Holy Trinity Orthodox Church
East Meadow, NY
March 29, 2021
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Your Eminence Archbishop Michael,
Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers,
My beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Christ is in our midst!
The newly-departed priest of God, the Mitred Archpriest Basil, was many things to many people. As such, he was a living model of the Apostolic injunction to make oneself all things to all people that one might by all means possible save some. The Apostle Paul’s words are easy to quote and have an air of authenticity about them but such authenticity is not easy to attain. Most of us who are clergy count ourselves fortunate if we have acquired just one skill in undertaking the Apostolic work in the Church: some of us count ourselves effective preachers, others are erudite theologians; some of us are hard-working pastors, and others are wise confessors and spiritual fathers. But for most of us, the acquisition of these skills requires much effort.
Father Basil was a priest who somehow managed to do all these things with a graceful ease and a naturalness that showed that this was at the same time a gift from God and a genuine expression of his person and his pastoral discernment. In this way, he revealed himself to be, at his core, someone who was all things to all people. Father Basil was an evangelist in his very being and managed to radiate the reality of the resurrection with every word and gesture.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that Father Basil found his rest in the Lord on the day following the holy feast of the Annunciation, the day on which the Orthodox Church commemorates the Archangel Gabriel, the bearer of the glad tidings of the incarnation to the Mother of God. Father Basil was truly a bearer of the reality of the Kingdom, which he proclaimed not only with his words but with his whole self. His enthusiasm for the Lord and for all things related to the Church was difficult to resist.
In the second Gospel reading from this evening’s service, the Lord says: “My Father is working still and I am working.” Father Basil also was indeed a worker. Whether he was serving as Rector of Saint Mark’s Church in Bethesda, as Chaplain for the Orthodox Club at George Washington University, as Director of the Fellowship of Orthodox Stewards, or as a pillar of the Saint Sergius Chapel and the Long Island pan-Orthodox community, he was a worker. But his work was not that of some of us who burn ourselves out through the weight of administrative and pastoral work or become exhausted by lack of care for our own health.
Rather, Father Basil’s work radiated light, the light of humble and faithful service to Christ and His Holy Church. This light radiated, not only from his eyes, but from his whole body and from his heart. Certainly, no human being can claim to accomplish the divine work of the Holy Trinity, to whom we owe our life, our existence, and our worth as human beings. But Father Basil was a servant who had the gift and the talent to make manifest the glory of the kingdom through his ministry and through his life.
Father Basil was faithful in standing before that holy altar to provide the hands and offer the prayers that would call down the Holy Spirit upon the bread and the wine. He knew that he was holding the chalice from which he would distribute that sacred food, the bread of life, so that those who partook of them should never hunger nor thirst. He was a true man of faith who shared the bread of life with all those whom he encountered throughout his life, a life of deep inner dignity and heartfelt honor.
Father Basil lived his life and entered into death in the spirit of Saint Paul who writes of Christ who “must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” And he longed to hear the paschal words that we proclaim each year, that is, that “Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first-fruits of those that slept.”
Now, Father Basil himself finds that sleep that brings him that much closer to the universal resurrection. And the witness of his ministry and his faithfulness also confirms that reality in our own hearts and minds.
Just as he was a faithful servant, so Father Basil was attended to by many people, especially during these last few years. The local clergy organized themselves so as to provide pastoral care to Father Basil and to bring him the Holy Mysteries on a regular basis. I am grateful to Igumen Nikodhim (Preston), Archpriest John Klingel, and Archpriest Martin Krauss for exercising this pastoral vigilance towards their brother in Christ.
Father Basil was also well known throughout the Long Island Orthodox community, substituting at parishes of the Orthodox Church in America and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese for many years. It was almost inevitable that, when I was stopped by someone on the street who recognized me as an Orthodox clergyman, that the name of Father Basil would come up.
Father Basil always had a strong connection with the St Sergius Chapel community, a connection which grew stronger as he found himself less able to substitute in local parishes here on Long Island. When his health started to decline more drastically, Father Eric and Matushka Christina Tosi provided Father Basil with substantial and ongoing attention, becoming almost an adopted grandfather for the family. Matushka Christina, as a nurse, especially offered medical assistance and both she and Father Eric faithfully took care of many of Father Basil’s practical and personal daily needs. For this I am sincerely grateful.
I should also mention David and Katherine Linke, who served as the appointed representatives of the Saint Sergius community to Father Basil and were frequent visitors with him until covid restrictions prevented direct access. But even then, David and Katherine managed to make a few distanced visits and recently were helpful in providing live-streaming capabilities to Father Basil to participate in the services either at Saint Sergius Chapel or at Father Eric’s Church in Wappingers Falls.
Until the very end, Father Basil was virtually present in the divine services, not as a passive onlooker, but as an active participant: singing along with the choir and offering a word or two at the conclusion of the services. The difficult pandemic circumstances were as heavy for him as for any of us, and he certainly felt the loss of the ability to commune of the body and blood of his precious Lord. But he was able to receive the holy gifts on the last day of his life. When I entered his room at the hospice care center, he grabbed my hand in blessing and said immediately: “I really need the sacraments.” And then, in his characteristic Father Basil manner, added: “You’d better give them to me now while I still have the energy.”
His communion with the Lord was not the final act of his life, but it was the crowning of a life that itself was a continual communion with God. Now, he serves at the heavenly altar in the company of the all the saints and all his brother clergy, including many of his own generation who have departed this life recently. On behalf of the entire Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, her clergy and faithful, and every community that was touched by his life, I extend my prayerful condolences to the entire extended family of Father Basil. I also offer our gratitude to the family for sharing Father Basil with us for these many years.
I am confident that the Lord, who is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, has received Father Basil into paradise and the eternal rejoicing of the heavenly hosts.
May Father Basil find rest in the mansions of heaven and may his memory be eternal!