Over time, his church membership became more a matter of faith than politics. Sokolov was ordained to the priesthood in 1984, and in 1985 graduated from Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. He served for a time in Canada at Holy Resurrection Church, Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also occupied a post as Lecturer in Slavonic Studies at the University of British Columbia, and then as rector at the Orthodox SS Peter and Paul Church in Buffalo, New York starting in 1990. In 1991 he was assigned as rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco, California, the oldest Orthodox Christian parish in the continental United States, where he was "well-received" by the congregation. He served with distinction, and in June 2000 was elevated to the rank of archpriest by Bishop Tikhon of San Francisco. Late in 2004, Father Victor was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the lungs, which had already metastasized. He succumbed to the disease on March 12, 2006, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, at age 59. His wife Barbara succumbed to a similar disease two years later at age 56. (10/12/2008)