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March 30 Today in OPC History

Arthur and Olivia Fox

2023

 

Although Arthur Fox in 1977 intended to enter a business management career, when he graduated from the State University of New York, Old Westbury, his first job was as a Medicaid case manager in Manhattan. While there Art heard a minister preach about the qualifications for ministry and decided that’s what he wanted to do. He attended Westminster Theological Seminary outside Philadelphia. During this time he was introduced to Olivia Dioda, a graphic designer from New York, when she was visiting New Life Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. As they shared a hymnal, Art thought, “She’s a nice girl, but she lives in New York.” Yet during his summer break in the Big Apple, Art asked Olivia to hang out with him for fellowship. They visited the Bronx Zoo and discussed theology on the subway, then wrote letters and talked on the phone after Art returned to classes. Art proposed to Olivia in a church building during his summer internship in 1984. They married on this date in 1985.

Both came from mixed church backgrounds. Olivia had become a believer when her younger sister took her to a Bible study led by a WTS student. Art planned to become a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, but after reading the biographies of John Murray and J. Gresham Machen, he knew Murray and Machen would not have been happy if he became a pastor in a denomination that ordained women elders. The night before his EPC licensure exams, he felt compelled to leave that denomination. Soon he joined New Life OPC in Jenkintown. He had a one-year internship under Henry Fikkert in Cedar Grove, Wisconsin. Ordained by the Presbytery of the Dakotas on October 30, 1988, Art served as pastor of Winner OPC in Winner, South Dakota. In 1992, the Foxes moved back to the Philadelphia area to help care for Olivia’s mother. While there in 1993, Art preached a sermon at a Presbytery of Philadelphia meeting. Two elders from Calvary OPC in Middletown, Pennsylvania, heard him preach and asked him to candidate at their church. He served as the pastor of that congregation for the next twenty-three years. In 2018 Art accepted a call to serve as pastor of New Hope OPC in Hanford, California.

 

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