On Sunday, March 21, 2021, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Alumnus Dn. Phillip Beiner was ordained to the holy priesthood. His Eminence, Archbishop Alexander (Golitzin), presided over the ordination at St. George Orthodox Cathedral, Rossford, OH.
Father Phillip, a priest of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) currently serves St. John the Merciful Mission, Kissimmee, FL, and has been assigned to The Orthodox Church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, Longwood, FL.
Father Phillip graduated from St. Vladimir’s Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree in 2020. Before seminary, he worked as an attorney. He also holds a B.A. in history from the University of South Florida and a J.D. from the University of New Hampshire School of Law.
May God grant the newly ordained Priest Phillip, Matushka Amanda, and their children, Katherine, Sebastian, and Anastasia, many years!
I regret that I never had the opportunity to meet Fr Alexander in person, but it is surely a testament to his scholarship, writing, and penetrating thought that he managed to make such an impact upon me nevertheless. We missed each other by sixty miles and one year. I began my studies at Yale the year before he died, and had I known how important he would become to me, I would surely have made that drive down I-95 to St. Vladimir’s Seminary to say thanks in advance. By outside arithmetic, his life was symmetrically simple: thirty years in Europe (1921–1951) and thirty-two years in America (1951–1983), but the impact of a life is not determined by such exterior markers. No one’s is, because our souls are bigger than our biographies. And in Fr. Alexander’s case, besides the secret record of his spiritual biography (the one kept by God and his wife and family) a public record is available because he was a scholar who left a trail of writings to let latecomers meet him, latecomers like myself then, and perhaps you, the reader, now. This celebration of the centennial of his birth offers you that invitation.
Most of the academic world has marked his trail of writings with signposts saying “liturgical studies,” and “liturgical renewal,” and “liturgical theology.” After all, his first book was titled Introduction to Liturgical Theology. And these were the signposts that led me toward him, since they seemed to name my intended subject of graduate study. I had developed plans to dissect the liturgy using the utensils of systematic theology I had brought with me. But in a directed reading course with Fr. Aidan Kavanagh during my first semester, we read everything by Fr. Alexander we could fit into that semester, and the different approach he took proved to be a Copernican Revolution for me. He did not approach liturgy as something for academic theologians to tinker with. He rather approached liturgy as a source for theology itself—the ontological condition for theology, in his words.
I tell people that the rest of my graduate education was spent trying to get the number of the bus that hit me.
It struck me forcefully when I read, “In the approach which I advocate by every line I ever wrote, the question addressed by liturgical theology to liturgy and to the entire liturgical tradition is not about liturgy but about ‘theology,’ i.e. about the faith of the Church as expressed, communicated and preserved by the liturgy.”[i]
This inserted the “jaws of life” into the concept I had of liturgical theology, and opened a horizon beyond history and liturgics. The man to whom so many turn when they intend to study the evolution of rite, rubric, piety, cult, symbol, and liturgiology instead states, adamantly, that the real question addressed by liturgical theology is not about liturgy but about theology. Could liturgical theology be about something more than academically sponsored ritual naval gazing?
The thesis was confirmed multiple times the further I read. He denied seeing his mission as one of preparing grounds for a reform, or finding the “essence” of the liturgy, or relegating accessories to their place. Then, as if sensing the exasperation of readers who expected nothing more than this, he concludes:
Finally one may ask: but what do you propose, what do you want? To this I will answer without much hope, I confess, of being heard and understood: we need liturgical theology, viewed not as a theology of worship and not as a reduction of theology to liturgy, but as a slow and patient bringing together of that which was for too long a time and because of many factors broken and isolated – liturgy, theology, and piety, their reintegration within one fundamental vision. In this sense liturgical theology is an illegitimate child of a broken family. It exists, or maybe I should say it ought to exist, only because theology ceased to seek in the lex orandi its source and food, because liturgy ceased to be conducive to theology.[ii]
He repeats this several other places. Liturgical theology is reuniting three verities that we have let isolate: liturgy, theology, and piety. We do so by recovering leitourgia as lex orandi.
