ST. ELIA’S NEWSLETTERJANUARY 2019

CONTACTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF ST. ELIA 11833 – 66 Street NW, Edmonton, AB T5B 1J2 Office:780-471-2288 / Kitchen: 780-479-8824 Kitchen Contact: Donna Marianych 587-784-7082

St. Elia: www.uocc-stelia.ca Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada: www.uocc.ca Western Eparchy: www.uocc-we.ca

WEBSITES

CLERGY

COUNCIL

PRIEST: Very Rev. Mitred Archpriest Fr. Georg Podtepa Home:780-477-2583 / Cell: 780-984-6290 geopod@telusplanet.net

Rev. Fr. Dr. Roman Shiyan Home:780-439-7217 / Cell: 780-994-8721 rshiyan@ualberta.ca

President: Alex Werstiuk 780-462-6468 / klipperdale@yahoo.ca1st Vice-President: Tammy Ewanec 780-474-4867 / tewanec@shaw.ca2nd Vice-President: Betty Corlett 780-932-9727 / bettycor@telus.netSecretary: Sub Dcn. Evan Panchuk 780-203-3439 / e_panchuk52@hotmail.comAssistant Secretary: Helen Hayduk 780-476-1115 / mtnchld49@hotmail.comTreasurer: Walter Marcenuik 780-463-9646 / wmarcenuik@gmail.comHospodar: Al Hayduk 780-476-1115 / ahayduk@shaw.caDirectors: Bill Ewanec 780-474-4867 / hewanec@shaw.ca Dan Kobasiuk 780-473-4081 / mrdk38@hotmail.com Orest Macyk 780-417-5294 / ojmacyk@telus.net Andrii Sumruk 587-338-8777 Club Trident President: Ivan Sawchuk 780-988-5862 / iws@shaw.caUWAC President: Donna Marianych 587-784-7082 / Super.uke00@hotmail.caMission Outreach: Myrna Kostash kostashm@yahoo.ca

Sunday Bulletin and Newsletter Contacts:Myrna Kostash 780-433-0710 / kostashm@yahoo.ca Barbara Panchuk 780-710-5052 / bpanchuk52@gmail.com

ХРИСТОС РОЖДАЄТЬСЯ!СЛАВІМО ЙОГО!

CHRIST IS BORN!LET US GLORIFY HIM!

EVE OF THEOPHANYJanuary 18, Thursday at St EilaBlessing of water at 5:30pm followed by our Blessed Jordan Supper.

KOLYADKY CONCERT January 9, Wednesday at 6:30pm at St John’s Cultiral Centre

*Sing Along with cantorsand Zoryana Orlova:

Ukrainian Christmas Caroling program“Dobruy Vechir tobi”“Nova Radist stala”“Na nebi zierka” Zoryana Solo“Vo Vyflyemi”“Boh sya rozdae”“Spy Isuse” Zoryana solo“Ve Vefleyemi novena”“Svyata nich” Zoryana solo“Nebo I zemlya”“Venchuvaneya”“Kolyada Kolyada” Tanya and Uylya duet

1. Greetings from President of Benevolent Cantor Association Marshall Kuchmar. 2. “Boh Predvichuy” 3. An Overview on Caroling in Ukraine presented by Viktoriya Popovych 4. *Sing Along with cantors and Zoryana Orlova: “Dobruy Vechir tobi”

“Nova Radist stala”

“Na nebi zierka” Zoryana Solo

“Vo Vyflyemi” “Boh sya rozdae”

“Spy Isuse” Zoryana solo

“Ve Vefleyemi novena”

“Svyata nich” Zoryana solo

“Nebo I zemlya”

“Venchuvaneya”

“Kolyada Kolyada” Tanya and Uylya duet

5. Father Petrushak will perform some unique kolyadky *All carol texts will be on the tables provided for you to sing along with us ;)

Ukrainian Christmas Caroling program

PATRIARCHAL PROCLAMATION FOR CHRISTMAS

+ B A R T H O L O M E WBy God’s Mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical PatriarchTo the Plenitude of the ChurchGrace, Mercy and Peace from the Savior Christ Born in Bethlehem* * *

