Rives Junction, Michigan, May 19, 2021
Fr. Gerasim (center). Photo: stseraphim.org
Meeting at Holy Dormition Monastery in Rives Junction, Michigan, under the presidency of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington and All America, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America elected an auxiliary bishop for its vast Diocese of the South yesterday.
The Diocese of the South is headed by His Eminence Archbishop Alexander of Dallas, who will soon be assisted in the episcopacy by Bishop-Elect Archimandrite Gerasim (Eliel), reports the OCA press service.
Fr. Gerasim has been serving as rector of St. Seraphim’s Cathedral in Dallas and administrator of the Diocese of the South for several years now.
He was received into the Orthodox Church during his college years in 1980 and went on to spend 28 years in the monastic life at St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina, California, and the associated St. Michael’s Skete in Alaska, spending about a year under the direction of Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) of blessed memory.
He was instrumental in bringing the monastery back into the canonical Orthodox Church after it went astray following the repose of Fr. Seraphim in 1982, and served as its second abbot from 2000 to 2009 within the Serbian Orthodox Church.
In 2009, Fr. Gerasim began studies at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, being considered an episcopal candidate for the Diocese of Alaska. He was not chosen for this position, but went on to graduate from seminary as class valedictorian, after which he was assigned to Holy Virgin Cathedral in Los Angeles, and then St. Seraphim’s Cathedral in Dallas in 2013, where he has been serving ever since.
May God grant Archimandrite Gerasim many years of worthy episcopal service!
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