The goal of liturgical theology, as its very name indicates, is to overcome the fateful divorce between theology, liturgy and piety – a divorce which, as we have already tried to show elsewhere, has had disastrous consequences for theology as well as for liturgy and piety. It deprived liturgy of its proper understanding by the people, who began to see in it beautiful and mysterious ceremonies in which, while attending them, they take no real part. It deprived theology of its living source and made it into an intellectual exercise for intellectuals. It deprived piety of its living content and term of reference.[iii]
This divorce has damaged each member. These bricks should make up the house in which we live our Christian life, but we instead find a pile of rubble because the bricks are not connected. Separate liturgy from theology and piety, and we get human ritual; separate theology from liturgy and piety, and we get a religious philosophy; separate piety from liturgy and theology and we get idiosyncratic religiosity.
So if the question addressed by liturgical theology to the entire liturgical tradition is not about liturgy but about theology, what does liturgical theology talk about? And he answers God, cosmos, and humankind. All theology is eucharistic, but the eucharist is not the only things theology talks about. Liturgical theology turns us outward to God’s saving relationship with humanity in the cosmos. I have favorite passages concerning each.
First, regarding humanity. Man and woman were created as cosmic priests. “All rational, spiritual and other qualities of man, distinguishing him from other creatures, have their focus and ultimate fulfillment in this capacity to bless God, to know, so to speak, the meaning of the thirst and hunger that constitutes his life. ‘Homo sapiens,’ ‘homo faber’ … Yes, but, first of all, ‘homo adorans.’ The first, the basic definition of man is that he is the priest.”[iv] The failure to act liturgically in our daily lives led me to imagine the fall as a forfeiture of our liturgical career.
Second, regarding cosmology. We did violence to the world and to religion when we abandoned our post as priest. Instead of sacrificer, man became consumer. “The first consumer was Adam himself. He chose not to be priest but to approach the world as consumer: to ‘eat’ of it, to use and to dominate it for himself, to benefit from it but not to offer, not to sacrifice, not to have it for God and in God. And the most tragical fruit of that original sin is that it made religion itself into a ‘consumer good’ meant to satisfy our ‘religious needs,’ to serve as a security blanket or therapy, to supply us with cheap self-righteousness and equally cheap self-centered and self-serving ‘spiritualities.’”[v]
Third, regarding God’s teleological guidance of the Church. This is the true context for understanding leitourgia. It is less a ritual term and much more an eschatological term. “One can say that the uniqueness, the radical novelty of the new Christian leitourgia was here, here, in this ‘entrance’ into the Kingdom which for ‘this world’ is still ‘to come,’ but of which the Church is truly the sacrament: the beginning, the anticipation, and the ‘parousia.’”[vi] A leitourgia is the work of a few on behalf of the many, he says—and this would mean joining the work of the Trinity in preparing the world for fulfillment. As the leitourgia of ancient Israel “was the corporate work of a chosen few to prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah” the leitourgia of the Church itself is “a calling to act in the world after the fashion of Christ, to bear testimony to him and his kingdom.”[vii]
There are many other payoffs to this shift from standing over liturgy as a human product to standing under leitourgia as a work of God. In every liturgical celebration the Kingdom of God is revealed and made known to the Church gathered on the eighth day to eat and drink at Christ’s table. We are immersed in the new aeon of the Spirit. So his idea of “liturgical piety” and living a liturgical life is not infatuated piety for the liturgy. This is much too thin, though it is what many people assume. “It is true that many still do not understand the real nature of the liturgical movement. Everything is still fettered by the categories of ‘school theology.’ It is thought that this is nothing more than a new awakening of an aesthetically religious, psychological enthusiasm for cultus, for its ceremonial and ritual, for its external aspects; a sort of new liturgical pietism.”[viii] No, liturgical piety is the Church-at-liturgy already living eschatologically, and drawing the world into this life, too. Liturgical piety is the mysterion showing up in our lives. The Church’s assigned mission, her leitourgia, is to witness to the transforming effects of the Kingdom of God by being transformed herself.
I am still catching the number of that bus that hit me four decades ago.
[i] Alexander Schmemann, “Liturgical Theology, Theology of Liturgy, and Liturgical Reform,” in Liturgy and Tradition, ed. Thomas Fisch (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990) 40.
