TLI Staff / Founder
The Reverend Matthew Paul Buccheri was born, baptized, communed and confirmed a Roman Catholic, yet his faith crystalized in the Reformed-Presbyterian tradition. However, since being received into the Episcopal Church, his last theological degree focused on the spirituality of Eastern Orthodoxy. Furthermore, he is currently the consulting-director of a Lutheran church planting organization. Therefore, he undoubtedly has ecumenical sensibilities, yet leans into, and feels most comfortable in, Anglo-Catholic settings.
Matthew is a graduate of New York University (BA, Psychology and Philosophy), Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia (MDiv, General and Counseling) and General Theological Seminary in New York (STM, Ascetical and Liturgical Theologies). He is a gifted communicator and spiritual director leading Sunday Forums, Retreats and Quiet Days. For more than a decade, he served on the staff of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. During his tenure at Redeemer he functioned in several different capacities: as a church planting catalyst for what was then, Redeemer Church Planting Center (now Redeemer City to City); as an assistant pastor overseeing a portion of the 6000 weekly attended congregation, his portion totaling over 1000; and as a director of community groups. Matthew was the central curriculum developer for the small group ministry at Redeemer, as well as the architect of the pastoral internship program and small group system currently in place.
Presently, Matthew serves as the consulting-director of Fifth Act Church Planting, a not-for-profit organization, which he co-founded for a Lutheran denomination. Fifth Act Church Planting is an enterprise zone within the synod and an affiliate organization that seeks to plant churches for the synod in global cities throughout North America. Furthermore, Matthew also consults urban and global city churches on a variety of issues, not least is renewal and revitalization. He has, moreover, been a guest speaker and has taught classes at numerous seminaries around the country.
Matthew is currently a transitional deacon to the priesthood in the Episcopal Diocese of New York and will be ordained to the Sacred Order of Priests on September 15, 2018. He is a visiting member of the North American Academy of Liturgy and an Ecumenical Fellow of the Sophia Institute at Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University, founded by the Very Rev. Prof. John Anthony McGuckin; and is a board member of the newly founded Institute for Studies in Eastern Christianity at Union Seminary. He is a lifetime member of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament and a Companion of the Oratory of the Good Shepherd. Finally, Matthew is a dual-certified church planting and church revitalization coach and consults with church planters and church re-vitalizers across denominational lines.
A native New Yorker with a two-year stint in New Orleans, Matthew lives with his wife YiYa and their daughter Hannah on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.