Howell, New Jersey, May 25, 2018
The ever-memorable Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov has reposed in the Lord.
Fr. Valery, who turned 90 years old in December, fell asleep in the Lord in Howell, New Jersey, where he was pastor emeritus of the St. Alexander Nevsky Diocesan Cathedral of the Eastern American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). He had suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Father also served as the dean of New Jersey and president of the Synodal Arts & Architecture Commission.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine and His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of New York, the First Hierarch of ROCOR offered warm words of congratulations to Fr. Valery on the occasion of his 90th birthday that offer a glimpse into the newly-departed’s spiritual life and service.
Met. Onuphry writes:
Your entire life has been a fiery flame of the spirit, which has traversed the furnace of many deprivations and temptations. But, despite the thorns that grew up on your life’s path, you clearly saw before you God’s light and truth, which instructed you and led you to the place of His glory—to the holy Church, in order to stand at the Lord’s altar. Having grown up under the spiritual leadership of holy and divinely wise pastors, you have revealed yourself in all things as a minister of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses (2 Cor. 6:4), prepared, as a true pastor, to lay down your life for the sheep entrusted to your care.
Among the “holy and divinely wise pastors” that Fr. Valery grew up under is St. John (Maximovitch), the Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco. Fr. Valery had come to America from Shanghai, where he had known St. John, and he received his diaconal ordination at the hands of the great hierarch in New York.
Met. Hilarion adds:
In the present moments of celebration, I find it right and proper that your many years of service to the Russian Church Abroad are worthy of emulation and honorable recollection because, for the clergy around you, you have been a faithful guide and helpful leader, a merciful and condescending superior, at the same time attentive and vigilant; for your flock, you have truly been a good shepherd. But, serving the Church for many years, you did not limit yourself solely to the fulfillment of your pastoral duties; your work touched also on other institutions. Hardly one significant event for our Church took place without your active participation.
Since 2014, the Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov Scholarship has helped 25 seminarians make their way through Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY, totaling roughly $250,000 of assistance to date.
May Protopresbyter Valery’s memory be eternal!
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