June 29, 2014
San Francisco: Metropolitan Hilarion leads Rite of Nomination of
Archimandrite Nicholas (Olhovsky) as Bishop of Manhattan
On Saturday, June 28, the Rite of Nomination of
Archimandrite Nicholas (Olhovsky) as Bishop of Manhattan was held in
Joy of All Who Sorrow Cathedral in San Francisco, CA. The rite was
led by Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America & New York,
co-served by the Hierarchal members of the Council of Bishops of the
Russian Church Abroad and bishops who had come to participate in the
celebrations dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the glorification
of the Holy Hierarch John, Wonderworker of Shanghai & San Francisco.
The hierarchs in their mantles and Metropolitan Hilarion in lesser
Hierarchal vestments occupied the cathedra in the middle of the
cathedral. After the appointed short moleben, Archimandrite Nicholas
delivered his consecration address:
Your
Eminence,
Very Most Reverend Master!
Your
Eminences, Your Graces,
Honorable Father-Pastors, and God-loving
People of God!
During
these days of joy, as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the
glorification of the Holy Hierarch John of Shanghai & San Francisco,
you, divinely-wise and holy hierarchs, are calling me to the highest
form of service in the vineyard of Christ. It is with fear,
trembling, trepidation, and piety that I approach the Mystery of
episcopal Consecration.
In opening the annual Council of Holy Trinity
Monastery in Jordanville in 1959, its abbot, Archbishop Averky
(Taushev) of blessed memory, in his keynote address, said to the
brethren that "our main goal is the salvation of the soul." These
words apply not only to the ascetic labors of monastics, but to the
service of Archpastors and pastors. "Follow Me, and I will make you
fishers of men" (Matt. 4:19), said the Lord, calling the first
Apostles. Upon His Ascension to Heaven, the Lord, blessing the
Apostles, said: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20). As we read in the Gospel according
to Mark: "And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord
working with them, and confirming the word with signs following"
(Mark 16:20). The Apostles, receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
formed their first community of believers in Christ, the first
Church. By descending upon them, the Holy Spirit sanctified and
confirmed them. That is how the Kingdom of God was established upon
the earth for the salvation of all mankind.
By Divine Providence, you are calling upon me to
serve the Holy Church in the Apostolic rank. I recognize my
sinfulness, my weakness; I do not dare imagine myself worthy of this
all-holy rank, but I fear rejecting the call. I rely on the power of
God, which is "made perfect in weakness" (ІІ Cor. 12:9).
Remembering my childhood, I thank all those, both
alive and reposed, who warmed me with Christian love. I thank God
for my parents and godparents who reared me. Together with my dear
brothers and cousins, I was raised in the Orthodox Faith, with love
for the Russian language, Russian culture, and the great legacy of
our ancestors. I remember on this evening the glorious hierarchs of
the Russian Church Abroad, who guided me spiritually and inspired me
to serve the Church and mankind. Among these were Metropolitan
Philaret (Voznesensky), Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov), Metropolitan
Laurus (Skurla), and Bishop Mitrophan (Znosko-Borovsky), all of
blessed memory, who carried out their Archpastoral service with
great love. I remember the pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to our
"spiritual fortress," as Metropolitan Anastassy (Gribanovsky) loved
to call Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville; and the monks and
nuns laboring in these places. I recall the monks of Jordanville
being not serious and morose, but joyful, hardworking, filled with
love and pious. These were people who fully devoted their lives to
God, but did not neglect their neighbor. Like them, our Hierarchs
and clergymen are always very accessible; we always had the
opportunity not only to see them in church during services, but to
commune with them outside of church.
Graduating from high school, I enrolled in Holy
Trinity Seminary in Jordanville. Here I began to immerse myself
deeper into monastic life, to have closer bonds with the brethren,
to study Theology, Church History, Liturgics, and other subjects. At
the time, the abbot of the monastery and rector of the seminary was
Archbishop Laurus, future First Hierarch of the Russian Church
Abroad, whom Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev) of blessed memory often
called "the hope of our younger episcopacy." Tending to the
salvation of his soul, he gave all of us seminarians "the image of
meekness," humility and good virtues. The late Metropolitan united
perfectly a monastic form of life with his Hierarchal service,
participating in the life of the flock as a true bearer of the Truth
of Christ and the commandments of the Gospel. In his personal life,
he was exceptionally humble, but in church he served with ceremony
and splendor, as a Hierarch should, and as is customary in the
Russian Church.
