The Very Rev. Msgr. Michael Sopoliga will complete 42 years of service as a priest at St. John’s Orthodox Church, Nesquehoning, when he celebrates his final Divine Liturgy this weekend.

Having granted his request to be placed in “retirement status,” His Grace, Bishop Nicholas, has named Msgr. Sopoliga pastor emeritus of the church.

Before his appointment to St. John’s by the late Metropolitan Orestes P. Chornock on March 1, 1952, Rev. Sopoliga held pastorates at the Orthodox parishes of St. Mary’s, Jennerstown, St. John’s, Ligonier, and St. Mary’s, Bayonne, New Jersey.

In addition to his pastoral duties, he served as a professor at Christ the Saviour Seminary, national spiritual advisor of the ACRY Diocesan Youth Organization, treasurer of the Diocesan Priests’ Pension Fund and dean of the Mid Atlantic deanery clergy.