Reinstate The V. Rev. Father Yakov Ryklin as Acting Rector of St. Mary Magdalen Orthodox Church

I know father Yakov since 2001. He was always caring, sincere, and truthful. I am not sure what happened to him, but he deserves to be back in his position. My respect and love to him.

We have known father Jacob for over 20 years as outstanding priest and person and strongly support the petition for his returns to service.

I have known Fr. Yakov for as long as I have been Orthodox. He has always been an outstanding example of Christian virtue and kindness. I do not believe for one second these slanderous allegations. If Our Lord can be slandered and nailed to a cross what more can we sinners expect to happen to us. May the Lord God grant perseverance to Father Yakov and stay close to him holding him in his arms.

Father Yakov is a great priest, whose rare qualities are sorrowfully missed by his parish. Every Sunday without him being allowed to serve at the altar is a great loss to the parish and the Church.

The Church is more than one person but each person together makes up the body and Fr Yakov is an integral part of this body. His absence from ministry is causing pain to our body. Please, try to bring this investigation to a speedy conclusion so that we can have our priest back. Thank you.

We beseech you to return Father Yakov to lead our parish in the loving, inspiring, and completely caring way that he has always led Her. My family and I are so grateful to Father Yakov for blessedly supporting us in good times and in bad. He has truly taught us how to be better Eastern Orthodox Christians. We join the many other parishioners who feel this same way. St Mary Magdalene is only my second parish, in spite of the fact that I was born into the Faith almost 70 years ago and have cherished the Church and its teachings all this time. My original parish was blessed with some of the most outstanding priests of the OCA, many of whom have been specially recognized. When I moved to Manhattan and joined St Mary Magdalene, I could not believe how blessed I continued to be with caliber of love, devotion, caring, inspiration and leadership Father Yakov gives to us, both as members of the body of the parish and as individuals. He gives his whole heart and soul to us, and inspires us to do the same. Please do not take him away from us, but reinstate him without penalty to the blessed position from which he has so significantly inspired the lives of his parishioners. With unwavering love in Christ and humble servant.

While I am relatively new to the Upper West Side and don't know details of what happened, I can certainly say from my interactions with him that Fr. Yakov is extremely caring, very dedicated in the life of the church, humble, and seems to be a strong blessing for the Upper West Side church parishioners. His service of Saturday Vespers weekly (in addition to Sunday Eucharist) has been of significant value to the spiritual life of myself and imagine other parishioners too.

Fr Yakov is an outstanding priest who serves people of all stations and situations in life. He is unique and I love him as a brother and my father in the Orthodox faith

I am supporting our priest father Yakov!

I support fr.Yakov and request his immediate reinstatement

I am pleased to sign this petition in support of Father Yakov.