Venerable brothers and beloved children in the Lord,

We glorify the Most-Holy and All-Merciful God, that we are again deemed worthy this year to reach the festive day of Christmas, the feast of the pre-eternal Son and Word of God’s Incarnation “for us and for our salvation.” Through the “eternal mystery” and “great miracle” of the divine Incarnation, the “great wound,” namely humankind sitting in darkness and shadow, is rendered into “children of light and day,”1 while the blessed road of deification by grace is opened for us. In the theandric mystery of the Church and through her holy sacraments, Christ is born and takes shape in our soul and existence. Maximus the Confessor theologizes that “the Word of God, though born once in the flesh, is ever willing to be born spiritually in those who desire Him. Thus, He becomes an infant and fashions Himself in us by means of the virtues; indeed, He reveals Himself to the extent that we are capable of receiving Him.”2 God is not an abstract “idea,” like the god of the philosophers, or an unapproachable God enclosed in absolute transcendence. He is “Emmanuel,” “God with us,”3 closer to us than we are to ourselves, “more akin to us than our very own selves.” 4

Faith in the inaccessible and fleshless Divinity does not transform our life; it does not remove the polarization between matter and spirit; nor does it bridge the gap between heaven and earth. The Incarnation of the Divine Word is the revelation of truth regarding God and humankind, which saves the human race from the dark labyrinths of materialism and anthropomonism, as well as from idealism and dualism. The Church’s condemnation of nestorianism and monophysitism signals the rejection of two broader tendencies of the human soul: on the one hand rendering anthropocentrism absolute, and on the other idolizing an idealistic understanding of life and truth, both of which are especially widespread deviations in our age.

Contemporary “nestorianism” is expressed as a spirit of secularization, as scientism and the absolute prioritization of utilitarian knowledge, as the absolute autonomy of economy, as self-saving arrogance and atheism, as the “non-civilization” of individualism and eudemonism, as legalism and moralism, as the “end of decency” and identification of sacrificial love and repentance with the so-called “morality of the weak.” By the same token, “monophysitism” is today represented by tendencies to demonize the body and natural man, by puritanism and the syndromes of “purity,” by fruitless introverted spirituality and various mysticisms, by disregarding the intellect, art and civilization, by denying dialogue and rejecting differences, with the dangerous expresser—supposedly in the name of the “one and only truth”—namely a religious fundamentalism nurtured by absolutism and rejections, while feeding violence and division. It is evident that both a nestorianizing deification of the world and a monophysitizing demonization of it leave the world and history, civilizations and cultures, exposed to the powers of the “present age,” cementing their autonomy and impasses.

Christian faith is the certainty of our salvation by the God of love, who graciously assumed our nature and once again granted us “the likeness” lost through the fall, making us worthy of true life in His Body, the Church. The theandric mystery is expressed throughout the entirety of life in the Church. The Incarnate Savior received “the flesh of the Church”5 and showed, “first and alone,” “the true man, who is perfect on account of both character and life as well as all other aspects.”6 The Church of Christ is the place of “common salvation,” “common freedom” and hope in the “common kingdom.” It is the way of living the liberating truth, the core of which is expressing the truth in love. This love transcends the boundaries of

mere human action, because its source and prototype lie in divine philanthropy, which transcends human reason. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us … Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”7 God is present wherever love exists.

This saving truth must also be expressed in the way we celebrate the sacred Nativity of our Savior, who visited us from on high. A feast is always a “fullness of time,” a time of self-knowledge, of thanksgiving for the magnitude of divine philanthropic love, of witness to the truth of the theandric mystery and of freedom in Christ. The Christ-pleasing celebration of the Divine Word’s Incarnation is an act of resistance against secularization, against discoloration of the feast and its conversion into a “Christmas without Christ,” as well as against a celebration of Having, of consumerism and vanity—indeed, into a world filled with social tensions, reversal and confusion of values, of violence and injustice, where the “Jesus child” is once again faced with the inexorable interests of numerous, multifaceted powers.

