Toledo, December 23, 2024
Photo: stnikolaiorthodoxchurch.org Prayers are being requested for His Eminence Archbishop Alexander of Dallas, the South, and the Bulgarian Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America.
The Bulgarian Diocese reported on December 20: “Last week, His Eminence was diagnosed with increased PSA levels indicating a biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer.”
Abp. Alexander, 76, has been serving as a hierarch for 12 years.
The diocese continues:
On Tuesday, December 17th, he consulted his oncologist. His treatment plan will include androgen deprivation therapy followed by 39 radiation sessions. Treatments will begin in early January, after the Nativity feast, and will be completed by early April. As a result, His Eminence will not be traveling or giving talks from January 3 until the conclusion of treatment.
“Pleaes keep Archbishop Alexander in your prayers,” the diocese entreats.
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Archbishop Alexander (Golitzin) was born in Burbank, CA in 1948 and raised attending Saint Innocent Church, Tarzana, CA. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of Divinity degree from St. Vladimir’s Seminary. He spent seven years pursuing doctoral studies at Oxford University in England under His Eminence, Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware). During this time, he also spent two years in Greece, including one year at Simonos Petras Monastery on Mt. Athos.
After receiving his D.Phil. in 1980, Bishop Alexander returned to the US. He was ordained to the diaconate in January 1982 and to the priesthood two years later. In 1986, he was tonsured to monastic orders. He served OCA missions in northern California and headed the Diocese of the West’s mission committee.
In 1989, Archbishop Alexander took a teaching position with the Theology Department at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, a position that he left at the end of April 2012. While teaching at Marquette University, he had been attached to Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church, Milwaukee, WI. For 22 years, he preached, taught and served at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church, and witnessed to the Gospel and to Orthodox Christian theology at Marquette University. He helped attract a dozen Orthodox Christian students to doctoral work in theology at Marquette.
In June 2010, the Bulgarian Diocese initiated a search for a candidate to succeed His Eminence, Archbishop Kirill who reposed in the Lord in 2007. “Of the 22 possible candidates reviewed in the first phase of the search, after an intensive review process, two candidates were presented to the diocese’s Fifth Congress-Sobor in June 2011,” noted the diocesan Consecration Committee Chair, Archpriest Andrew Jarmus. “Bishop Alexander was the candidate elected by the Congress-Sobor’s clergy and lay delegates.”
In October 2011, the members of the OCA’s Holy Synod of Bishops elected Archimandrite Alexander Bishop of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese.
On Saturday, May 5, 2012, he was consecrated Bishop of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese during a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at St. George Orthodox Cathedral in Rossford, OH.
Archbishop Alexander is the second Bishop of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese. He succeeds His Eminence, the late Archbishop Kirill [Yonchev]. Archbishop Kirill had overseen the diocese from 1964 to 2007; in 1976, Archbishop Kirill had brought the diocese under the omophorion of the Orthodox Church in America.
On March 30, 2016, Bishop Alexander was elected Bishop of Dallas, the South and the Bulgarian Diocese.
During the 2017 Spring Session of the Holy Synod, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.
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