then to serve the Church as a missionary.

Fr. Lazarus was blessed to receive full scholarship to study in Holy Cross Seminary in Boston, Massachusetts, after he finished his Bachelor of Theology program from STII in June 1986. He was accepted into the Orthodox Church on January 19th, chrismated by Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh in Holy Cross Orthodox Parish in Pittsburgh 1987 and finished his Master of Theological Studies in May 1990. He soon returned to Indonesia in June to serve the fledgling Orthodox Church.

He married Presbytera Tabitha on October 5th 1990, ordained into Diaconate on Friday, March 7th 1992 and then into Presbyterate on Sunday, March 9th 1992 by Metropolitan Dionysios  of New Zealand. He has 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl. In 2022 he was blessed with first grandchild.

He has served faithfully as a Presbyter for more than 30 years and today is the Parish Priest of  St. Dionysios Orthodox Church in Yogyakarta and St. Basil the Great Orthodox Community of Pontianak, West Borneo.