[ii] Alexander Schmemann, “Liturgical Theology, Theology of Liturgy, and Liturgical Reform,” in Fisch, 46-47.
[iii] Alexander Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 1974) 12.
[iv] Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World (New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018) 15.
[v] Alexander Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit, 96
[vi] Alexander Schmemann, “Prayer, Liturgy, Renewal,” The Greek Orthodox Theological Review, 14, no 1, Spring 1969, 11.
[vii] Alexander Schmemann, “Theology and Eucharist," in Fisch, 79.
[viii] Alexander Schmemann, Introduction to Liturgical Theology (New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1975), 12.
Saint Vladimir’s President Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield visited multiple Orthodox communities in the “land down under” this winter, teaching, speaking, and strengthening the Seminary’s relationships there.
Father Chad traveled to Australia in February for two weeks primarily to teach at St. Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological Seminary in Sydney. He was invited by St. Cyril’s dean, Rev. Dr. Daniel Fanous, the author of the recently published SVS Press title A Silent Patriarch. Over the two weeks, Fr. Chad taught intensive seminars on missiology to thirty students from around the world including New Zealand and Zaire. He also spoke to a young adult group at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, Sydney, and visited two other Coptic Churches in the area.
Fr. Chad then visited His Eminence Metropolitan Basilios at the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese Residency in Illawong. At the Archdiocese Residency, His Eminence and Fr. Chad discussed various Church matters, including the enhancement of relationships and future cooperation between the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese and St. Vladimir’s Seminary.
Finally, Fr. Chad traveled to St. Malkeh Syriac Orthodox Church just outside Sydney. The Syriac Orthodox community there is working on establishing a scholarship for the first Syriac Orthodox seminarian from Australia to attend St. Vladimir’s.
“What struck me the most about my time in Australia was the hunger for Orthodox teaching and resources and the love so many people have for the Seminary and SVS Press,” said Fr. Chad. “Orthodox bookstores there are filled with SVS Press books. I heard stories from people who were impacted by the visits of Seminary teachers dating all the way back to Fr. Thomas Hopko in the 1990s! It was also good to build on the good relationships forged there by Fr. John Behr in recent years.”
“Australia is hungry for Orthodoxy, and I think St. Vladimir’s can play an even stronger role in helping fill that need.”
In the short term, St. Vladimir’s is already working on making access to SVS Press books easier and more affordable in both Australia and New Zealand.
An Interview with Kimon Giannopoulos and John Varipatis
By Virginia Nieuwsma
In February of 2020, before the world knew that the COVID-19 tsunami was just around the corner, two members of the St. Stylianos parish in Sydney, Australia (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia) met at a coffee house with Fr. Chad Hatfield. Father Chad was on a tour of the “land down under” teaching, speaking, and strengthening the Seminary’s relationships there. At the coffee house, the two men began discussing with Fr. Chad their plans to start the Orthodox Café + Bookstore. As students of St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, they had been inspired by Fr. Chad’s class on missiology, which they undertook not long before at St. Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological Seminary. The two wanted to get his perspective on their ideas. Ten months later, even with the challenges of 2020, Kimon Giannopoulos and John Varipatis managed to get their venture off the ground despite their family commitments and busy professional careers. In a Zoom interview, they told us how—and what’s ahead.
John Varipatis, Katie Giannopoulos, Eva Giannopoulos, Dean Giannopoulos, Kimon Giannopoulos, and Vasilia Varipatis
Tell us about the Orthodox Café—its origins and its unique ministry.
Kimon
The Café is basically a great excuse for fellowship; Fr. Chad would attest to this, that one of the ministry challenges our clergy and clergy-to-be are facing is, how do you get young adults in the secular world to understand Orthodox spirituality and what it has to offer? Even the most embedded people like John, the son of a priest, tend to lose touch with the Church when they are in their late teens and twenties.
