However upon the return of his older Brother Nikita, he continued to receive gentle encouragement to attend Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, New York.

In 1989 he was appointed cell attendant to Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov) and then to Bishop Hilarion (Kapral) of Manhattan, then vicar of Eastern American diocese.

March 1996 George Chemodakov was tonsured a monk with name Gabriel in honour of his great-grandfather Gavriil Luchinin, a priest from Vyatka.

On 7 July 1996 at the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, he was consecrated bishop of Brisbane, vicar of the Australian and New Zealand diocese.

The appeal justified the invasion of Ukraine on the basis of claims of genocide against ethnic Russians in the Donbass by "Kievan Fascists".