Stefan (Saber)

Childhood and Youth

Born September 28, 1947 in Germany in a family of Soviet emigrants Pavel and Agafiya (nee Sotnikova), immigrants from the Kharkov region ^[1] who left the country during the Great Patriotic War . He was the youngest of three brothers ^[2] .

In September 1950, the Sabelnikov family left for the United States . At the first opportunity, the father of the family bought a plot of land, and they settled 8 kilometers from Jordanville , where Stefan spent his childhood ^[2] .

From the age of seven, he served as a clerk under the archbishop of Averky (Taushev) , later he became a subdeacon at the same bishop in Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville ^[2] .

In 1966 he graduated from high school and entered the Holy Trinity Theological Seminary ^[2] . Every summer, during his five years of studies at the seminary, he went to San Francisco with his icon-painter archimandrite Kiprian (Pyzhov) to paint the Cathedral of Sorrows .

On April 27, 1967, Archbishop Averky (Taushev) was tonsured a reader ^[2] .

June 13, 1971 graduated from the five-year course of Holy Trinity Theological Seminary with a bachelor of theology ^[2] . In the summer of that year he visited Jerusalem and Mount Athos ^[2] .

ROCOR Service

On January 6, 1973, at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, Bishop Laurus (Shkurla) was ordained a deacon ^[2] .

June 23, 1975 at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, ordained to the priest ^[2] . August 24, 1975, Archbishop Nikon (Rklitsky) was appointed rector of the Assumption Church in Trenton , New Jersey. ^[2]

On September 3, 1978, Metropolitan Filaret , ROCOR’s First Hierarch, was awarded the Legguard ^[3] .

In 1985, ROCOR First Hierarch Filaret and San Francisco Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev) proposed his candidacy for election as bishop ^[1] .

In 1988, on the day of the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus in St. Vladimir’s Church, the ROCOR’s First Hierarch Metropolitan Vitaly was elevated to the rank of archpriest with the imposition of a golden cross ^[2] .

He independently worked on the manufacture of carved iconostases , icon cases , etc. His last significant and very laborious work was the manufacture of a canopy and a carved tomb for the relics of Archbishop John (Maximovich) , made a very short time before his glorification in San Francisco on July 2, 1994 years ^[2] .

On September 12, 2005, in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Howell, at the small entrance, Metropolitan Laurus (Shkurla) laid on the archpriest Stefan Sabelnik a cross with decorations ^[4] .

Cleavage

Being irreconcilable in relation to the Moscow Patriarchate , on the eve of the forthcoming signing of the Act on Canonical Communion, he made two appeals: “An open appeal to my dear co-pastors and a clergy of the Holy Church Abroad” and “An appeal to the clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia”. In his appeals, he called for the revival of the “true, cherished Russian Church Abroad” with the “canonical support” of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian True Orthodox Church ^[5] .

On November 24, 2006, the Bishops' Synod of the RTOC decided to temporarily accept parishes and clergy of the ROCA under their omophorion , who sharply criticized reconciliation with the Moscow Patriarchate. The definition of the RTOC Synod on this occasion said: “These forced canonical measures were taken by the Bishops Synod to assist the Church Abroad in restoring its canonical episcopate and church administration <...> After the restoration of the ROCA Synod of Bishops, the Russian Church will represent two equal parts - the RTOC and the ROCOR , under various church administrations, in Eucharistic communion and spiritual unity ” ^[6] .

On March 18, 2007, together with his parish, he passed under the omophorion of the noncanonical Russian True Orthodox Church, following the example of his older brother Protodeacon Vitaly Sabelnik ^[2] . “At the same time, the parish made sure to protect its property and prevent the ROCOR (L) from making any claims against it” ^[7] .

In May of the same year, by decree of the RTOC’s First Hierarch Tikhon (Pasechnik), “in view of the urgent need to restore normal church life in the parishes of the widowed East American Diocese of the ROCA, temporarily under the RTOC’s omophorion during this difficult period of the Russian Church’s existence abroad, and to streamline the reception of clergymen, not wishing to join the MP, ”was appointed dean of the Trenton Deanery in the northeastern United States ^[8] .

Metropolitan Laurus asked Archpriest Stephen in writing to give him the antimins , the Holy World, and the metric book . On June 11 of that year, Archpriest Stefan arrived in Jordanville and personally handed him the request. “The conversation was short. I fulfilled his request and he fulfilled my desire to leave me with my Parishioners alone, and we parted forever ” ^[9] .

Bishop of the RTOC

On November 16, 2007, in the city of Trenton , New Jersey, at the Church of the Holy Assumption Church, rector of which was Archpriest Stefan, clergymen and parishioners of the ROCOR who called themselves “Conference of the Clergy and Mirian of the ROCOR (under the temporary omophorion of the Bishop's Church) gathered who set about to begin “the reconstruction of the first Diocese of the ROCA on the North American continent - the North American. After a thorough discussion for the first bishop’s consecration of the true Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, we approve the candidacy of Archpriest Stefan Sabelnik, rector of the Holy Assumption Church in Trenton ” ^[10] .

The decision was then approved by the Synod of Bishops of the RTOC ^[1] , and Archpriest Stefan was tonsured a monk with the preservation of his former name.

On December 17, 2007, at the All-Night Vigil, Archbishop Tikhon, in the presence of the Deputy Chairman of the Synod, Archbishop Veniamin (Rusalenko) and Bishop Germogen (Dunnikov), was ordained Hieromonk Stephen to the bishop of the “God-saved city of Trenton” ^[1] .