We’ve reviewed the census data, and since 1970 there has been a 30 percent drop in Christianity in Australia, with the biggest drop occurring in the 18–35-year-old age range. We’re losing people in this period of their lives; instead, they are going after yoga, Buddhism, self-reflection, “mindfulness training,” or other spiritual paths that might mimic some aspects of our Faith but aren’t the real answer. We’ve been missing the opportunity to bring Orthodoxy into the world. We realized that unless we began to get out there and talk about the reduction of young adults in the Church, we would lose this generation. And we didn’t want to use the word “fellowship,” which to us meant, “a group of people you have to hang out with.” What was needed was an outreach post, a gathering place, a comfortable community.
So, one day after class with Fr. Chad in February, we approached him and our first question was, “Do you drink coffee?” “Absolutely!” he said, so off we went down the street to the local coffee shop, where we told him over our chosen drinks, “Fr. Chad, we’ve got this idea. See how quickly you wanted to go for a walk and talk about theology over coffee?” We told him we felt there was an opportunity here, because the first thing you do in Australia when you want to catch up on a personal issue or meet with friends is you ask, “Are you free to grab a coffee?” We told him we wanted to create a community that was broad enough to be pan-Orthodox, because even though we are Greek Orthodox, our vision was to have any type of Orthodox Christian as well as inquirers join us.
We obtained our local bishop’s blessing, His Grace Bishop Emilianos of Meloa, and our priest’s support to use our large parish hall as our Orthodox Café space. People donated a refurbished coffee machine and about 10,000 coffee cups with our Café brand printed on them, so we managed to kick off the venture pretty much for free. At some point we began to sell our coffee beans and put together a supply chain where we can sell them at a competitive price in Australia. A lot of people ask, “Can we buy your beans?” without realizing that they are participating in an Orthodox mission outreach.
Of course, we started all this up around the time COVID arrived! John and I decided to embark on this mission plan because we felt that we weren’t busy enough [laughter]. We didn’t sleep in the best of times, and then when we began this ministry our wives were asking, “Are you sure you’ve got time for this additional work?” and we said, “Oh, we’ll fit it in, we don’t need sleep!”
John
One of the most amazing things we saw was that people in Orthodox communities want to help the Church. We just went to our parish priest with this idea and we didn’t have anything other than a nice church hall. I was bringing my old coffee machine from home when we first started the Café. Parishioners were more than happy to give to this, recognizing that there was a gap here in the Church that we haven’t been addressing, and that there is this young adult population that we’re just starting to capture now with the Café. We’ve been able to generate revenue by selling our coffee beans and selling books, so we’re making enough to stand on our own two feet.
Coffee is merely an excuse to get people to come together. The crux of the Café is the book side of things, the conversation side of things, with discussion where we can all learn about each other and discuss our spiritual questions; then we can help each other through the books and open discussion. It’s very humanizing and provides us a way to invite young adults into the Church. Our archbishop in Australia, His Eminence Archbishop Makarios, has said that “I have a dream for this Church, that the people who are outside, to be inside and that the people who are inside to open their hearts to those outside,” and this resonates strongly with us and is one of our goals for the Café.
How did St Vladimir’s enter into this picture?
Kimon
Back in June of 2019 I flew to New York for a meeting with investors for my work. Along with the sub-dean, Dr. Philip Kariatlis, from our Seminary, St Andrew’s Theological College, I was able to take the train from Grand Central up to the Crestwood station and visit the campus. I was just amazed at the atmosphere at St. Vladimir’s. I thought, “If this isn’t heaven on earth, I don’t know what is!” While we were touring the chapel, Fr. Chad stepped out of the side of the iconostasis and warmly welcomed us, even though he was preparing for the service to start. Then we were able to worship in Three Hierarchs Chapel, experiencing the beautiful liturgy in four-part harmony—it was amazing.
Father Chad also took us around for a tour of the whole campus; library, gym, bookshop, seminary housing. I felt such a connection with St. Vladimir’s even with the thousands of kilometers of sea we have between us.
At some point Fr. Chad mentioned that he was coming to Australia in February and doing a missiology class. I said, “Missiology? What’s that?” and he said, “That thing that Christ said—the Great Commission!” On the train back to Grand Central after our visit I said to Philip, “This is how I can add value to the Church, through mission work! With my experience in the corporate world, there has got to be a way for me to apply my skills to help bring people closer to Christ.” And that was the germ for the Café idea, which then came into sharper focus in Fr. Chad’s missiology class the following February.
