Many people have reached out requesting that this letter be made available following its reading at the funeral of Warren Farha.
I have decided to share it not merely as a remembrance of Warren, but because his life offers a powerful example of Christian vocation. Through his love for Christ, his service to the Church, and his dedication to making Orthodox spiritual literature accessible to others, he demonstrated what it means to live one’s baptism faithfully.
It is my hope that his example will inspire others to recognize and embrace the gift entrusted to them by God, and to exercise their royal priesthood in whatever calling they have received. May his memory continue to bear fruit in the lives of those who seek to serve Christ and His Church with humility, faithfulness, and love.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Beloved in Christ,
I came to know Warren in 1995, when I visited Wichita to spend several months as a guest of His Grace Bishop BASIL. I found him to be a man deeply faithful, so much so that he invested his love for reading in an evangelistic and apostolic service.
From the beginning, I was struck by his bright and cheerful face, which seemed to tell you that he came to you from a world purer and more radiant than the one in which we live. His warm smile, his spontaneous innocence, his quiet voice, and his remarkable calm—these were all signs of God’s presence within him and indications of a light descending upon him from on high.
What I wish to highlight today, as we bid him farewell, is his evangelical mission through the bookstore he founded and to which he dedicated his life: Eighth Day Books.
All of you know that he left his previous work—his family’s work—in order to devote himself to this project, moved by a desire to offer Orthodox Christianity to his American community. Along this path, Warren spared no effort to enrich his bookstore with whatever books he could obtain from a wide range of Orthodox authors.
Two years ago, during my last visit to his bookstore, I asked him whether an English edition was available of a book by Olivier Clément, one whose title I knew in French and which is among the most difficult of Clément’s works. He smiled with his familiar joy, went to a far corner of the bookstore, and brought it to me. I could hardly imagine that he would have it—yet there it was, in English.
Warren was not a “classic” missionary in the usual sense. Rather, he became a conduit through which Christ was made known through those who bore witness to Him, wrote of Him, and experienced His presence in their lives.
His modesty did not allow him public preaching, but it did allow him to introduce others to Christ and to Orthodox Christianity through many witnesses: saints, theologians, and spiritual writers.
His awareness of his calling as a believer—to be an apostle of his faith—is what we in our Church call the activation of our royal priesthood. Whoever is baptized in the Name of the Holy Trinity and receives divine sonship becomes consecrated to God. In this sense, the priest is one consecrated to God, and accordingly, all the faithful—men and women alike—are royal priests of the Most High God.
Perhaps no sentence expressed this more powerfully than his recent words in an interview: “I see my work as an extension of my baptism.”1
As we take leave of Warren today, we must shine a light on this aspect of his life, because he was a striking example of how a believer can invest his gifts in order to become an apostle.
Sadly, there are not many who realize that they are apostles simply by being Christians. Therefore, as those who loved him, let us bid him farewell today by making a commitment: that we will follow in his footsteps and activate the gift entrusted to each of us in a way that makes us apostles of Christ as well.
My consolation to his wife, Chris; his children, Rachel, Nathan, and Timothy; his greater family; and all who loved him.
It is my hope and prayer that he will hear the Lord’s voice receiving him in this way:
“You were faithful over a little; today I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
Your Father in Christ,
+SABA
Archbishop of New York
and Metropolitan of All North America
The full interview can be read here: https://www.theoym.org/post/what-s-your-ministry-an-interview-with-warren-farha-the-visionary-behind-a-faith-focused-bookstore
May his memory be eternal! Wonderful letter, your Eminence.
Lord, have mercy.
Thank you Warren. Memory Eternal!
Thank you for this METROPOLITAN SABA, pray for us!