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Holodomor | Ukrainian Genocide
November is the month of commemoration to honor the victims of the 1932-1933 genocide-famine in Ukraine.
A website curating all sorts of events, resources, and reflections on the Holodomor can be found here. This website is work of the U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Awareness 1932-33.
This year it is the 85th Anniversary of this VERY tragic event of human history.
Soter Stephen Ortynsky presented by Father Ivan Kaszcak
Father Ivan Kaszcak, PhD, presenting on Soter Stephen Ortynsky (1866-1916), first bishop of Ukrainian Greek Catholics in the USA beginning when he received jurisdiction on 3 January 1913.
The lecture was sponsored by American Russian Citizens Club of Shelton, The Lemko Association of the U.S.A., and The New England Chapter of the Carpato-Rusyn which took place at the American Russian Citizens’ Club, Shelton, CT.
A Basilian monk, Ortynsky was ordained bishop on 12 May 1907, in St George’s, Lviv. His cathedral in Philadelphia at the time of his ministry was the former St James Episcopal Church; now a new cathedral has been built where the bishop is in repose, under the title of the Immaculate Conception. Ortynsky was the only Eastern Catholic bishop in the Western world at the time.
Father Ivan is a priest of the Stamford Eparchy and pastor of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Church in Kerhonkson, NY. He has made it his mission to teach and publish on historical matters of the Ukrainian Church in the USA.
Father Ivan gave great information but he also reminded us of the importance of one’s humanity. A terrific presentation!!!!
Divine Liturgy for the coming week
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Sunday, 10/22/17 20th Sunday after Pentecost —The Holy Wonderworker and Equal-to-the Apostles Abercius
9:00 a.m. +Hryhorij Dubno requested by the Family
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish
Epistle: Galatians 1:11:19
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31, Tone 3
Monday, 10/23/17 The Holy Apostle and Brother of the Lord in the Flesh James
5:00 p.m. +Michael, Eudokia, Vladimir (Pan.) requested by Stadnicky family
Tuesday, 10/24/17 The Holy Martyrs Aretas and companions
9:00 a.m. +Michael Kurylo (2nd Anniv. Pan.) requested by Pauline Kurylo
Wednesday, 10/25/17 The Holy Martyrs and Notaries Marcian and Martyrius
9:00 a.m. God’s blessing and health for Olga Mackew (105th birthday) requested by Sestrichi
Thursday, 10/26/17 The Holy and Glorious Great-Martyr Demetrius
8:00 a.m. no special intention for the Divine Liturgy
Friday, 10/27/17 The Holy Martyr Nestor
9:00 a.m. God’s blessing and health for Antonina Rotko requested by Kateryna Szymkiw
Saturday, 10/28/17 The Holy Martyrs Terentius and Neonila
9:00 a.m. no special intention for the Divine Liturgy
Sunday, 10/29/17 21st Sunday after Pentecost —The Holy Venerable-Martyr Anastasia
9:00 a.m. Special Intention
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish
Epistle: Galatians 2:16:20
Gospel: Luke 8:26-39, Tone 4
Parish announcements this week
Christ is in our midst!
1. WELCOME! New parishioners are always welcome in our parish. If someone wishes to join, please contact Father Iura Godenciuc at 203 865-0388 or our Financial Secretary Natalie Chermak at 203 468-0367.
2. AFTER DIVINE LITURGY: Dear parishioners and guests, after each Divine Liturgy, coffee and hard rolls are available in the church hall.
3. VIGIL LIGHT: This week vigil light is offered to the glory of God by Michael and Vira Walnycky for God’s blessing and health for all members of their family.
4. FOOD DRIVE: Judy Ellis leads the mercy project which provides food items to the needy. A container is in our church vestibule for non-perishable food. This collection will be taken every week. Father Iura will distribute the food to those in need. Thanks for your support.
5. K of C: The Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will hold its next regular meeting on Monday, November 6, at 7:00 p.m. in the church hall. All men of parish are invited to attend to see what the Knights are all about and what they do and what you can do with them for your parish.
6. St. Michael’s Day: St. Michael’s day will be celebrated on November 12. On this day we will have only one (1) Divine Liturgy at 10:30 a.m. After the Divine Liturgy, we will have a dinner and short program. All parishioners are cordially invited to this celebration. Tickets will be available through Luba Dubno. Tickets are $20.00 for adults, $10.00 for youth between 14-18. Free for students Ridna Shkola, altar boys and for children under 12. We will be running a raffle. If you would like to donate any items to be raffled, please bring them to our church hall on Sundays before our feast day. Also we ask to donate cakes for a desert.