Honorable brothers and beloved children,

Generations come and pass, while forthcoming developments are difficult to foresee. Genuine faith, though, does not face dilemmas. The Word became flesh, the “truth has come” and “darkness has subsided.” We already participate in the Kingdom while still on our journey toward the completion of the incarnate Divine Economy. We possess the unshakeable certainty that the future belongs to Christ, Who is “the same yesterday and today and forever;”8 that the Church of Christ is and shall remain a place of holiness and godliness, a renewal of man and world, a foretaste of the glory of the Kingdom; that it will continue “to give the witness of the Gospel” “to distribute the gifts of God in the world: His love, peace, justice, and reconciliation, the power of resurrection and expectation of eternity.”9 The contemporary ideology of some “post-Christian” age is baseless. “After Christ,” everything is and remains “in Christ” to the ages.

We humbly kneel before the Divine Infant of Bethlehem and His All- Holy Mother, who holds Him in her arms, while venerating the Incarnate “most perfect God,” and bestow upon the children of the Holy and Great Church of Christ throughout the world—from the ever-vigilant Phanar—our Patriarchal blessing for the Holy Twelve Days of Christmas, wishing you a healthy, fruitful and joyous new year in the Lord’s favor.

+ Bartholomew of ConstantinopleYour fervent supplicant before God

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Nativity Greetings from His Grace Bishop ILARION

God is with us!

I greet you on this occasion of the Great

Nativity Feast.

May the newborn Lord bring good health, prosperity, inner peace,

and joy to all of you in the New Year!

З нами Бог!

Вітаю вас з Різдвом Христовим!

Нехай Новонароджений

Христос принесе Вам добре здоров’я,

добробут, душевний спокій та радість у

Новому Році.

Nativity Epistle of the Permanent Conference of Ukrainian OrthodoxBishops Outside the Borders of Ukraine

To the God-beloved Pastors,Honoured Monastics, and all Faithful Children of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the Diaspora andUkraine,

“Today, the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One and the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One. Angels with shepherds give glory. The magi journey with a star. For unto us is born a young Child, the Pre-eternal God” (Kondak of the Nativity of Christ).

Christ is Born!

Once again, according to the Mercy of God, we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity. Faithful hearts, full ofgratitude to God, again glorify the Pre-eternal Word, the Divine Christ Child, Who for us and our salvation came down to earth and was incarnated from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. Today the soul of every Christian with great spiritual joy cries out “Christ is Born -Glorify Him!Christ from Heaven - Let us meet Him! Christ on Earth – be exalted! Let all the earth sing to the Lord!(St. Gregory the Theologian).

The coming of the Son of God to earth was the most important event in the entire history of the human race. It is an event which the human mind cannot fully comprehend, the wonder of wonders: “great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16).

The Nativity of Christ was the event which ushered in a new cultural life rooted in love for God and neighbor, an event which initiated the Kingdom of Christ on earth. Many things have happened and happen on our earthly planet. But none of them have been discussed and preached for ages as has theevent of the Nativity of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Nativity of Christ is for all of us a great and joyful feast. St. John Chrysostom writes: “The day of Christ’s Nativity is the most important day among all the feasts, for it is shown to be the mother of all feasts. Without the Nativity of Christ there would be no Resurrection.” Humanity awaited the coming into the world of the Saviour with great impatience. The Lord, yet in the earthly paradise of Eden, after the sin of Adam and Eve said that He would send them a Saviour Who would return to them and to the entire human race their lost happiness and conquer the power of the devil.

Adam’s sin is the history of the sin of all mankind and every person individually. The transgression of Adam is repeated in each one of us when we turn from God and commit sin.

The greatest and deepest mystery of the Christian faith is the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God. The Pre-eternal God becomes a small child without ceasing to be God. As St. John the Evangelist writes, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14).

