The Rev. Joseph Farber, previously Vicar of the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Sapulpa, Oklahoma and most recently Rector at the Church of the Transfiguration in Sisters, Oregon, has returned to Oklahoma as Priest-in-Charge at St Michael’s Church, Norman.
Fr. Joseph is a native of the Oklahoma City area, graduating from Moore High School in 1976. As a youth, he was very active in the Youth Ministry Program of the Oklahoma United Methodist Conference before leaving to attend the University of Chicago. It was in Chicago, under the guidance of the campus Episcopal chaplain, a fellow Oklahoman, that Joseph became an Episcopalian. At the University of Chicago Fr. Joseph earned a B.A. in Religion in the Humanities, then returned to Oklahoma, where he earned a J.D. at the University of Oklahoma. He spent the next 24 years practicing law. During this time, he was a frequent lecturer for Oklahoma Bar Association Continuing Legal Education seminars on bankruptcy law and taught bankruptcy law as an adjunct professor at the OU Law School.
Joseph became an active member of St. Michael's Church in the early 2000’s, and a desire for ordained ministry never left him. After doing the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in 2002-2003, Joseph realized it was a call he could no longer avoid. He began shutting down his law practice, finally closing the office in 2006. In 2007, he was sponsored for holy orders by St. Michael’s Church and he began seminary at the School of Theology at the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee. Father Joseph was ordained a deacon in January of 2010 and a priest in July of that same year.
Avocationally, Fr. Joseph is a musician. In high school he divided his Sundays between playing the organ at Holy Apostles Episcopal Church and youth activities in First United Methodist Church of Moore. For many years, Joseph was a member of the jazz vocal quartet, Satin, which performed in many local venues including the Oklahoma City’s Arts Festival, Opening Nights, and the Greenwood Jazz Festival in Tulsa.
Joseph and his wife, Jan, have settled in Norman.
