LOS ANGELES: May 23, 2020
By decision of the Synod of Bishops, Protopresbyter Alexander Lebedeff is granted a lofty award

From the Editors: The Synod of Bishops, hearing the intercession of Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America on the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the priesthood of Protopresbyter Alexander Lebedeff, decreed to grant him a lofty award. We post the text of the gramota which will be given to Fr Alexander on Sunday, May 24, 2020, the anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.

To Protopresbyter Alexander Lebedeff,
Rector of Transfiguration of the Lord Cathedral in Los Angeles

During a session held on Tuesday, April 29/12 May, 2020, the Synod of Bishops HEARD: A report by His Eminence Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America on the coming golden jubilee of the pastoral service of Protopresbyter Alexander Lebedeff, Rector of Transfiguration of the Lord Cathedral in Los Angeles, CA, Dean of the Southern District, Las Vegas and Hawaii, of the Western American Diocese.

It was unanimously DECREED: 1) with gratitude to the Third-Day Risen Divine Lover of Mankind, Who mercifully sends His Church faithful servants, worthily laboring and carrying forth His salvific work, to take into account the intercession of His Eminence. 2) In recognition of the earnest, righteous and many years of pastoral and general ecclesiastical labors and in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the priesthood of Protopresbyter Alexander Lebedeff, with profound appreciation to award His Very Reverence with the highest award of the Russian Church Abroad: The Synodal Medal of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God "of the Sign,” First Degree.

Witnessing this is this gramota, duly signed by us and bearing the Synodal seal, executed in the God-saved city of New York on Sunday, May 4/17, 2020, the anniversary of the reestablishment of full fraternal communion within the one Russian Orthodox Church, a great occasion towards which the celebrant made significant contributions.

+HILARION,
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.