Christ “for the sake of us men and for our salvation came down from the heavens and took flesh from theHoly Spirit and the Virgin May, and became man” so that He might destroy the barrier between man and God which arose due to human sin. And every time we Christians celebrate the Nativity of Christ a meeting takes place in our heart and soul with God Himself. We meet the Messiah – Christ – in the Mystery of the Eucharist. Through Holy Communion our human flesh is filled with His Divine power, which

strengthens us spiritually and physically. We meet the Saviour in the other mysteries of our Orthodox Faith, which open to us the path to eternal life. We meet Christ in our daily life, sensing in everything His care and presence. And so every year Christ is born in the hearts and souls of faithful people.

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

In 2018 we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches in the USA and in Canada. We thank God for all His grace and bounties poured out upon us in the past. We beseech Him that in the coming century the Lord would continue to preserve and protect our Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the diaspora.

We especially beseech the Divine Christ Child that in this new year He would bless our ancestral homeland of Ukraine with peace, spiritual and economic growth, and our God-beloved Ukrainian people with unity, brotherly love, and a united Orthodox Church in Ukraine which is recognized by all other local Orthodox Churches.We extend our gratitude to the Mother Church – the Great Church of Constantinople, and especially to His All-Holiness, Patriarch Bartholomew and the Holy Synod for all that they have done on behalf of the daughter Church, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, during the past year of 2018.

We beseech Christ the Saviour, who said “I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” (Mt. 16:18), that in the new year the Lord will preserve His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church from schism.

From sincere hearts and the depth of our souls we greet all of you on the occasion of the great feast of the Nativity of our Lord, the New Year of God’s goodness 2019, and the Holy Theophany. We prayerfully wish you God’s limitless mercies.

May the Newly-born in Bethlehem Lord and Saviour of world grant all of you good physical health, spiritual peace, familial warmth, joy, and prosperity.

Bowing before the manger in Bethlehem, we offer the New-born Christ Child our sincere and heartfelt prayers, and thank Him for all that we have.

May the joy of the Nativity enter into every Christian heart, be present within every family, and everabide among all of you.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

With Hierarchical Blessings,† YURIJ, Metropolitan, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

† ANTONY, Metropolitan, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA and in the Diaspora† JEREMIAH, Archbishop, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Brazil and South America† DANIEL, Archbishop, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA and Western Europe

† ILARION, Bishop, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada†ANDRIY, Bishop, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

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Message from Parish Priest, Father Georg Podtepa

January, 2019.

CHRIST IS BORN! LET US GLORIFY HIM!ХРИСТОС РОЖДАЄТЬСЯ! СЛАВІМО ЙОГО!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

Today we are celebrating the great Feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, God the Son. He came to this world to be with us in order to elevate us to the dignity of the children of God.

St. John Chrysostom wrote: “ Is there anything equal to this Feast? God is on the earth and man is in Heaven; the Angels serve men and men have communion with the Angels and other Heavenly Powers”.

St. Gregory Palamas wrote: “ The Son of God became Man to show the loftiness of the dignity to which He raises us......; to show the depths of evil into which we had fallen, for it was necessary for the Son of God to become incarnate to raise us from these depths”.

Our Ukrainian carols say: “ The time of salvation has come for us, God is born in Bethlehem. Christ was born to unite Heaven and earth into one. Praise Him.” Why did the Lord God do this? Here Apostle Paul gives the answer in his letter to the (Romans 5:8.) that God the Father shows His love for us by the Birth of the Son of God Our Lord Jesus Christ. May this love fill and renew our hearts. May it flame with warmth of hope for a better tomorrow in the hearts of all those who suffer, all those who hunger, all those who are persecuted in Ukraine. May our prayers change this world into the Kingdom of God. May it fulfill the reason for which the King of Kings and Lord of Lords took flesh.

Вiтаю вас всiх з радiсним Рiздвoм Христoвим i бажаю вам щасливoгo рoку.

