Fr. Anatoliy Melnyk appointed Chancellor of Canadian Archdiocese
On Sunday, February 24, 2013, Protodeacon Nazari Polataiko, Secretary of the Archdiocese of Canada of the Orthodox Church in America, announced that Archpriest Anatoliy Melnyk has accepted appointment to the position of Chancellor of the Archdiocese.
Father Anatoliy succeeds Archimandrite Alexander [Pihach], who was reassigned to Saint Catherine the Great Martyr Representation Church, Moscow, as OCA Representative to the Russian Orthodox Church in late 2012.
A life-long member of the Orthodox Church, Father Anatoliy was born in Ukraine in 1960. In 1986, he graduated from the Saint Petersburg Theological Seminary and in 2002 from the Kyiv Theological Academy. After his ordination to the diaconate and priesthood by His Eminence, the late Archbishop Damian [Marchuk] in 1986, he served in the Volynia Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Chuch. Three years later, he was invited to serve Holy Trinity Sobor, Winnipeg, MB, as priest-in-charge. At the end of 2002, he was released from the omophorion of His Eminence, Archbishop Semion [Shostatskyj] of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and received into the ranks of the clergy of the Orthodox Church in America in early 2003.
Father Anatoliy served as rector of Winnipeg’s Holy Trinity Sobor from 2003 until 2005, when he was transferred to Montreal, QC and assigned rector of Saints Peter and Paul Sobor. In October 2007, he was appointed Dean of Québec and the Maritime Provinces.
Father Anatoliy and his wife, Matushka Irina [Kosich], have two children and one granddaughter. Julia and her husband, Priest Vasily Tsaritsyn, are graduates of the Saubt Petersburg Theological Seminary. Their son, Gleb, currently is a second-year student at the same school.
May God grant Father Anatoliy many years of fruitful work for the glory of God and His Holy Church.