During World War II he was a prisoner of war in Germany. He was ordained to the diaconate August 3, 1947, and to the priesthood August 10 of that same year. From 1947 – 1989 he was a member of the clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate. In 1989 he and the other members of the clergy left the Moscow Patriarchate and declared to be put under the omophor of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church under Metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) who was at that time the head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in USA and Canada.