Bookies may be taking bets on who will be the next bishop of Rome. But the next Antiochian Orthodox bishop of Pittsburgh is already known, if not enthroned. He'll take up his staff and miter at a full-dress ceremony May 6 in Oakland.

The Rev. Thomas Joseph, 52, a Florida priest with New Jersey roots, will soon preside over the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Diocese of Pittsburgh and the East as Bishop Thomas.

On the first Friday in May he will be officially enthroned by Metropolitan Philip, primate of the Archdiocese of North America, at St. George Orthodox Cathedral in Oakland. A reception and banquet will follow at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown.

Joseph is one of three new Antiochian priests ready for installation as bishops this season, part of a newly independent North American synod of the church founded in St. Paul's home town 2,000 years ago.

The former city employee from Paterson, N.J., is a lifelong Antiochian Orthodox, a familiar face at Antiochian Village summer camp in Ligonier for many years. He heard a call to the priesthood and received ordination in 1994 after many years as a youth minister at churches in New York and Houston. His first and only pastorate was at St. Nicholas Church in Pinellas Park, Fla., and the last few years have seen him active in bioethics studies, philosophy and education.

In February 2004, Joseph was made an archmandrite, a sure sign that his star was rising along with the visibility of the 450,000-member Antiochian Church.

A century ago, Syrian, Lebanese and Turkish Christians brought the faith with them to the United States and Canada when they immigrated. The Antiochian church adapted to North American soil. It shed many of the ethnic and nationalistic trappings that alienated newcomers, and in the past 20 years has seen a surge in conversions and growth.

Many evangelical Protestants in search of a "true apostolic Christianity" found the Antiochian Orthodox church a comfortable fit, theologically and socially.

In 2004 the church's headquarters in Lebanon granted the North American synod of churches self-rule. In July in Pittsburgh, the North American synod adopted its constitution.

And in October, Joseph was elected bishop of Pittsburgh during a synod meeting in Florida. Two other priests were named bishops of Toledo and Eastern Canada at the same meeting.

Bishop Mark Maymon of Toledo, consecrated alongside Joseph, is a converted Catholic who turned to Orthodoxy while studying theology at Oral Roberts University. He said he believes he is the first convert elevated to bishop in the history of the church, an example of "the kind of religious search that ends in Antioch."

All three men were summoned to Damascus and officially ordained bishops in early December by His Beatitude Ignatius IV, head of the worldwide Antiochian church.

Joseph moved to the chancery at Antiochian Village in Westmoreland County in January to prepare himself in relative seclusion for church leadership.

Following his enthronement May 6, he will celebrate his first Sunday Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at St. George Cathedral -- on the feast day of St. Thomas.

On May 7, Antiochian Village will open a new show of Palestinian heritage items and artwork, and serve a gala Middle Eastern feast complete with music and speeches.