Levitsky is a subdeacon at Saint Elizabeth Russian Orthodox Church in West Columbia. Being both Russian and Ukrainian, he hates to see the divide.

“Now our children are born in the Metro and in bomb shelters.” Subdeacon David De Jesus, right, lights a candle for a visitor before Mass at Saint Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Archbishop David Mahaffey at the Orthodox Christmas celebration at the Anchorage Native Primary Care Center on Jan. 7, 2020. Mahaffey, who had cancer, died at age 68 on Friday evening, Nov. 27, 2020.

First, some background. Back in 2008, at a tiny Orthodox parish in Hawaii, a subdeacon there, a man named Nectarios, noticed myrrh streaming from an icon of the Virgin Mary.

Subdeacon David Kechanin, 48, fell asleep in the Lord on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. He served St. Nicholas Orthodox Church faithfully for many years. All who met David loved him.