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His Eminence the Most Reverend John (Shahovskoy), Archbishop of San Francisco was one of the many émigrés from the Russian civil war who entered a monastic life in the Orthodox Church and became a diocesan bishop in the United States. After first being consecrated Bishop of Brooklyn in the American Metropolia, he was elected Bishop of San Francisco and Western America and Archbishop in 1961, a position he held until his retirement in 1973; he resumed active ministry again in 1975, and finally retired in 1979.

Abp John's work in the World Council of Churches in the Central Committee between 1954-66 developed contacts that would be instrumental in the re-establishment of canonical relations between the Metropolia and the Church of Russia, ultimately resulting in the granting of autocephaly to the Metropolia as the Orthodox Church in America.

While in retirement he remained active in Russian literary and ecumenical circles. Archbishop John was the author of many books and articles. He often employed the pen name of Strannik in his writings. He died on May 30, 1989, in Santa Barbara, California, and was buried at the Serbian Cemetery in San Francisco.

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