Mitered Archpriest Sergei Shchukin passed away on this day in 1977.
All priests partake in the joys and sorrows of their flock. However, there are those among them who made a difference and have been remembered for generations after they departed from this world. Fr. Sergei Shchukin was such a priest.
The future Fr. Sergei was born in 1891 in Rostov on Don into the family of a railway engineer. In 1918, Sergei graduated from a school in Moscow with a degree in chemical engineering. Sergei was a practicing Orthodox Christian. In 1918, he went to Optina Hermitage, visiting Elder Nektarii. Sergei was actively involved in the Russian chapter of the YMCA. As a result of his “alien” lifestyle, in 1934, Sergei was arrested and exiled to the Russian north. He returned from exile before World War II. During the war, Sergei found himself in the German-occupied territories.
At the end of the war, Sergei and his family were in North Germany. There, the efforts of two monks from St. Job of Pochaev Monastery in Ladomirová, Slovakia, kept many former Soviet citizens from being “repatriated” to the USSR. In the locality of Fischbeck, near Hamburg, Archimandrites Vitaly (Ustinov) and Nathanael (L’vov) organized a Russian Orthodox camp for the displaced persons. Many choir directors, singers, and clergymen who later served from Australia to the US received their initial training there.
After Archimandrite Nathanael became Bishop of Brussels and Western Europe, he ordained Sergei a presbyter. Fischbeck was in the British occupation zone, and from there, Fr. Sergei moved to England with his family. In 1952, they came to Toronto, Canada.
The newly founded Holy Trinity Parish in Toronto had about fifty families. Fr. Sergii organized and promoted an all-ROCOR group called the Prince Vladimir Youth Circle, where he used his erudition and skill in personal interaction to share his knowledge of the Holy Scripture, church history, and the life of the saints with parishioners. In the same year, 1952, Fr. Sergei organized a parish children’s school, which has become one of the largest in the ROCOR.
In 1966, Fr. Sergei became the rector of Holy Trinity Parish in Windsor, Ontario. The Orthodox people who met Fr. Sergei remembered him as an “unmercenary” pastor who cared for each and every one of them. Fr. Sergei is the author of articles on many church-related topics. One of his granddaughters, Matushka Maria Naumenko, is the wife of the ROCOR Archpriest Gregory Naumenko of Rochester, NY, and the other, Elena, married the future Archpriest Alexander Golubov, of the Moscow Patriarchate here in America.
Source:
“Istoriia prikhoda: kratkii istoricheskii ocherk,” [A Brief Historical Account of the Parish] Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Toronto, Canada.
Photo: canadapress.ru.
