LYNDORA — The Rev. Piasius McGrath traveled a long way to arrive at his new parish on Evergreen Drive.

But the newly installed pastor at SS. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not cite road miles as part of his journey. He speaks instead of a spiritual migration from his roots as the son of a Mennonite minister.

Born Menno Robert McGrath in Virginia, McGrath lived in Costa Rica and Florida before his missionary family settled in Ohio.

"The early church had taught things I had not been taught as a Mennonite," said McGrath, who was raised in the Beachy Amish Mennonite church.

As a Mennonite, McGrath was raised with a simplistic approach to life, rejecting such things as television radio and movies.

McGrath said anabaptist groups like the Amish and Mennonites likewise simplified their religious practices in order to strip away abuses they saw in medieval Europe.

"In doing that, they threw away a lot of the forms of worship," said McGrath, who set out to discover those "nonessential" elements that were lost with the radical reformation of the 16th century.

"Being interested in history, I asked 'What history is there? What was the church doing in all those years?'"

The catalyst for his quest was a Greek Orthodox liturgy, which he attended in the late 1980s while at a seminar in Boston.

"The service was three hours long. It was entirely in Greek, and I knew no Greek," he recalled.

"Ifelt the presence of God in a way Ihad never felt it."

McGrath said he was struck immediately by the mystical quality of the Orthodox liturgy, which appeals to multiple senses with incense, chanting and iconography.

"You are able to participate fully with your entire self as opposed to a worship that is more rational," he said.

Other differences included the Holy Eucharist, which the early church accepted as the authentic body and blood of Christ instead of as a symbolic gesture.

McGrath said the 10-year journey that ensued led to his conversion in the late 90s.

At that time, McGrath was given the name Paisius in honor of his patron saint, St. Paisius Velichkovsky, a 17th century Ukrainian Orthodox monastic saint.

During his quest, McGrath also was earning a degree in religion at Eastern Mennonite College in Virginia, then teaching history in Ohio and Virginia for about six years.

In 2000, McGrath chose another path — working for a short time in a bookstore before entering St. Sophia's Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary in 2002.

As well as his father, one of McGrath's brothers is a Mennonite minister. By the time McGrath had entered the seminary, another brother — an Episcopalian priest — had already introduced the idea of conversion.

"For most of my family, there was a concern about breaking with the tradition with which we had been raised. The concern primarily was leaving a scriptural foundation for one that was questionable ... because they did not know anything about Orthodoxy," he said.

"But that has lessened with time, as they become more familiar with Orthodoxy."

McGrath was ordained several years later to the Holy Diaconate at St. Nicholas, serving the next year at the Eastern Orthodox Foundation, a men's shelter in Indiana, and helping with administration duties at two churches.

In October — the day after his 40th birthday — McGrath was ordained as a celibate priest at SS. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Carnegie.

Although Orthodox priests are permitted to marry, they must be married before ordination. McGrath chose to serve as a celibate priest, which means he is eligible to advance in the church hierarchy.

But McGrath said he holds no agenda for advancing through the ranks.

"I'm happy being a parish priest," he said, noting the Lyndora community is similar to those in his home near Canton.

With a congregation of less than 100, McGrath said he looks forward to sharing relationships with his parishioners. "I will be able to be more involved in the lives of the people — and that I enjoy," he said.

Parish board president George Olenic said the congregation likewise welcomes McGrath, who many are getting to know through Bible studies on alternate weeks.

"I told him when he came, 'You're a big guy. Be ready for a couple of punches,'" he said.

"But everybody seems happy with him. He seems very compatible and easy to get along with."

Olenic said in addition to McGrath's background as a Mennonite, his ethnic background is also not typical, since he is Irish, not Ukrainian.

"At one point the (church members) were a lot of immigrants. They expected the priest to be Ukrainian. Slowly the immigrants are passing on and we're getting away from it."

McGrath's duties also include serving at Holy Virgin Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Arnold.