On Sunday, June 4, 2017—the Great Feast of Pentecost—His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon celebrated the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at Holy Trinity Church, East Meadow, NY. Archpriest Martin Kraus, Rector, and the parish faithful welcomed Metropolitan Tikhon on the joyous celebration of their parish’s patronal feast day.
Following the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Tikhon presided at the Vespers of Pentecost and Kneeling Prayers. A festal procession concluded the day’s liturgical celebrations.
During the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Tikhon awarded Archpriest Sergei Glagolev the right to wear the miter, in recognition of his many years of outstanding service to the Orthodox Church in America. Metropolitan Tikhon spoke of Father Sergei andmar Matushka Genevieve’s life-long devotion to and ministry in the Church.
Father Sergei is descended from a long line of Orthodox priests and educators dating from the 16th century. Born in 1928, he grew up in the religious and cultural milieu of the large Orthodox immigrant communities in the Gary, IN and Cleveland, OH areas. A talented musician, his musical education began at the age of seven under the tutelage of his father, who himself was a well-known priest, composer and choirmaster. Father Sergei began directing the Pittsburgh Cathedral Choir at the age of 13. A pioneer in incorporating English into the liturgical services, his works carry a distinct “American Orthodox” identity while bearing the influence of Russian choral masters, such as Kastalsky, Gretchaninoff, and Chesnokov, as well as J. S. Bach, Vivaldi, and Palestrina.
After World War II, Father Sergei was educated at Oberlin, Julliard, New York University, and Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, at that time in New York City. He was choirmaster in Clifton, NJ; Lorain, OH and Detroit, MI. In Detroit he married the former Genevieve Brunarsky in 1951. In the same year he was ordained to the diaconate. The following year, he was ordained to the priesthood. Father Sergei and Matushka Genevieve, affectionately called “Gerry,” have three children and four grandchildren.
The Glagolevs spent 23 years in California where they were called in 1954 to organize the first English-speaking missions. The use of the English vernacular, liturgical renewal, Eucharistic awakening, and the growth of the suburban missions throughout America in large part began as the “Encino Movement”—a reference to Saint Innocent Church, Tarzana, CA, originally established in neighboring Encino and pastored by Father Sergei. Before returning to the East Coast in 1976, he served as Dean of San Francisco’s Holy Trinity Cathedral and Chancellor of the Diocese of the West.
Father Sergei taught at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY; Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA; and Saint Herman’s Seminary, Kodiak, AK, focusing on the fields of homiletics, liturgical theology and sacred music. He also served as the Director—today Director Emeritus—of the Fellowship of Orthodox Stewards of the Orthodox Church in America. He served as Rector of Holy Trinity Church, East Meadow, NY prior to his retirement. He continues to lecture and write, hoping to share in shaping the vision of the witness and mission of the Orthodox Church in America. In 2014, he was one of four initial recipients of the Orthodox Church in America’s Order of Saint Romanos, which was awarded by the Holy Synod of Bishops “for his lifetime of musical contributions as a singer, choirmaster, composer and teacher” and for pioneering “the use of English in liturgical services, of which many are now classic parts of the repertoire of parish choirs.”
