Christ the Savior Orthodox Church
Berlin, MD
On behalf of the Holy Synod of Bishops, I extend the heartfelt condolences and sincere prayers of all the bishops, monastics, clergy, and faithful of the Orthodox Church in America to Matushka Evdokia, to Matushka Annice and to Larice, as well as to the entire extended family, at this moment when we offer our final prayers for the newly departed servant of God, Protopresbyter Daniel. My words are addressed also to all his brother clergy, especially those who have served and offered words at these funeral services, since in addition to bidding farewell to a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend, we are also giving due honor and recognition to one who fulfilled all of those roles as an exemplary priest and minister of the sacred mysteries.
Father Daniel’s life and ministry are memorable and extraordinary not because his accomplishments were many—and indeed they were many and significant—but rather because all those accomplishments were made with the humility of a servant who has only done that which was his duty to do, one who could echo the words of St Paul: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is in me. Whether then is was I or they, so we preach and so you believed” (1 Cor 15:10–11).
Father Daniel was a faithful servant of our Lord and Savior, and he offered himself as a servant in countless ways and in different contexts over close to 70 years of priestly ministry. That period of time is indeed one of biblical proportions and it should inspire awe and respect from even the most experienced among his fellow laborers. But even more than bringing forth wonder from us, this amazing life and ministry that Father Daniel led makes clear the reality of Christ’s presence among us. This is so because in all that he did, Father Daniel radiated the image, the love, and the grace of Jesus Christ to such a degree that even death itself cannot remove this witness from him, as Saint Paul reminds us: “None of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:7–8).
In all that he accomplished—serving in Detroit or in East Meadow, in Moscow or in Berlin—Father Daniel indeed belonged to the Lord and gave himself to all with the same self-sacrificial love and humility of his master. To all that he met or ministered to or simply spoke with, he smiled with the same warm smile, tilted his head in the same manner, and laughed with the knowing laugh that revealed, not just a unique set of personal characteristics, but the expression of care, compassion, and genuine love of a man whose whole heart is immersed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in the care for his fellows.
Ordained deacon and priest by Metropolitan Leonty almost 70 years ago, Father Daniel’s life and ministry have bridged several generations of the life of our Church. However, he did not passively traverse that bridge of time, but rather was actively involved in building it.
On the local level, he founded, pastored, built, and renovated missions and churches, beginning and ending his ministry as a pastor to his flock. On the level of the Orthodox Church in America, he served administratively in the Metropolia; in the following transition period to autocephaly, particularly as a member of the delegation that received the Tomos in 1970; and as an establisher of the newly created local autocephalous Orthodox Church in America, where he served consecutively—and even at times simultaneously—in the positions of Chancellor, Secretary and Treasurer. On the international level, he established and served as the first representative for Saint Catherine’s Podvorie in Moscow. In all of this amazing activity, Father Daniel remained who he was, by the grace of God and, in many ways, he came full circle: he ended his pastoral life by planting a new mission, and he crowned his ministry by participating in the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the very representation that he so solidly established. Whether speaking to a child or to a patriarch, Father Daniel was who he was, by the grace of God.
Those are only some examples, among many more that each of us will be able to recall, of the ways in which Father Daniel made real the words which we heard in last evening’s beautiful hymns: “O Christ—Master, Savior, tenderly compassionate—mercifully grant Thy mansions of light unto this Thy servant, who through repentance before he died burned before Thee as a shining light” (Ode 4). Father Daniel was a fiery flame whose light will continue to shine with particular brilliance so much so that now, we are confident that he begins his service as a priest in the Kingdom, as the hymns remind us: “…as Thou didst appoint him to be a minister of Thy Church on earth, so also make him the same at Thy heavenly altar, O Lord” (Ode 4).
Finally, I would offer my personal gratitude to God for the life and ministry of Father Daniel. For me, he was an example of that priesthood to which all of us who were once young seminarians aspire, the model of priestly ministry and pastoral confidence, and the image of one whose very presence proclaims (without pride or arrogance): I am a priest of God.
We should ever be grateful to Father Daniel for reminding all of us that, in the middle of all the darkness and division of this world, in the midst of pain and suffering, there is ultimately nothing that remains other than Jesus Christ, who overcomes every division and every barrier, including the final barrier of death, by His resurrection.
Truly and honestly, he says to us, in the words of funeral hymns which we heard last evening:
“Now I am at rest.
Now I have found peace.
I have escaped corruption.
I have passed from death to life.
Glory to Thee, O Lord” (Exapostilarion).