The Rev. Raymond H. Phyles was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended Baltimore County schools. He is a National Honor Society graduate of Parkville High School and served as president of his senior class.
Following high school, Pastor Phyles attended Gettysburg College, a Lutheran undergraduate school, and pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in philosophy and a minor in classical Greek. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at the end of his junior year and was graduated magna cum laude.
From college, Pastor Phyles attended the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and holds a Master of Divinity degree from that institution. He served his seminary internship at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Oak Park, Illinois.
Upon graduation from seminary, Pastor Phyles came to the Boston area for doctoral studies at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge. His concentration of studies in the Th.D. program was in historical and systematic theology. As part of his dissertation research, he studied for a year at the George Wilhelms Universität in Münster, Germany.
When he returned from Europe, Pastor Phyles was ordained and served a parish in Westchester County, New York. He returned to the Boston area in 1977 and has served St. John as her pastor since that time.
Pastor Phyles is married to Linda Pulli Phyles, a Peabody native and chief of physical therapy at the Chelsea Soldiers Home. They are the parents of Heather and Kristin, who are students at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School. Pastor has also served the community as co-chairperson of the Granite Street Neighborhood Association and chairperson of Peabody Citizens for Better Government.
In the more than 30 years that Pastor Phyles has served St. John, the congregation has grown in numbers and has enlarged its programs of outreach and service to the North Shore community. Pastor Phyles continues to find his ministry meaningful and fulfilling and enjoys especially the fellowship and partnership of the people of St. John.
