Then, on April 6, 1963 (which was Lazarus Saturday that year), Shaw made a visit to the chapel of St. Sergius in Southbury, Connecticut and met Dmitry Alexandrow (the future Bishop Daniel of Erie) who took him that evening to the Night Vigil service in New Kursk-Root Icon Hermitage, Mahopac, New York.

Dmitry Alexandrow was away from Southbury for some time, working with the newly arrived Old Believer Cossacks who had emigrated from Turkey, and John was received into the Orthodox Church by the Very Rev.

After graduation from high school, Shaw studied at the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in Russian linguistics, with a minor in East European history.

He graduated cum laude in 1968 and entered Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, New York, where his classmates included the future Bishop Peter (Loukianoff) of Cleveland, Fr.

During that period, Shaw also translated two books from Russian into English: Vladyka Alypy's Slavonic textbook, which is now published in both Russian and English editions by Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, and Monk Mitrophan's How Our Departed Ones Live, which was published in both languages by the efforts of Fr.

After this On May 15, 2008, the Council of Bishops of the ROCOR decreed to send the curricula vitae of archimandrite George (Schaefer) and protopriest John Shaw along with accompanying appeals to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia for the confirmation of their candidacies for episcopal consecration.

April 11, 2011, "in consideration of his diligent service ... and in connection with the 35th anniversary of entering the priesthood", Shaw was awarded a commemorative panagia.

[6] On July 10, 2013, an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops of ROCOR censured Shaw "for his willfulness in administering the parishes adhering to the Western Rite, and in performing various ecclesiastical services not approved by the Synod of Bishops, and for criticizing his brethren in letters to clergy and laity",[1] relieved him of all duties, and retired him.

[7] On September 16, 2022, by the decision of the Council of Bishops of the ROCOR he was included in the committee, created at the same time "to study the question of the canonical reception of former schismatics"[8]