The Rt. Rev. Samir H. Kafity became the Bishop in Residence in Poway at the invitation of Rev. Dr. Gary Nicolosi, Rector of St. Bartholomew’s after his retirement in 1998. Bishop Kafity received his BA in 1957 from American University of Beirut. He also has a Dip. Th. from the Near East School of Theology, a D.D. from Dickinson College, an S.T.D. from Virginia Theological Seminary and a D.D. from University of Kent. He was ordained a priest in 1957 and a Bishop in 1982. He was twelfth Diocesan Bishop in Jerusalem and the Middle East from 1984-1998 and President Bishop and Primate to Jerusalem and the Middle East from 1986-1997. He was also installed as an Episcopal Canon in 1989. Bishop Kafity and his wife Najat have two daughters and four grandchildren.