From the Live Journal of ngubbenet, January 21, 2010, come these powerful comments about the RTOC Bishop for America. [He has one RTOC parish in Australia under him directly, I thought too.]
"I have known Bishop Stefan my whole life, and can attest to him being an unshakable pillar of ROCOR. When I was a child I was very interested in religion and talked with many well known priests of the ROCOR, but no one was like Vladyka Stefan. As a child all the priests I talked with seemed like they were acting. I never liked this fake behavior which I could easily see as a child, and never saw it in Bishop Stefan. I always see in him, as I did before, a person who is without even a hint of compromise, always telling you how it is, never sugarcoating anything, and not dragging sermons on with beautiful words and empty phrases like most clergy do. As I have seen before, his uncompromising belief in Christ and His Holy Church is so strong, he will not let anything stand in the way including authority. This to me is the ideal spiritual father, I have never met a person who is so grounded in Truth and the Holy Church.
"When I was younger I remember Bishop Stefan telling us how Metroplitan Philaret wanted him to be a Bishop, he refused because he was raising 4 children and it would be very difficult. He told us how he did not want to be bishop and he wanted to remain a priest. Later that evening he told us about how when he was the seminary, he would travel with the well known icon painter O.Kyprian, and paint Churches like the Cathedral in SF. One night when they were both sleeping o.Kyprion woke up and saw the, then seminarian Stefan sleep walking. The young Vladyka Stefan in his sleep walked up to the bed of o.Kyprian and blessed him with both hands as bishops do. In the morning o.Kyprian told young Stefan Sabelnik about this strange occurrence and told him that he would be a Bishop. Young Stefan disagreed and said, no I want to be a priest, and shortly after married. He always wanted to remain a priest till he was ordered to become a Bishop, and he did so for the sake of obedience.
"It is especially interesting to talk with Vladyka Stefan about Jordaville since he lived walking distance from it. He spent much of his childhood there talking with the monks and serving for the holy bishops. He can tell you many stories of times he spent with or occurrences with o.Kyprian, Apx.Averky, and saint John of Shanghai who told him “you will help me after I die” This had no meaning till the synod of ROCOR asked him to carve the reliquary for the relics of St.John of Shanghai.
"May God grant many years to one of the last true uncompromising Bishops of ROCOR, as in the old did now sway to one side or the other, but is like a mountain among a forest of uncertainty."