Glen Cove, New York, August 4, 2021
Photo: churchofourladyofkazan.org Protopresbyter Leonid Kishkovsky, the long-time rector of the Church of Our Lady of Kazan in Sea Cliff, New York, and long-time Director of External Affairs for the Orthodox Church in America reposed in the Lord last night.
Fr. Leonid was 78 years old. He served 52 years in the holy priesthood.
His repose was reported by Bishop Gerasim of Forth Worth, who notes that he died in a hospital in Glen Cove, New York.
Earlier yesterday, his daughter Sophia had asked for prayers after Fr. Leonid suffered a cardiac episode and had to be sedated and put on a ventilator. She later wrote: “Fr. Leonid has died peacefully with my mother as always at his side. Memory Eternal! Christ is Risen!”
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Fr. Leonid’s parish provides his biographical details:
Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1943. His parents fled from Warsaw with him in 1944, just before the Polish Warsaw uprising, becoming war refugees in Germany. They immigrated to the United States as Displaced Persons and settled in Los Angeles, California, becoming members of the Holy Virgin Mary parish.
After undergraduate studies in history and political science at the University of Southern California, Fr. Leonid studied at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. He and his wife Alexandra (Mimi) Koulomzine met at a student retreat at the seminary, and married in 1969. Ordained priest in November 1969, Fr. Leonid was assigned to San Francisco’s Holy Trinity Cathedral to build an English-language community in the Cathedral’s St. Innocent Chapel. He and Mimi were actively engaged in Orthodox Christian Fellowship campus work with college students in the San Francisco area.
In 1974 Fr. Leonid was called to serve the Church of Our Lady of Kazan in Sea Cliff, and at the same time to work in the Chancery of the Orthodox Church in America in Syosset. During his long service at the Chancery Fr. Leonid has represented the OCA in Orthodox, ecumenical, and inter-religious settings. He has been President of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, Moderator of Religions for Peace (international) and Religions for Peace USA, Moderator of Christian Churches Together in the USA, a member of the World Council of Churches governing bodies and serves on the Board of Directors of International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC).
He continued until his repose as Director of External Affairs and Interchurch Relations for the Orthodox Church in America. Together with the parishioners of Our Lady of Kazan Church, Fr. Leonid and Mimi dedicated themselves to building up a welcoming Orthodox Christian community which embodies love of God and love of neighbor.
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