Father Jason M. Makos will begin his duties as the administrator of St. Ann and St. Brendan parishes this weekend. It will be the first city assignment for Makos, a 36-year-old East Bridgewater native who has served as pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in Whitman for the last three years.

“Father Makos is a hard-working priest who takes great joy in parish life,” said Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM Cap. in a statement to the Reporter. “Since his ordination in 2005, Fr. Makos has demonstrated the pastoral leadership skills that will help him to guide the parish communities at St. Ann and St. Brendan as they proceed with the work of Disciples in Mission, the archdiocese’s planning initiative.”

Fr. Makos takes charge at a time of transition for the two parishes, which will both remain open and largely independent but share one administration. The two pastors who previously led St. Ann’s and St. Brendan’s — Fr. Sean Connor and Fr. John Connolly, respectively —moved on to new assignments in the archdiocese earlier this year. The changes come as part of the church’s long-term planning process called “Disciples in Mission: A Pastoral Plan for the Archdiocese of Boston,” a program implemented last year as the archdiocese continues to cope with a dwindling supply of priests to staff its 288 parishes.

Rev. Makos told the Reporter that he knows that administering the two parishes will be “a challenge. I think we really have to focus on it as a team in terms of leadership,” he said. “I’ve walked through both parishes and I’m thrilled to be in the city environment. Both churches are beautiful and the history is thrilling.”

After growing up in a household that observed the Greek Orthodox religion, Fr. Makos converted to Roman Catholicism as an adult. He attended Massasoit College and UMass Boston before beginning his priestly studies at St. John’s Seminary, then completed his higher studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 2006.

“I like to say that I grew up with the best of both worlds,” he said. “I still have one foot in the East and one foot in the West. It’s interesting to bring that eastern perspective to the western culture.”