[4] With the advent of the Second World War and subsequent occupation of Ukraine by Axis troops, George was separated from his family at 17 and taken by the Nazis to work in a labor camp.
After the War, in 1949, he received his bachelor's degree from the Real Gymnasium of Wendling, Austria, and emigrated to the United States to live with his uncle, noted religious composer and conductor Nicholas P. Afonsky.
Consecration took place at St. Michael's Cathedral on May 13 in Sitka by Metropolitan Ireney (Bekish), Archbishop Kiprian (Borisevich), and Bishop Theodosius (Lazor), along with most of the 17 priests of the Diocese.
[6] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Bishop Gregory was reunited with his brother Sergei, still living in Kyiv, and gained the possibility to travel to both Ukraine and Russia.
On March 23, 1995, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop by the Holy Synod, but on July 20 he retired due to failing health, leaving his post as the longest-reigning hierarch of the Alaskan Diocese.
The next day a memorial service was held in Sitka by Bishop Nikolai (Soraich),[7][8] and a Litany of Requiem was performed during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the Church of St. Catherine the Great Martyr in-the-Fields in the Zamoskvorechie suburb of Moscow by Archmandrite Zacchaeus (Wood) and Priest Vadim Leonov.
The Archbishop's funeral services were presided over by Rector Archpriest John Prokopiuk, along with Bishop Tikhon (Mollard) of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania on the evening of the 18th,[9] and by Metropolitan Herman (Swaiko) of All America and Canada for interment on the 19th, the holiday of Lazarus Saturday.