Nathaniel

Nathaniel of Detroit (born William George Popp; June 12, 1940) is a Romanian-American Orthodox prelate who has served as Archbishop of the Orthodox Church in America's Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America since 1984.

Biography

Born to a Romanian-American family in Aurora, Illinois, Popp was ordained to the priesthood in 1966 in the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church. He soon left the Catholic Eastern Rite and, under the guidance of Archbishop Valerian Trifa of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America, converted to Orthodoxy on February 15, 1968. After residing in a monastic community for several years, Popp became the rector of Holy Cross Romanian Orthodox Church in Hermitage, Pennsylvania.

On November 15, 1980, Popp was consecrated Bishop of Dearborn Heights, as an auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Trifa. He served in that role until 1984, when Trifa retired. On November 17, 1984, Popp became the ruling hierarch of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America, part of the Orthodox Church in America; on October 20, 1999, the Holy Synod of the OCA elevated him to the rank of Archbishop.

Popp traveled to Romania in May 2003, where he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Oradea. Following the resignation of Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) in July 2012, Popp was appointed as the locum tenens of the OCA.