Bishop Nikon to be installed to Vacant Boston See November 22
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, will preside at the installation of His Grace, Bishop Nikon as Bishop of Boston and the Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese on Saturday, November 22, 2003.
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Metropolitan Herman, along with His Grace, Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa, Protopresbyter Robert Kondratick, OCA Chancellor and Archdeacon Alexei Klimitchev, will arrive in Boston on Friday, November 21 in preparation for the installation. On Saturday morning, the Divine Liturgy and Enthronement will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m. at Saint George Cathedral, 523 East Broadway, South Boston, MA. A banquet will follow at Anthony’s Pier 4.
Consecrated Bishop of Baltimore and Auxiliary to Metropolitan Herman in 2002, Bishop Nikon was canonically elected to fill the vacant Boston See by members of the Holy Synod of Bishops at their fall session in October 2003. A few weeks earlier, delegates to the Albanian archdiocesan assembly had nominated Bishop Nikon as the candidate for the episcopal see.
Born in New York City on October 9, 1945, the son of the late Evans J. and Helena P. Liolin, Bishop Nikon was raised in a family nurtured in the Orthodox Christian faith and active in the Albanian Archdiocese of the Orthodox Church in America. His father had served as lay chairman and founder in 1947 of the Diocesan Theological Student Fund. For many years, his mother served as choir director at the family’s home parish of Saint Nicholas, Jamaica Estates, NY. His brother John, now deceased, served on the parish council of Saint George Church, Trumbull, CT, while his youngest brother, James, served as lay chairman of the Jamaica Estates parish and member of the Archdiocesan Council’s Student Fund. His elder brother, the Very Rev. Arthur Liolin, is Chancellor of the Boston-based Albanian Archdiocese.
Bishop Nikon pursued his elementary and secondary studies in New York City, where he developed an interest in theatre arts and the biological sciences.
Tonsured to the Order of Reader by His Eminence, the late Metropolitan Theophan [Noli], Bishop Nikon studied at Saint Vladimir Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, NY; Iona and Concordia Colleges, New Rochelle, NY; and the New School for Social Research and Political Science, New York City.
In 1967, he married the former Sarah Arthur, with whom he shared a ministry in which she devotedly served as choir director. He was ordained to the Diaconate by the late Bishop Stephen [Lasko] on July 5, 1969 and to the Holy Priesthood the following day. During his years of ministry, Bishop Nikon was well-known for his pastoral acumen and broad-based ministerial sensitivity and experience, having served as rector of Saint Nicholas Church, Southbridge, MA and Saint Thomas Church, Farmington Hills, MI. In addition to his pastoral ministry, Bishop Nikon served as President of the Greater Detroit Council of Orthodox Churches and Chaplain for the Wayne State University Orthodox Christian Fellowship. He also appeared on numerous live television and radio programs, broacasting to the faithful and those interested in the Orthodox faith. Notably, he was a project coordinator for “The Voice of Orthodoxy,” a radio ministry established by New England’s Russian Orthodox Layman’s League, and he served as editor of “The Vine,” the Albanian Archdiocese’s newspaper.
On July 25, 2000, his wife, Sarah, reposed in Father Nicholas’s arms following a bout with cancer. His Beatitude Metropolitan Theodosius presided at her funeral.
Prior to his consecration, Bishop Nikon pursued further studies at Saint Tikhon Seminary and Monastery, South Canaan, PA, where he was tonsured to monastic orders prior to his episcopal consecration.