LAZOR, THEODOSIUS

LAZOR, THEODOSIUS, Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America (27 October 1933– ). He received his B.A. from Washington and Jefferson College in 1957, and earned a B.D. from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (q.v.) in 1960. Following graduation he did postgraduate work at the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, Switzerland, and was tonsured monk and ordained priest for the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary Church, Madison, Illinois, in October 1961. He was called to New York in 1966 as secretary to Metropolitan Ireney Bekish and vice chairman of the Department of External Afairs. In 1967 he was elected vicar to the metropolitan, and then ruling bishop of Sitka and Alaska. Bishop Theodosius witnessed the canonization of Herman (q.v.) of Alaska in Kodiak (1970), before being transferred as Bishop of Pittsburgh and West Virginia (1972). On 25 October 1977, the Fifth All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America (q.v.) elected Bishop Theodosius to be Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All America and Canada. In 1980 the Holy Synod created the Diocese of Washington, D.C., and transferred Theodosius to the primatial see, with the chancery and residence remaining in Oyster Bay Cove (Syosset), New York. While in office Theodosius has met many world leaders of Christian Churches, including Pope Joh n Paul II, the Patriarchs and Archbishops of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russia, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Finland, and Japan, and the Coptic Pope of Alexandria, as well as Roman Catholic and Protestant leaders in North America. Additionally, his leadership has been characterized by seeking unity for Orthodox in North America and increasing internal administrative structures.