Fast forward to our after-class coffee with Fr. Chad. He told John and I, “The key challenge you guys will have to face in doing this is that you will be taking a risk.” This was really the message of his entire course: mission requires people to take risks for Christ and His Church. We have found this to be true: John and I have been taking lots of risk since that coffee with Fr. Chad but his course helped us prepare for that.
How did the Press become a part of your mission plan?
Kimon
John and I were influenced by a quote we read, that books have become marginalized and treated as something we only put on our shelves. We decided that we wanted to see books opened and discussed, and in so doing, we would be able to explore the message of the gospel through the eyes of different authors. Of course, the preeminent books are the four Gospels but then our Orthodox fathers, mothers, and saints have so much to teach us. When we drew people to the Café we knew we needed to have solid content and writing that would hold their attention.
Thanks to the team at SVS Press, we are going to receive a whole “small bookstore” that we can make available through the Café to kick off our store. We get weekly texts from members of the Café asking, “Can you get me this book?” “I’m interested in the spiritual life; can you point me in the right direction?” We show videos too; instead of reading the book first and then watching a video, this generation tends to want to see the video first and then buy the book! We keep our agenda fresh with books, videos, activities, and speakers; right now, we’re writing Christmas cards for the elderly. We’ve also sponsored an Orthodox film festival, Byzanfest, and played many of these Orthodox films at the Café during November. But our end goal is always to bring these young adults into the experience of the Divine Liturgy; that’s success for us.
John
At the beginning, we started with what we had, with the books that were at our disposal and the location we had at our disposal. We were blown away by how many young adults joined the conversation and by the depth of the conversations we were having. Not everyone bought a book on the first day of the Café, but as people started returning, they told us what they were interested in, and we were able to recommend books and explain how those titles could be relevant to them and help answer their questions. Everything came to fruition with our willingness to start using the small infrastructure at our disposal.
Where do you hope to go from here?
John
We are talking to other parishes and looking to open another Café that’s centrally located in the heart of Sydney. We’re also looking at a possibility to bring a Café to the other side of Australia in Perth, so we’re in conversation with a parish priest there. We hope to share our ideas and our template for this start up to let as many people use it as possible. A bookstore/coffee shop is a place where conversions happen and where people can learn about the Faith. Why limit it just to the southern part of Sydney? Franchise, that’s the goal. We’ll be competing with Starbucks! Anyway, everyone in America says that Australian coffee is so good!
Kimon
We want to get other parishes on board and take the complexity out of setup: books, coffee beans, logistics. The thing they need to do is follow the model and methodology.
Something we learned early on is that missions need the blessing of the bishop. When you take these risks, you have to do them with your parish priest’s and bishop’s blessings. We also got great support from our archbishop—in fact, the meeting started with, “Do you guys want an espresso?” He was so loving and heartfelt in his empathy for the young adult community. He even shared his dream that we would have a central café right in the Archdiocese headquarters overlooking the beautiful Prince Alfred Park in Sydney. We also have the idea of partnering with aged care facilities, joint ventures so to speak, to connect the elderly with the youth.
Our brains never stop thinking about ideas!
Is Fr. Chad still involved with this effort?
John
Throughout the project, we have been talking with Fr. Chad quite frequently. He has pointed us in the right direction and linked us with the right people. At some point in our regular meetings with him he introduced us to Sarah Werner at SVS Press, and she has given us a great rate for our books and been very helpful.
Kimon
Without having had the connection with Fr. Chad, taking his course, having that experience for two weeks with him (the mission plan we wrote was actually an assignment for his class!), having his help to strategize, then making the connections with other people like Sarah Werner through him—I’m certain that without St. Vladimir’s Seminary and Fr. Chad, this would not have happened, it’s as simple as that.
