Subdeacon Eric Anderson

 I am a Southern California native, born in  Riverside CA. My family moved to the Clairemont neighborhood of San  Diego when I was a child. I met my future wife Gabriella in eighth grade  when we were attending the same school. After a brief stint in military  service, we were married in 1991. At that time we were members of a  local ELCA Lutheran church where we were active in several ministries  and I had served on the congregational council.

Gabriella  and I encountered Saint Anthony the Great Antiochian Orthodox Church in  the mid 1990s when the parish was congregating at Good Samaritan  Episcopal Church. About 20 years later, we attended a Saturday evening  Vespers service at Saint Anthony’s. We were immediately drawn in by the  love of the parishioners and the beauty and depth of theology presented  in the services. We attended as many Saturday Vespers and Sunday  Matins/Orthros and Divine Liturgy services as possible. Our first Pascha  service in 2018 was a wonderful experience. Starting in July 2018, I  started attending Saint Anthony's exclusively and joined the choir.  Gabriella followed me to Saint Anthony's a few months later. We attended  as many Saturday Inquirers classes as we could, and, thanks to podcasts  and our local public library, read as much as we could find about the  Orthodox church, its theology and history.

We  were Catechised into the church, and later Baptized and Chrismated on  Lazarus Saturday, 2019. My patron saint is Saint Erc, Bishop of Slane.  Saint Erc was a pagan druid; his name was Erc mac Dega and he was the  only member of King Laoghaire's retinue to pay homage to Saint Patrick  during the confrontation with the druids at the Hill of Slane. On that  very night, Erc converted to Christianity under Saint Patrick and was  later appointed to be the first Bishop of Slane in the 5th century.

My  altar service began in 2020 while the church was congregating outdoors  during the pandemic and I was blessed as a Subdeacon in June 2022.

Gabriella  is an active member of the choir and volunteers as needed on several  committees. We have between us nine nieces & nephews, three  grandnieces, a grandnephew, and several of the youngsters at Saint  Anthony's have 'adopted' us as honorary relatives.