In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
Among Russians there has long existed a popular belief that bishops of the Orthodox Church die in "threes" (within, of course, a certain period of time). And just now this belief has involuntarily come to mind. A year and a half ago, soon after the last Bishop's Council of the Church Abroad, the elderly Archbishop Stephan died. Then, just over a year ago, the orphaned Church Abroad prayerfully accompanied into the "way of all the earth," her spiritual father and primate of many years, the never-to-be-forgotten elder. Metropolitan Anastassy. And now, finally, a third name.
Yesterday, during the All-night Vigil, there was an urgent telephone call from Bishop Nektary in California, bringing us the mournful news that one of the senior hierarchs of our Church, the alternate to the Chief Hierarch of our Church, the archpastor-ascetic. Archbishop John, had died suddenly in Seattle, where he had gone with the wonder-working icon of the Mother of God. Shattering news.
Thinking now about Vladika John, I remember what happened more than thirty years ago, when my late father, Bishop Dimitri, knowing what sorrows and troubles awaited Blessed Metropolitan Anthony, Chief Hierarch of the Church Abroad, in Yugoslavia, invited him to the Far East, to Harbin, where church life was beginning to thrive. "You will rest here, Vladika," wrote Bishop Dimitry. Metropolitan Anthony answered as follows:
"My friend, I am already so old and so feeble that I cannot think of making any journey except the one to the cemetery. … But instead of myself, I am sending you — as my very own soul, my own heart — Bishop John. This small, frail individual, almost a child in appearance, is some sort of miracle of ascetic steadfastness and strictness in our time of general spiritual paralysis"…. So did his great Abba characterize the still young and only recently consecrated Vladika John. This is how Vladika John was then, and so he remained. And even in our time, before our eyes, he was the same "miracle of ascetic steadfastness/' a supreme example of a spiritual, prayerful disposition.
Vladika John was always praying; Vladika John prayed everywhere. With good reason did the young and similarly spiritually attuned Hieromonk Methody note perceptively, still back in Harbin, "We all 'start' praying, but Vladika John does not need to start; he is always in a state of prayer… " No matter what changes occurred in his outward situation, in the external conditions of Vladika John's life and his work, prayer and the Divine services were of primary importance to him; nothing could distract him from this. No single individual can possess all perfection's and be the bearer of all gifts. Everyone can err —no one is free from erring. But those who had contact with Vladika John as a man of prayer, as an archpastor concerned with human souls and always ready to come to their aid, those who experienced the power of his prayer, either personally or with their close ones — these people will never forget Vladika and will always carry in their hearts the grateful memory of that warmth and light which he imparted.
Vladika is gone — and that unceasing prayer with which our great man of prayer was aflame, praying ceaselessly "in behalf of all and for all," has been cut short. But the Church Abroad will not forget him. We trust that Vladika John will find mercy and boldness at the Dread Throne of the Lord of Glory, and there will pray for his close ones and for his flock, just as he prayed while here on earth…. And our duty, the duty of grateful love, is to answer his prayers with prayer. Let us pray for his pure soul, that the Lord will give him rest with the saints. Amen.
+ Metropolitan Philaret