7. ROOF REPAIR FUND ROOF, CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLEDGES: Please consider the immediate as well as the long term repair capital improvement projects, roof and physical plant. (i.e., parking lot) that has been planned, both now and for the future and make a generous contribution to allow us to protect our property. The church hall roof which is 34 years old has developed major leaks. We have conducted a temporary patch to the hall roof to give us time to build up a Roof Repair Fund in a restricted account. As well as repairing the various roofs that needed treatment, especially the sacristy roof which had serious problems. These roofs have been repaired and must be maintained to prevent further water damage to our property and we cannot pay for them from regular weekly collection. Roof Repair Fund as well as Capital Improvement Fund envelopes as well as the long term Pledge forms are available in the vestibule of our church for your special sacrificial gift. Thank you for helping to keep our physical structures in good condition for our use today and for the next generation tomorrow.
8. The 85th Anniversary of the HOLODOMOR Genocide will be commemorated Saturday, November 18. March of Remembrance 11:30 a.m. from St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church, East 7th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues), NYC. Also, the Holodomor Memorial Service at 2:00 p.m. at St. Patrick Cathedral 5th Avenue (between 50th and 51st Streets). Bus leaves at 8:30 a.m. from the Ikea parking lot, New Haven. The cost per person is $35.00 for adults, $15.00 for students. For more information see flyers in vestibule or call Maria Antonyshyn (203)-795-6959.
9. ANNUAL STAMFORD CHARITIES APPEAL: REMINDER: Please don’t forget to donate for the Charities Appeal. Please make your check payable to the Diocese of Stamford. DO NOT MAIL THE FORM TO THE CHANCERY OFFICE. We sincerely ask all parishioners to make a generous contribution.
St Luke
St Luke, convert, evangelist, physician, artistLet us pray: “O holy apostle, Luke, entreat our merciful God to grant our souls the remission of sins.”
Historically we know that Luke was a physician by profession, schooled in Tarsus, which ranked with Athens and Alexandria as a center of learning. Greek by birth and he is regarded as an artist. Tradition preserves an account of an icon which Luke painted of the Theotokos during her lifetime. Pious belief traces to this prototype several icons, such as the Vladimir Mother of God, some icons on Athos, and one in Rome.
St Luke is the author of the third Gospel. His Gospel relates to us Jesus’ life and message in a manner that reflects the a concern for women, a strong compassion for the poor and outcast, and a spirit both joyful and urbane. You can speculate that these qualities were present in his own life as a physician and follower of Christ. When you study the works of St Paul you connect that Paul and Luke were close friends and traveling companions on several missionary journeys throughout the Gentile territory. Luke preserved an account of these travels in the Acts of the Apostles.
Pyrohy and kovbasa Saturday
Pyrohy is Saturday is coming this week on Saturday, October 21. Please place your order for Pyrohy TODAY for $6.00 per dozen.
To call your order in for pick up Saturday in St Michael’s church hall:
•Lydia Koziupa: 203-467-2285
•Alexis Hickerson: 475-221-8399
•Sophie DeCarlo: 203-468-2761
The final two Pyrohy Saturdays of 2017 are November 18 and December 16.
Kovbasa Dinner: The Knights of Columbus Council will be making fresh ¾ kielbasa (kovbasa) baked and fried, with 1+ pound of fresh cooked cabbage with a vegetable mix. A good meal for two people. These meals will be available when you pick up your pyrohy’s on October 21. The price for the meal this time will be $12.00. Cash or check payable to the “KofC Council 16253.”
The kovbasa is coming from the Lasowiak Deli (63 Derby Avenue, Derby). It will be the “REGULAR” Kielbasa.
Please pre-order to ensure that we make enough for everyone. Call (203) 789-9554 only and leave a message with your order.
Anne Applebaum’s “Red Famine”
Anne Applebaum’s book, Red Famine is spoken of as a major contribution to the public recognition of the state-orchestrated famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine during which estimated 4 million Ukrainian died. The book puts the story of the forced famine (Holodomor) in the context of the Russian imperial, early Soviet (Leninist and Stalinist), as well as post-Soviet attempts to subjugate Ukraine. Red Famine integrates newly available archival evidence into an account that is compelling and well-written. Of special value is Applebaum’s attention to the politics of memory and the relentless attempts by the Soviet and the present-day Russian government to distort, diminish, and suppress the memory of the genocide against the Ukrainian nation.
