Biography of His Grace Bishop Evtikhy (Ivan Kurochkin), Bishop of the Diocese of Ishim & Siberia

     Bishop Evtikhy was born in 1955 to Ivan Timofeyevich and Antonina Pavlovna Kurochkin in Ishim, Russia. After finishing school, he completed compulsory military service. In 1977, he was tonsured subdeacon by Bishop Maxim (Krocha) of the Moscow Patriarchate in Omsk. His spiritual fathers were Schemamonk Prochor, and Metropolitan Zinovi of Tsitsikar (Georgia). Between 1978 and 1982, he studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary.

    In 1982, he was tonsured to the small schema and ordained a deacon and priest by Bishop Maxim in Omsk. In 1983 he was elevated to igumen, and appointed the confessor of the Omsk-Tiumen Diocese and served in a newly opened parish in Shablinkin, near Ishim.

    In 1989, together with some ten other priests of the Diocese, he petitioned reception into the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Metroplitan Vitaly (Ustinov) received him on the third day of Pentacost in 1990. In 1992, he organized the opening of the Cathedral of the Theophany in Ishim, which he labored to build. In 1993, he was elevated to archimandrite.

    At the Sobor of Bishops following the Glorification of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, Father Evtikhy delivered a report on church life in Ishim. The same Council nominated him to the episcopate as Bishop of Ishim and Siberia. Bishop Evtikhy's consecration took place in 10/23 July 1994, presided over by Metroplitan Vitaly. Vladika Evtikhy is noted for his endless labors towards building up the spiritual life of his flock, his building projects, and for his work with prisoners.

M. Woerl
May 2002

Sources:
Episkop Evtikhii Ishimskii i Sibirskii
Pravoslavnaya Rus
No. 17 (1518)
01/14 Sept. 1994
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