Father Wayne J. Ruchgy, Phd, has always relied on God’s trusted timing and sense of humor in finding his path in life.  Born and raised in Wayne, Michigan, the only son of Joseph and Ann Ruchgy, Fr. Wayne received a degree in Philosophy from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington Ohio in 1962.  That timing and sense of humor showed itself soon after graduation, when by chance the opportunity came to enter St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Seminary, taking Fr. Wayne on a path different than his Roman Catholic upbringing.  From the Catholic University of America he earned his License in Sacred Theology in 1966 and was ordained a priest that same year.  His first assignment brought him home to Detroit at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church, where he served as assistant pastor for four years.  In 1970 God’s timing was again present, leading Fr. Wayne to begin a second career path, becoming a teacher, Guidance Counselor, and eventually a Psychologist for the Detroit Public Schools and the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency.  In addition to earning a Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counseling, in 2004 he received his second Master’s Degree, and then a Doctorate, in Clinical Psychology from the University of Detroit – Mercy.  He chose to specialize his skills helping special needs students.  Until recently, Father Wayne maintained a Clinical Psychology practice that provided therapy to people without insurance.  These educational achievements coincided with his concurrent pastoral leadership of St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Dearborn Michigan, which he assumed in 1977 and holds to this day. This dual career has revealed to Fr. Wayne the compatible and supportive, not adversarial or contradictory, connection between Faith and Psychology, and he counts this insight as one of the great blessings granted him across both vocations.  Father Wayne has served as a Consultor for the Eparchy since 1993, and was honored to act as Protosyncellus, retiring in 2016 after twenty-three years