Fr Lawrence Farley

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Wycliffe College, where I met many wonderful students and was inspired by such teachers as Dr. R. K. Harrison (with whom I continued to correspond after graduating from Wycliffe) and Dr. Leslie Hunt.

At the end of my third year it became apparent to me that the Diocese of Toronto with whom I had been a postulant was not interested in having me as one of their clergy, so at the last minute I found a placement in the Diocese of Saskatchewan, under the kind pastoral leadership of Bishop H.V.R. Short, serving first as “Deacon-in-Charge” of a parish for a few months before being priested by him in Prince Albert in November 1979.  

I remain grateful to this day for all his kindness and pastoral care.  Of all the bishops under whom I have served, he was perhaps the best—a true shepherd and father to his clergy, a man of unfailing solicitude.  When my father-in-law reposed prematurely in 1980, he immediately sent to Donna and I a letter to comfort and encourage us.  

Under him I served two parishes:  two years at a six-point parish centered in Turtleford, worked jointly by myself and a United Church clergyman named David Denholm (also newly-graduated), and then four years at a two-point parish centered in Meadow Lake.  

Turtleford, population ca. 500, was a bit of a culture shock after home-town Toronto, and ministry on the rural prairie was nothing like ministry in suburban Scarborough where I was formed, but I learned a lot.  I soon became Rural Dean of the Turtleford Deanery, and a part of the Diocesan Executive.  For those not familiar with prairie life, this was not as impressive as it might sound:  Turtleford Deanery consisted of four parishes, mine and three others, and the Rural Dean was essentially the guy who drew the short straw.

Our two children were born in Meadow Lake:  Rhiannon in 1982 and Magdalen in 1984. Rhiannon is now married with six kids.  She and her husband Greg home-schooled them, though she now teaches drama in the local public school in Chilliwack, an hour away.  Magdalen is an RMT (Registered Massage Therapist) with a practice in nearby New Westminster.  She also teaches Massage Therapy in Langara College in Vancouver.  She lives very near us and is our church choir director.

The theological drift into liberalism that so alarmed me in Toronto (and I suspect made my departure from there inevitable) continued to alarm me, leading me to ask questions about ecclesiology that I had scarcely imagined before.  After much struggle, prayer, thinking, and consultation with other Anglican clergy I came to the conclusion that I was in the wrong place, and was, in fact, in schism from the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  

With my bishop’s blessing (and giving him lots of warning so as not to leave him in the lurch) I resigned my Anglican Orders effective July 1, 1985 and was received into the Orthodox Church two weeks later in Toronto.  The cost of moving our stuff from northern Saskatchewan back to Toronto was more than the stuff was worth, so anything that did not fit into a 5 x 8 U-Haul was simply abandoned. I drove the U-Haul back to Toronto and then down to Pennsylvania, where I attended St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Seminary.  We had saved up enough to survive there for one year with my wife and our 1-year old and our 3-year old.  We stayed two years, living on love and not much more.  Our Thanksgiving turkey was supplied by the Red Cross.

Once again I found many wonderful students there (much younger than myself, mostly just out of high school) and many wonderful teachers.  I was priested in November 1986, served as interim priest for a number of parishes, and then came west in May 1987 to start an Orthodox mission in Surrey, suburban Vancouver.

The “parish” consisted of 12 people in a backyard chapel the size of a small garage.  There was no church building, no money, no stipend, but lots of enthusiasm about starting an all-English language Orthodox mission.  Survival meant taking full-time (and then part-time) secular jobs for the next 7-8 years, so between raising a family, starting a mission, and working 9-5 in downtown Vancouver, I was kept very busy.  During this time also I wrote a number of books for my people, including a Lives of Saints, a commentary on the Orthodox Liturgy, and a commentary on the books of the New Testament (available today through Amazon).

The parish grew slowly, at first renting various empty churches, and then buying a building of our own, a former Christian Science building which we exorcised and then renovated.  It was our home for a number of years as we grew, mostly from young converts from Evangelicalism.  

We eventually outgrew that building and had to build another on one the property.  We started to build just before Covid hit us and quadrupled the original cost of building, but after many obstacles the building was completed for its Grand Opening in July 2023.  

We continue to grow with more visitors each week, and a steady influx of catechumens.  On a normal Sunday we have about 130 in church, mostly young families.  We are about 95% convert from Evangelicalism, although some of our recent converts come from either no church background at all, or from Islam.  I have much help in the form of a brilliant deacon, many adult servers, and a very hard-working Parish Council.  I feel very blessed to have such helpers and colleagues.  One can see a bit of our work together at our parish website at:  www.saintherman.net. 

Our parish has founded a number of daughter churches:  the founding pastors of the Orthodox missions in Vancouver, Victoria, Comox, and Creston were all men baptized as adult converts at our parish.

One important final note:  the patron saint of our parish is St. Herman of Alaska, canonized in 1970.  With other monastics, he was a missionary to the indigenous people of Alaska, arriving there in 1794.  We chose him as a patron because of his zeal for mission work and his loving pastoral spirit.  Along with the prayers of the Mother of God, it is through his heavenly intercession that we have been able to accomplish anything that we have done.

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