Upon graduating seminary, the Lord allowed me, a
sinner, to serve the Holy Church under Metropolitan Laurus.
Soon after my ordination to the diaconate, and the
blessed repose of Metropolitan Laurus, the Synod of Bishops assigned
to me the task of being caretaker to the Kursk Root Icon of the
Mother of God "of the Sign." When I learned of this, my heart
repeated the words of the Righteous Elizabeth: "And whence is this
to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
And since then, the Lord has blessed for me to "travel with the Icon
from the East even unto the West." With my own eyes I saw how the
Mother of God, through her Icon, "brought blessing and joy to all
who stream toward her" (from the akathist to the Kursk Root Icon).
Of course, the Kursk Root Icon has been kept in the
cathedral devoted to her name at the Synod of Bishops in New York
since 1957. In this holy place, with God’s help, I will carry out my
obedience as a vicar of the Eastern American Diocese. This diocese
is one of the biggest in the Russian Church Abroad in number of
parishes and believers. Over the last 20 years, we have observed how
our churches abroad are filled not only with old émigrés and their
descendants, but with multitudes of new immigrants, and also
newly-converted Americans, who are learning the life of the Church
and becoming Her active members.
In my service, I will strive to follow the legacy of
our fathers and with great joy, as once Archbishop Vitaly
(Maximenko) wrote, "give away all my powers" to the Church under the
wise guidance of my Kyriarch, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion.
I
thank you, Your Eminence, dear Metropolitan, for your love, for your
living example of true episcopacy, reminding us of the words of
Apostle Paul: "For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of
God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker,
not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of
good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding fast the faithful
word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers" (Titus 1:7-9).
I thank you for the great trust that the Hierarchy
of the Russian Church Abroad, His Holiness the Patriarch, and the
Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate have shown me. I express my
profound gratitude to the clergymen and flock whom you entrust now
to my care. I believe that, together with the clergymen and staff
serving at the Synodal Cathedral and the Chancery of the Synod of
Bishops, we will continue with God’s help to work successfully,
maintain good communications and mutual understanding, and in the
spirit of brotherly love do God’s work to the best of our abilities.
I extend my heartfelt thanks to Archimandrite Luke
and the brethren of Holy Trinity Monastery, who warmed, consoled,
and supported me since my monastic tonsure.
On the feast day of the Dormition of the Most Holy
Mother of God in 1994, the year that St. John, the Wonderworker of
Shanghai & San Francisco, was glorified, you, Your Eminence, being
then Bishop of Manhattan, ordained me a reader. Now, after two
decades, under the protection of our Protectress and under the
omophorion of this great holy man of God, in this magnificent
cathedral in which God’s hierarch celebrated before the altar table
of the Most High, through the laying on of your hands and the hands
of your brother-Hierarchs of the united Russian Church, you bring
down upon me the gift of episcopal grace. I ask Your Eminences and
Your Graces to lift up your holy prayers and offer me sound counsel,
so that through your Archpastoral prayers, Christ the Chief Shepherd
might grant my service the overabundant grace of the Holy Spirit,
Which always "healeth that which is infirm and completeth that which
is lacking."
On this chosen, holy, and extremely responsible
moment, I sense my spiritual poverty and unworthiness, and I ask the
Lord that His holy will be done in me and in His Church. Amen.
***
After Archimandrite Nicholas’ address, the appointed
Polychronion was intoned. The festal All-Night Vigil then began,
adorned with the antiphonal singing of the Hierarchal Choir and the
choir of participants of the XIII All-Diasporan Russian Orthodox
Youth Conference (under the direction of V.V. Krassovsky and A.P.
Fekula).
Photos:
www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws
Media Office of the Eastern
American Diocese
based on materials from the
official website of the ROCOR Synod of Bishops
