Fr. Cyril

Father Cyril Stavrevsky was parish priest here from 1979 to 2003. He was a native of Rochester and a first generation Macedonian American, his parents having come here from that country. During his growing up years the family used the Greek Orthodox church for baptisms and so forth, but like the families of other founders of St. Johns didn’t feel that they really fit in there and so were not regular attenders. As Carl Stavrevsky he was a civilian employee for the military occupation forces in Germany after WWII and was strongly influenced by an Episcopalian chaplain he got to know then. This is also where he met his wife, Margarite. In the very early 1960s he and his family attended a local Episcopalian church.

Then he saw the advertisement the founders of St Johns ran seeking members, and he responded, joining in with them in 1964, just after the initial beginning of the parish. As time went on he felt called to the priesthood and became a priest in 1969. After serving in various capacities away from Rochester, he returned to be the parish priest of St. Johns, falling asleep in the Lord while preparing for Vespers one Saturday night.  

Following are a few brief reminiscences of Father Cyril. Please feel free to add your own in the comments field, and help identifying and dating the photos would be great too.

Andrea Fedoruk: Father Cyril’s love and spiritual clarity was responsible for bringing my family back to the church. I continue to miss his unfailing kindness and thoughtfulness, as well as his depth of knowledge.

Irene Georgantas: I loved hearing Father Cyril give the final proclamation of faith on the Sunday of Orthodoxy--it was always with such passion and conviction. Inspiring!

 Steven K. Mojsovski: Father Cyril was my 1st spiritual father. I spent many sessions talking to him and asking him many questions about faith. Father Cyril opened my eyes to the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and also was a wonderful friend.

Gus Platas: My most vivid memory of Father Cyril is during our midnight Pascha service, when he used to run through the Church with his censer behind the altar servers, almost running over them with his enthusiasm.... many of us thought that the Holy Spirit overtook him and endowed him with so much energy and exuberance!

Ryan Platte: I’ll never forget my first encounter with him when I inquired about receiving Communion. Someone let him know I had a question for him, and in a minute out came this amazing, radiant priest, hunched over a bit in his age, his vestments a bit tattered. A fair amount of incense smoke came through the door with him, making the picture even more vivid. He was kind, patient, quite apparently in awe of God’s glory, and down to earth. His example helps me understand what it is to be an Orthodox Christian...

Jane Wargo (from an oral history interview): Fr. Cyril always could talk to a person where they were and explain things to them so they could understand.

Blessing of the boiler!

According to the Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity one finds that in the Bible the idea of blessing means to give favor. For example, in Genesis 27:11 Issac receives the favor or blessing (Hebrew, brch) of his father Jacob. There are liturgical blessings in the Bible too, for example the blessing of people in Numbers 6:22, or of food in 1 Samuel 9:13. The Orthodox practice, rooted in tradition and the scriptures, is to bless not only people and objects associated with the life in Christ, such as icons etc., but also to bless all sorts of objects of daily life and nature, whether animals, homes, or, as in this case, the new boiler of the church!

From left to right we have Vladimir Vukanovich, Ken O'Brien, Andrea Fedoruk, Bonnie Maye Schwarz, two unidentified people, and lastly Father Cyril Stavrevsky.The photo would seem to be from sometime in the 1980s.

Our "first" icon!

The icon shown here could perhaps be called our first icon. It was a card that was distributed at the first divine liturgy held in our parish. The card is the one Steve Merowsky's mother received, and kept safe all these years tucked inside her copy of Faith of Our Fathers: The Eastern Orthodox Religion, a book she used in teaching Sunday School.

On the back it reads:

This icon was Blessed and Distributed on the occasion of the Celebration of the First Divine Liturgy, St. John the Baptish Orthodox Catholic Church, Rochester, New York, on the Sunday of the Myrrh Bearing Ladies May 17, 1964, with the blessings of The Most Reverend Metropolitan Leonty, Archbishop of New York and the Americas by the V. Rev. Fr. Alexander Warnecke, Pastor, The Rev. Hieromonk Daniel (Krstich) of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Responses sung by Ss. Peter & Paul Orthodox Catholic Church Choir of Syracuse, N. Y., Mr. Oleg V. Beljaeff, Director.

TROPARION TO ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST:

The memory of the just is blessed, but for thee, O Forerunner, the Lord's testimony sufficeth; for thou has verily shown thyself to be the most honorable of the prophets, since thou wast blessed above all in baptizing him whom they prophesied. Then, having gladly suffered for the truth, thou didst proclaim also to those in hell God manifest in the flesh taking upon himself the sins of the world and showing great mercy upon us.

Father Thomas Brown

There are several "sons of the parish" who have gone on to become priests. We heard about Father John Dresko before, and here we will remember Father Thomas Brown. In future posts we will look at the father and son duo of Father Cyril and Father Ken Stavrevsky.

Fr. Thomas was born and raised in the South. As a teenager he moved with his family to Geneva, NY. He graduated from Houghton College and Dallas Theological Seminary  with a Masters in Theology. He became a Baptist minister for a while and then started his search for the “true church”. Eventually he ended up at our parish around the same time in the early 1980s  as some other new members, e.g. Susan Deeb. Experiencing a call to the priesthood he explored this under Father Cyril and then  enrolled at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. Our parish helped him with scholarship monies and in May of 1988, he graduated with a MDiv. from St. Vladimir’s. He married Nadine Eskoff in July and on August 7th, he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Boris at our parish of St. John the Baptist in Rochester. On August 28, he was ordained to the holy priesthood by Bishop Boris in Ohio and was assigned pastor of St. Innocent’s Orthodox Mission in Westlake, Ohio. Two years later he was transferred to Protection of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church in Gary, IN. On August 4th, 1991, he collapsed at the end of the Divine Liturgy in the church and passed away in front of his parish. He is buried in the cemetery at St. Tikhon’s Monastery in Pennsylvania. May his memory be eternal.

(In recent years Matushka Nadine, who is Matushka Natalie's sister, has relocated to Rochester and is an active member of our parish, singing in the choir.)