Pr. Laurent Cleenewerck de Kiev
Orthodox priest, theologian, and composer, and a director of Godhunting Resources.
The Very Reverend Laurent Cleenewerck de Kiev is a priest of the Orthodox Church and the rector of Holy Apostles Orthodox Church in Sandpoint, Idaho, a parish of the Diocese of Western America of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Born in Montpellier, France, in 1969, he has served Orthodox parishes in Oregon, California, and France for more than twenty years. He is also a university professor, the editor of the Eastern Orthodox Bible New Testament, and a composer whose newest work sets the four Gospels to the music of Vivaldi. He serves on the board of directors of Godhunting Resources.
A Priest of the Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church traces its life without a break to the churches founded by the apostles, and it is one of the major Christian traditions represented in our community. Father Laurent was raised to the rank of archpriest by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America in 2008, and to protopresbyter in 2025 by Bishop Maxim of the Diocese of Western America.
- 2004–2007 Rector, Christ the Savior Orthodox Mission, Grants Pass, Oregon
- 2007–2024 Rector, St. Innocent Orthodox Church, Eureka, California
- 2024–2025 Rector, St. John Chrysostom Parish, France
- 2025– Rector, Holy Apostles Orthodox Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Music From the House of Vivaldi
Father Laurent has written and recorded music since he was a teenager. His newest releases, issued under the workshop name Francesco di Vivaldi, give the most familiar music of the Baroque back to a sacred subject: four concertos on the four Gospels, and twelve portraits of the Twelve Apostles. He has also set the poems of Verlaine, Hugo, Musset, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud to music.
Scripture and Theology
Father Laurent edited The Eastern / Greek Orthodox Bible: New Testament (EOB), published by New Rome Press and other publishers and revised in 2026, and he is now at work on the Old Testament, which will be published at easternorthodoxbible.org. His books include:
- His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches (2007; revised 2013 and 2026), with letters of endorsement from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Cardinal Walter Kasper
- Aiparthenos | Ever-Virgin? (2015), on the Orthodox and Catholic teaching of the perpetual virginity of Mary
- The Intermediate State of the Dead in Catholicism and Orthodoxy: Purgatory, Toll Booths, Indulgences, Fire, and Other Mysteries (2026)
- From Auctoritas to Potestas: The Development of Roman Primacy from the Pre-Nicene Era to Vatican I (2026)
- The Catechism of the Orthodox Christian Faith, now complete and under review by the bishops
His newest books are two collections of fairy tales, Twelve Russian Orthodox Fairy Tales and Twelve Ukrainian Orthodox Fairy Tales, both published in 2026.
Working Across Traditions
In 2016 Father Laurent received the First Prize of the United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week, presented by King Abdullah II of Jordan and Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem, for his paper Finding Common Words, an Eastern Orthodox academic contribution to “A Common Word.” He is a graduate and a faculty member of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University, where he teaches Methods in Ecumenical Dialogue.
Scholar and Teacher
Since 2005 Father Laurent has taught theology and international administration at EUCLID (Euclid University), where he is International Faculty Coordinator and chairman of the Oversight Council. He also holds a doctorate in public health, and his recent research, with colleagues, studies vaccine acceptance and disease prevention in Africa. French and English are both his native languages.