The corner of 81st Street and Ridge Boulevard in Brooklyn now bears the name of longtime St. Vladimir's Seminary professor The Very Rev. Paul Schneirla (1916–2014). In recognition of his long life of ministry and his zeal for faithful collaborations, officials from the City of New York co-named that section of roadway Father Paul Schneirla Way at a dedication ceremony October 24 in front of the church where Fr. Paul served for fifty years, St. Mary's Antiochian Orthodox Church.
Among those attending the dedication ceremony were St. Mary’s pastor Fr. Michael Ellias (St. Vladimir’s Seminary’s class of 1995), Fr. Paul’s son Peter Schneirla and his wife Caroline, his daughter Dorothy Downie and her husband Robert, State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Consul to Lebanon John Abi Habib, and City Councilman Justin Brannan, who served as master of ceremonies.
“His arrival in Brooklyn was a case study in the right place, the right time, the right people, and the right man,” Fr. Paul’s son Peter told the Brooklyn Reporter. “I can think of no one more worthy than my father to be honored in this way.”
Father Paul served as pastor of St. Mary’s from its inception in 1951 until his retirement in 2002. He remained pastor emeritus of the church until his death on September 20, 2014, at the age of 98.
“At the end of your life, all you have left is what you’ve given to other people,” said Fr. Paul’s daughter Dorothy. “With Fr. Paul, his influence will extend far beyond his own lifetime through the families and friends he so faithfully served.”
The Very Rev. Paul Schneirla converted to Orthodox Christianity from a Protestant background as a young man. He came to St. Vladimir’s Seminary as a student in the early 1940s, when the campus was still located in New York City. He was ordained a priest in 1943 and served in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (AOCANA) for seventy-one years.
Father Paul took on a number of important ministries over the course of his priestly life in addition to his parish ministry and teaching at St. Vladimir’s. He also served as the first chairman of AOCANA’s Department of Christian Education, as dean of the Atlantic Deanery, and as the first editor of The Word magazine. A tireless advocate for Orthodox unity in America, Fr. Paul worked under the direction of hierarchs Metropolitan Antony Bashir (+1966) and Metropolitan Philip Saliba (+2014), as the Archdiocese’s ecumenical officer. Father Paul had been a member of the General Board of the National Council of Churches (NCCC) since the 1940s and at the time of his death was the last surviving member of the original founders of The Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (now succeeded by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America).
