Orthodox Church of our Lady of Kazan
Sea Cliff, NY
August 11, 2021
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
We gather this evening to offer hymns of falling asleep to the newly departed servant of God, Protopresbyter Leonid, whose voice we hear echoed in the words of the Apostle Paul in the third epistle from the burial service: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is in me. Whether then is was I or they, so we preach and so you believed” (1 Cor 15:10–11).
Father Leonid would certainly never claim to speak with the boldness of Saint Paul or claim to have authority to make personal proclamations on matters of faith and of Church life. But such was his commanding presence, in even the most unusual or difficult of circumstances, that there was never any doubt in the minds of those who had occasion to encounter him that they were in the presence of a figure of apostolic strength, and that the grace of God was truly in him. So he preached and so we believed, whether we were bishops, his fellow clergy, his flock, or his family.
Father Leonid was consistently an unshakeable pillar of the Orthodox Church in America, a staunch defender of her status as an autocephalous Church even in the face of criticism or conflict, and a clear articulator of her mission even in the face of incomprehension or confusion.
At the same time, Father Leonid knew how to navigate the often stormy waters of global Orthodox relations, whether this was in Soviet or Post-Soviet times, before Ligonier or after Ligonier, in the lead-up to the Council of Crete or in its aftermath.
Because of his considered approach to complex ecclesiastical matters, Father Leonid was, on occasion, not liked by certain segments. Because of his unambiguous convictions he was, paradoxically, sometimes misunderstood by others. He well understood the modern age of internet discussion and speculation, where conspiracies and suspicions of conspiracies are in abundance, even among the clergy who should know better.
For many, the topics that Father Leonid dealt with, such as “global Orthodoxy” or “ecumenical relations,” serve as triggers for sometimes intense reactions: it is easy to be either passionately enamored of, or staunchly opposed to, such topics. Father Leonid always held a more nuanced approach to all the spheres of his work, an approach of discernment in which he would evaluate the importance of a particular action or non-action, the importance of the need to speak or the need to remain silent, the importance of dialogue or the need to end the dialogue. In other words, Father Leonid knew where to draw the line, but he did it with the heart of a pastor and the sensibility of a diplomat.
The title of “diplomat” has often been ascribed to him, but in many fundamental ways, Father Leonid was not a diplomat—at least not of the type of diplomacy that is found in the halls of civil governments, the type that is full of compromise, fueled by intrigue, and ensnared in negotiation. Rather, his was a truly Christian diplomacy, in which the unshakeable truth of the Gospel is never compromised but spoken in love, where honesty and openness dispel any rash human reaction, and where frank and precise speech eliminate the need for drawn-out and wordy discussions.
Father Leonid was indeed a writer, but he was not a prolific writer in the sense of an academic who tries to impress others or to drown them with a flood of words and ideas. He was not a flowery writer of poetry but a master of the declarative sentence which, though outwardly simple and direct, worked its effect in the mind and the heart of the hearer. In this, one can again hear echoes of the approach taken by the Apostle Paul, whose words we heard this evening:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (1 Cor 15:1-6)
With similar short but powerful phrases, Father Leonid could get to the heart of the matter in whatever situation he found himself or wherever he was sent by the Church, whether he was drafting an editorial for the Orthodox Church newspaper or preparing an external affairs briefing for the members of the Holy Synod.
In these times of pandemic, we are restricted and separated from one another more than we care to be, and the profound hymns of the burial service strike us as even more pointed when they remind us of that. Many of us are overcome with sadness or melancholy when hearing such words. But Father Leonid was of such a constitution that one can imagine him stating, as a matter of fact, such words as those we heard this evening:
We are as a fleeting dream,
A breath which does not endure,
The flight of a passing bird,
A ship which leaves no trace upon the sea.
(Kathisma Hymn, Tone 6)
Father Leonid was certainly human. But by his own life, by his own example of long-suffering in illness, and now in his death, he reminds us all that, even in the face of our human fragility, each of us ought to preserve in our heart the hope of the resurrection, and each of us ought to be confirmed in the reality of that blessed and eternal state that awaits all of us. We have this hope and this confirmation through the example of Father Leonid, his labors on behalf of the Church, his pastoral care for his flock, and his love for his family.
On behalf of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, I offer my sincere condolences to Matushka Alexandra and the extended family, to his brother clergy, and to all the friends of the newly-departed servant of God, Protopresbyter Leonid, who have gathered this evening both in person and virtually.
In addition to his Diocesan Bishop, His Eminence Archbishop Michael of New York and the Diocese of New York and New Jersey, we are honored to have with us His Grace Bishop John of Worcester and New England who brings with him the condolences of His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America. Your Grace, I would ask you to read the letter from Metropolitan Joseph.
Also praying with us are Abbot Nikodhim, the Secretary of His Grace Bishop Matthew, the Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the United States of America, together with the Vice-Chancellor, Father Mark, who will share with us some letters from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Orthodox Church.
We are grateful to all those clergy who have joined us from the Orthodox Churches, and to our ecumenical guests: Jim Winkler and Tony Kireopoulos from the National Council of Churches; the Rt. Rev William Franklin, Ecumenical Officer representing Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church; and Kathryn Lohre, Ecumenical Officer for the Lutheran Church in America.
It is fitting that these words were offered on his behalf at the burial service last evening:
In faith and hope and love,
In meekness and purity and priestly worth,
Uprightly you discharged your sacred functions, O memorable one.
Therefore the eternal God whom you served
Shall Himself establish your spirit
In a place of brightness and beauty, where the righteous rest,
And you will receive pardon and great mercy at the judgment seat of Christ. (Troparion, Tone 2).
May his memory be eternal!