Oт. Юрiй ПoдтепаFr. Georg Podtepa

Message from Parish President

For Orthodox people who celebrate xmas by the julian calander, my family and i wishing all the Ukrainian Orthodox people here and our home land in Ukraine a very MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Веселого Різдва і щасливого нового року 2019

Parish President,

Alex Werstiuk

JANUARY SAINTS AND FEASTS

January 7 Nativity of Christ

Tropar Your Nativity, O Christ our God,Has shone to the world the Light of wisdom!For by it, those who worshipped the stars,Were taught by a Star to adore You,The Sun of Righteousness,And to know You, the Orient from on High.O Lord, glory to You!

Kondak Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One, And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One! Angels with shepherds glorify Him! The wise men journey with a star! Since for our sake the Eternal God was born as a Little Child!

January 9: First Martyr Stephen

Saint Stephen was a Jew, by race. He was the first of the seven deacons whom the Apostles established in Jerusalem to care for the poor, and to distribute alms to them. Being a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, he performed great signs and wonders among the people. While disputing with the Jews concerning Jesus, and wisely refuting their every contradiction, so that no one was able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit whereby he spoke, he was slandered as a blasphemer and was dragged off to the Sanhedrin of the elders. There with boldness he proved from the divine Scriptures the coming of the Just One (Jesus), and he reproved their faithlessness and hardheartedness. And finally, gazing into Heaven and beholding the divine glory, he said: “Lo, I see the Heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.” But when they heard this, they stopped up their ears, and with anger cast

him out of the city and stoned him, while he was calling out and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then, imitating the long-suffering of the Master, he bent his knees and prayed in a loud voice for them that were stoning him, and he said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge,” And saying this, he fell asleep (Acts 6, 7), thus becoming the first among the Martyrs of the Church of Christ. www.goarch.org/chapel/saints

January 14: The Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Eight days after the Holy Nativity of our Lord, we celebrate His Circumcision, one of the Feasts of the Lord, on which—in accordance with Hebrew tradition—He received the name “Jesus”: “And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the Child, His name was called Jesus, which was so named of the Angel before He was conceived in the womb” (St. Luke 2:21).

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The true descendants of the Patriarch Abraham were separated from the other nations by the sign of circumcision (a prefiguring of Baptism: “the circumcision made without hands” [Colossians 2:11ff]) and thereby became members of the God-ruled community of the Old Testament; that is, through circumcision, they entered among the chosen People of God.

Christ was now “made under the law,” being conformed to the prescriptions of the Mosaic Law (Galatians 4:4) and “fulfilling” the Law (St. Matthew 3:15), in order to elevate the Church of the Law into a Church of Grace, into a new “Israel of God” (cf. Galatians 6:16), into His Body.

The Circumcision of our Lord inspired our Holy Church to institute a beautiful and deeply symbolic custom for the newborn children of Christians: at eight days, the Priest reads the “Prayer for the Signing of a Child Who is Receiving a Name on the Eighth Day After His or

Her Birth” in such a way the first “Seal” of Grace is given to the infant: “Let the light of Thy countenance be signed upon Thy servant (name), and let the Cross of Thine Only-begotten Son be signed in his or her heart and their thoughts....” http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/circumcision_feast.aspx

January 19: Feast of the Theophany of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Theophany is the Feast which reveals the Most Holy Trinity to the world through the Baptism of the Lord (Mt.3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22). God the Father spoke from Heaven about the Son, the Son was baptized by Saint John the Forerunner, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the Son in the form of a dove. From ancient times this Feast was called the Day of Illumination and the Feast of Lights, since God is Light and has appeared to illumine “those who sat in darkness,” and “in the region of the shadow of death” (Mt.4:16), and to save the fallen race of mankind by grace.

The origin of the Feast of Theophany goes back to Apostolic times, and it is mentioned in The Apostolic Constitutions (Book V:13). From the second century we have the testimony of Saint Clement of Alexandria concerning the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, and the night vigil before this Feast.

There is a third century dialogue about the services for Theophany between the holy martyr Hippolytus and Saint Gregory the Wonderworker. In the following centuries, from the fourth to ninth century, all the great Fathers of the Church: Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Ambrose of Milan, John of Damascus, commented on the Feast of Theophany.