John Varipatis has been married for two years to Vasilia; they both have called Sydney, Australia home for their entire lives. John's parents, Fr. Constantine and Presvytera Eleni, have three children; John and his twin brother George have an older sister, Presvytera Stamatia. John is currently studying for a Bachelor of Theology at St. Andrew's Orthodox Theological College in Sydney, under the hierarchical oversight of Archbishop Makarios. Prior to studying at St Andrew's, John completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Wollongong, and a Diploma in Project Management at Petersham TAFE. This training opened the door for him to work professionally as a Project Manager at Kaplan. As Kimon mentioned, he and John are not only brothers in Christ, but they now share a deeper spiritual bond since John and Vasilia are Godparents to Kimon and Katie's daughter Eva.
Kimon Giannopoulos is a husband and father, blessed to be married to Ekaterina (Katie) for seven years, and through the grace of God blessed to be a father to children Konstantinos (“Dean”, age 3) and Evangelia (“Eva”, 10 months old). Kimon and Katie both grew up in Sydney, Australia; both of their grandparents migrated to the antipodes (Australia) after World War II. Both Kimon's maternal great-grandfathers were Greek Orthodox priests from Northern Greece, and thus the Orthodox Church was a central part of his upbringing. He is a master's student in theology at St. Andrew's Theological College in Sydney, under the hierarchical oversight of Archbishop Makarios, and is completing his postgraduate studies in 2021. Having acquired a zeal to learn more about the Orthodox faith, Kimon prayerfully hopes to continue beyond next year with ongoing theological study and higher research. Kimon's undergraduate degrees were in commerce, majoring in accounting and finance, and he is a chartered accountant. He currently works at Qantas, Australia's national airline carrier as the chief financial officer of Qantas Loyalty, where he has been an employee for over ten years.
The twelve-acre campus of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) is as beautiful as ever following a weekend clean-up by seminarians and family members.
Seminarian Alisha Solheim, one of the student leaders of SVOTS’ St. Herman Society for Orthodox Ecology, helped lead the spring clean-up effort Saturday, March 27, 2021.
The Seminary community is grateful to Alisha, the St. Herman Society, and all who participated!
The new website of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) has gone live with a fresh new look and loads of new, helpful features.
“The fresh and simplified design of the website will provide a welcoming and smooth experience for visitors hoping to learn about Seminary and experience great content—information, resources, news articles, videos, podcasts, blogs, and more,” said Sarah Werner, chief marketing officer for St. Vladimir’s Seminary. “We are grateful to the team at Promet Source, who helped us build the new website, and to everyone on the Seminary team who poured hours of work into the project.”
Among other new features, the new site allows visitors to tailor their experience using the “I am a…” option at the top of the homepage. Prospective students, current students, donors, and alumni are able to navigate directly to sections of the website designed specifically for them.
About St Vladimir’s Seminary
Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, located on a beautiful twelve-acre campus in Yonkers, NY, serves our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by bearing witness to Him throughout the world. The Seminary is accredited through the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and trains priests, lay leaders, and scholars to be active apologists of the Orthodox Christian Faith—focusing on academic rigor and spiritual formation within a residential Orthodox community.
With faith in Christ and hope in the resurrection, we share news of the repose of Leonard Kirvida, an alumnus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, who fell asleep in the Lord April 1, 2021 at the age of 92.
Kirvida was born April 15, 1928 in Gackle, ND. He graduated from “Chi-Hi” School in Center City, MN and went on to graduate from the University of Minnesota and St. Vladimir’s Seminary (class of 1958). He began his professional career at the Naval Research Lab in Washington D.C., then went on to work at Honeywell and Control Data, where he retired.
Kirvida is remembered by his family and friends as a loving man who enjoyed travelling, farming, skiing, and anything cultural. He was preceded in death by parents Boris & Vara; brother Mitchell Kirvida; sisters Eugenia Bedard and Viola Korman; and niece Kathleen Korman. He is survived by niece and nephew Barb Korman and Jim Kirvida; grandnephew Andrew Korman and grandniece Anya Korman; nieces and nephews Sharon Gorton, Cindy Steel, Cheri Ollman, Ginger Fitzgerald, Kevin Kirvida, Pam Thomas, Greg Bedard, Lori Bettschen, Connie Lehr, Craig Kirvida, and Brenda McGrath; and many other great nieces, nephews and other relatives.
Funeral services for Leonard Kirvida took place April 5, 2021 at St. Mary’s Orthodox Cathedral, Minneapolis, MN.
