Month: January 11, 2019 8:58 am

On January 6 the Tomos of autocephaly was presented in Istanbul to the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Below are the reactions of Ukrainian diaspora organizations to this historic event. All the statements were released on January 6.

Following is the text of President Petro Poroshenko’s address on January 6 on the occasion of granting the Tomos of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Source: Presidential Administration of Ukraine.

The 116th U.S. Congress formally convened on January 3. November’s mid-term elections produced clear winners and clear losers. The Democratic Party is definitely in the “W” column with a resounding majority of 235-199 (the 9th Congressional District in North Carolina is still disputed). Control over the House of Representatives passed upon the convening of the new Congress. The Republicans can take some solace in having held on to the Senate and slightly increased their majority to 53-47. 

This past Christmas season, Edmonton audiences had the choice of two different productions of the famed “Nutcracker.”

One was the original “Nutcracker,” originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and a libretto adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann’s story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”

By far the biggest news in Ukraine last year was the formation of a canonical self-governing Ukrainian Orthodox Church that saw 39-year-old Metropolitan Epifaniy (Serhiy Dumenko) elected as its primate on December 15. A presidential policy goal, the seismic shift further divorced Ukraine from Moscow and ended over 300 years of the hostile neighbor’s spiritual sway over the country. Consequently, the Church’s establishment reverberated throughout the Christian world and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – the name of the newly unified Church – awaited the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s official granting of a Tomos bestowing autocephaly on January 6, 2019. 

This year for churches was filled with centennial celebrations for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. and Canada, as well as for several individual parishes in the U.S. However, the majority of 2018 news on Churches focused on major events in the process of Ukraine’s Orthodox gaining independence from Russian influence and establishing a unified Church recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Quinquennial. How often do you see that word? Well, the quinquennial Ukrainian World Congress took place on November 24-27, with 248 delegates representing 26 countries participating in its deliberations, as well as events marking the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor. The congress focused on the theme of strengthening Ukrainian statehood in the wake of the threat posed by the actions of the Russian Federation for Ukraine and the entire world. 

PARSIPPANY, N.J. – The St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Theological Seminary has released a Christmas CD, “Seminary Christmas: Christmas Carols.” It features 10 tracks, with nine in Ukrainian (“Dobryi Vechir Tobi,” “Vstavay, Vstavay Hospodaryu,” “V Vyflyiemi Novyna,” “Chuty dzvinok,” “Nova Radist Stala,” “Try Slavniy Tsari,” “Dobriy Vechir Vsim Vam,” “Oy Vysoko Nad Poliamy,” and “A Na Tomu Slovi Buvaite Zdorovi,”) and one English (“Heaven and Earth”). 

U.S. warship at Romanian port  A U.S. naval warship has arrived at a Romanian port, a show of force by…...

CARNEGIE, Pa. – A new icon, “St. Nicholas Day Pass Over 1907,” of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was presented by Michael and Marijka (née Borszcz) Jula in memory of their daughter, Tatyana Helena Jula, and unveiled on Sunday, December 2, 2018, at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie, Pa.

KYIV – Ukraine and Russia exchanged a new round of tit-for-tat sanctions late in December as martial law in 10 Ukrainian regions expired the same month. Russia also completed a 37-mile border fence on the Ukrainian territory of Crimea on December 27 that separates the annexed peninsula from mainland Ukraine. 

The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry has rejected what it says are unacceptable demands by Germany and France to release Ukrainian soldiers held by Russia. The statement by the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry on December 29, 2018, followed an appeal by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in a statement on December 28.