On December 18, in the cathedral church of the righteous John of Kronstadt in Odessa, the consecration of Hieromonk Stefan to Bishop of Trenton took place, performed by: Chairman of the Synod of the RTOC Archbishop of Omsk and Siberia Tikhon (Pasechnik) and Bishop of Chernigov and Gomel Germogen (Dunnikov) . At the service, in addition to the monks and parishioners of Odessa, there were guests from Kharkov, Chernigov, Donetsk, representatives of the Lesna Convent (France) ^[1] . According to the decision of the Synod of the RTOC, this consecration was an act of “helping the Russian True Orthodox Church to its sister Church Abroad in restoring the canonical episcopate of the ROCA”. Bishop Stefan and his followers in the United States and Canada viewed this ordination precisely in this way: as assistance from the Synod of the RTOC in restoring the canonical structures of the ROCA ^[11] .

In 2008, his diocese consisted of: 5 parishes and 1 mission, an archimandrite, archpriest, three priests, a protodeacon and deacon in the United States, and “church deanery”, which included 1 church and 1 archpriest in Canada ^[12] .

On February 4, 2009, by decision of the Bishops' Council of the RTOC, he was entrusted with the provisional administration of the “Western European Diocese of the ROCA” after the ban on the clergy of Irinee (Klippenshtein), who had previously ruled her, was prohibited ^[13] .

Leaving the RTOC and acne

On November 24, 2015, he resigned from the Synod and moved to an acne situation:

The experience of the past few years has shown that it is impossible to travel long distances, money expenses, and difficult and private trips to synodal meetings, and it is also not a matter of being guided in writing with other hierarchs - it is almost impossible to always correspond with different discussions. Recently, there have been many misunderstandings and problems because of this. And the problems here are not only due to the absence of any correspondence; Over the past three years I have not received a single copy of the minutes of any meeting of the Synod. This in itself indicates a further path along which our Church Abroad is forced to go - especially after it was announced that the RTOC Synod will no longer publish the minutes of its meetings !? <...> From this date, our North American Diocese transfers to autonomous management according to the 2008 Certificate of the Bishops of the RTOC. Naturally, I am leaving the Synod of the RTOC - and consequently, it is logical that the Chairman of the RTOC Synod, Archbishop Tikhon will no longer commemorate our services in our churches ^{[14] [15]} .

In a response letter from the RTOC Synod of February 24, 2016, it was noted: “Your autonomy was manifested unfortunately in the fact that you never invited us, after 2009, to joint service, although you knew that we were within your autonomous diocese. We visited Trenton to meet with you twice in previous years, but even then you did not deign to invite us for a joint ministry. And the last time we met in Worcester, you didn’t want to stay for a service, referring to some of your affairs. ” To summarize, the RTOC Synod invited Stefan (Sabelnik) to “review your decisions on terminating the commemoration of the Chairman of the RTOC Synod and treating the RTOC as a“ Sister Church ”. We ask you to correct this mistake before the day of Easter. Otherwise, we will be forced to rest you in peace ” ^[16] .

In May 2016, "realizing the complexity of the situation that the clergy of the RTOC found themselves in, sharing their concern about the lack of conciliarity and the new course imposed on the members of the RTOC, as well as worrying about the flock, he blessed to offer his name for worship until the canonical, collegiate church administration was restored in Russia " ^[17] .

On November 2, 2016, the Synod of the RTOC was rested without the right to serve ^[18] . In deciding to ban Bishop Stephen, the RTOC Synod “retroactively” reversed its decision in 2007, as well as the decision of the Blessed Council of the RTOC in 2008 to independently manage Bishop Stephen of the North American ROCOR parishes ^[11] . He did not recognize the decision, accusing the RTOC Synod of lying and “ Sergianism ” ^{[19] [20]} .

In communication with Andronik (Kotlyarov)

On April 4, 2017, meeting with Archbishop Andronik (Kotlyarov) and his clergy in the Assumption Church in Trenton, he established eucharistic communion with them, signing with Andronik a corresponding document, which said, “All those present agreed that there are no obstacles to our Eucharistic communion. It is time to overcome the unnatural separation imposed on us. <...> We agree that in accordance with Decree No. 362 Pat. Tikhon, in the future we have to form a single Church District, which includes all the dioceses abroad. We will work on clarifying administrative issues related to the formation of a common church government ” ^[21] .

On May 18, 2017, together with Archbishop Andronik, he decided to consecrate Mother Superior Andrei (Erastov) for Australia, but did not take part in the consecration for health reasons ^[22] . Together with them, on September 1, 2017, he established the “Foreign District of the Russian Orthodox Church” as part of three dioceses headed by each of these three hierarchs ^[23] . At the same time, he did not bless the transition of the Russian parishes of the RTOC (C) to the homophore of Archbishop Sofroniy (Musienko) , thus the “Russian District” was never created ^[11] .

On February 3, 2018, by the decision of the Synod of Bishops, the RTOC was deprived of the holy orders ^[24] . According to Andrei (Erastov), ​​“for an already middle-aged and seriously ill person, what is Bishop Stefan now, the long and sophisticated persecution that the Archbishop subjected him to. Tikhon [Pasechnik] turned out to be disastrous. He got lung cancer ” ^[6] .

He died on August 22, 2018 at Capital Health Hospital in Hopewell, New Jersey. ^[25]

On August 25, 2018, a funeral service was held at the Cathedral of the Assumption Church in Trenton, led by Archbishop Andronik (Kotlyarov), co-served by clergy of the “Foreign District”: Grigory Kotlyarov, Sergiy Klestov, Oleg Gritsenko, John Trepachko, Dimitry Dobronravov. He was buried at St. Vladimir’s Cemetery in Jackson, New Jersey. ^[3]