One reviewer said, “If you want to have one book in your library on the Ukrainian Holocaust of 1932-1933, this is the book to own and read. Get a copy of Red Famine.
The author is a columnist for the Washington Post and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian. Applebaum is a Professor of Practice at the London School of Economics’s Institute of Global Affairs where she runs Arena, a program on disinformation and 21st century propaganda. Previous history books include Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, Gulag: A History (for which she won a Pulitzer in 2004); as a cookbook author she has From a Polish Country House Kitchen, and a travelogue writer, Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe.
Anne Applebaum, 53, is a native of Washington, DC, she graduated from Yale University, was a Marshall Scholar at the LSE and St. Antony’s College, Oxford. Anne is married to Radoslaw Sikorski, a Polish politician and writer. They have two children, Alexander and Tadeusz.
Reposed in the Lord Rosemary Brezicki
Rosemary Orifice Brezicki, 58, of Northford, reposed in the Lord on Wednesday, October 11, 2017. She was the beloved wife of 34 years to Rudolph Brezicki, Jr.
Let us pray for the peaceful repose Rosemary and for the consolation of her family. It is the Brezicki family who have been the Church’s benefactors of the pussy willows used on Hosanna Sunday.
Her funeral procession will leave the North Haven Funeral Home, 36 Washington Avenue, Monday morning at 9:15. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated in St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church, New Haven at 10:00. Interment will follow in Northford Cemetery. The visiting hours will be Sunday from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. with a Panachyda service at 5:00.
Eternal Memory.
On the 7th Ecumenical Council
[be sure to watch the video linked below]
Why is the Seventh Ecumenical Council important to Christians? Is the consideration of the Council relevant to us today? This council was held in Nicaea, Asia Minor in AD 787 under the presidency of Empress Irene and history tells us that 367 bishops were present. It is also called Second Council of Nicaea.
The Iconoclast Controversy: The very heated debated centered around the use of icons in the Church and the controversy between the iconoclasts and iconophiles. The Iconoclasts (“icon-smashers”), started by the Emperor Leo III, were suspicious of religious art especially sacred art that depicted Trinity, saints, biblical acts, and humans; they demanded that the Church rid itself of such art and that it be destroyed or broken (as the term “iconoclast” implies). Philosophically, the Iconoclasts were very likely influenced by the Jewish and Muslim thinking that prohibits the creation and use of sacred images. For them, the fear was idolatry —the worship of things over the worship of God. And we ought to avoid wrong and false worship.
The controversy over images spilled over into matters concerning what it means to say (1) that Jesus is the “image of the Father,” the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity,” and that we are redeemed. we are “persons”; and (2) that man and woman are persons (not mere individuals). Curiously, we are still fighting many of these issues in 2017.
The Church’s response: The people who love icons (“iconophilles”) believed that icons served to preserve the doctrinal teachings of the Church; they considered icons to be man’s dynamic way of expressing the divine through art and beauty. Iconophilles remind us that idolatry is wrong, and false. The veneration of icons is not false worship but images are not the problem. There is a difference between worship and veneration. We worship God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) the creator of all things. We venerate (give honor to) the Cross, the saints, the Bible because these things and people are connected to Jesus Christ.
The Iconoclast controversy was a form of Monophysitism: distrust and downgrading of the human side of the Son of God.
Saint John of Damascus taught in his First Treatise on the Divine Images: “I do not worship matter, I worship the fashioner of matter, who became matter for my sake and accepted to dwell in matter and through matter worked my salvation, and I will not cease from reverencing matter, through which my salvation was worked.”
For us, Saint John of Damascus gives us the theology by which we live the Christian life.
The Council’s Teaching: “We define that the holy icons, whether in color, mosaic, or some other material, should be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on the sacred vessels and liturgical vestments, on the walls, furnishings, and in houses and along the roads, namely the icons of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, that of our Lady the Theotokos, those of the venerable angels and those of all saintly people. Whenever these representations are contemplated, they will cause those who look at them to commemorate and love their prototype. We define also that they should be kissed and that they are an object of veneration and honor, but not of real worship, which is reserved for Him, Who is the subject of our faith and is proper for the divine nature, … which is in effect transmitted to the prototype; he who venerates the icon, venerated in it the reality for which it stands.”
Watch this brief video on the veneration of icons.