Saint John of Damascus said that the Lord was baptized, not because He Himself had need for cleansing, but “to bury human sin by water,” to fulfill the Law, to reveal the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and finally, to sanctify “the nature of water” and to offer us the form and example of Baptism.

On the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, the Holy Church proclaims our faith in the most sublime mystery, incomprehensible to human intellect, of one God in three Persons. It teaches us to confess and glorify the Holy Trinity, one in Essence and Undivided.

Pastor’s Corner Overview: Baptism & Chrismation

Each one of us was baptized at some point in our life before we became Christians. Do we know why? What baptism means? How it impacts our life? Baptism comes from the Greek word that means “to immerse (in water).” Baptism was practiced in antiquity for different purification rituals. The Israelites practiced this as evidence by John the Baptist ministry towards repentance and forgiveness of sins. All this changed dramatically when Christ came to be baptized by John in the Jordan River. On one hand we have the revelation of the Holy Trinity (Father as the voice from heaven, Holy Spirit descending as a dove, and Christ as the beloved Son). On the other hand, the meaning of baptism changes. When Jesus was baptized, He was in no need of cleansing because He was without sin. However, by Jesus’ divine nature He purified the waters of the Jordan and through them the whole creation.

In Orthodox Christian teaching, our baptism is not merely cleansing but it is a change in our human nature. We receive the new sanctified and holy human nature given by Christ. Likewise,

just as the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ, when a person is Chrismated миропомазання the Holy Spirit descends upon him/her too. The Holy Spirit bestows grace and power to live the new life in Jesus Christ. This divine grace is transmitted through the “myroma,” миро a specially mixed and blessed oil, and is administered by the priest immediately after baptism. Having received both of these Mysteries or Sacraments we become full members of the Body of Christ—the Church and are able to participate in the other sacramental mysteries, especially the Eucharist—Holy Communion.

Baptism and Chrismation are not magical one-time acts that set us for life. Rather, they are just the beginning of a new God-centered life that must be nurtured each day through prayer, each week through worship, and a continual self-sacrifice of our egoistic needs through repentance and giving to others. Baptism and Chrismation are beautiful gifts that must be picked up and used every day of our lives. They must not be put on a shelf or hidden away for some future sentimental remembrance. http://www.stgeorgegoc.org/pastors-corner/baptism-chrismation

How the Early Church Viewed Martyrs Christians held a theology of martyrdom that gave them courage to endure. William G. Bixler

The early church’s theology of martyrdom was born not in synods or councils, but in sunlit, blood-drenched coliseums and catacombs, dark and still as death. The word martyr means “witness” and is used as such throughout the New Testament. However, as the Roman Empire became increasingly hostile toward Christianity, the distinctions between witnessing and suffering became blurred and finally nonexistent.

In the second century, then, martyr became a technical term for a person who had died for Christ, while confessor was defined as one who proclaimed Christ’s lordship at trial but did not suffer the death penalty.A passage from Eusebius describes the survivors of the persecution in Lyons (in 177 in what is today France): “They were also so zealous in

their imitation of Christ … that, though they had attained honor, and had borne witness, not once or twice,

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but many times—having been brought back to prison from the wild beasts, covered with burns and scars and wounds—yet they did not proclaim themselves martyrs, nor did they suffer us to address them by this name. If any one of us, in letter or conversation, spoke of them as martyrs, they rebuked him sharply.… And they reminded us of the martyrs who had already departed, and said, ‘They are already martyrs whom Christ has deemed worthy to be taken up in their confession, having sealed their testimony by their departure; but we are lowly and humble confessors.’ “https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-27/how-early-church-viewed-martyrs.

Eis polla eti Despota! Многая літа Владико!

The Exarchs of Ecumenical Patriarchate Receive the Highest Award of the Ukrainian Parliament

On December 15, 2018, a crowd of thousands gathered in the St. Sophia Square, eagerly awaiting the results of the Unification Sobor. At the conclusion of the Council, which took place inside the ancient, 1,000-year-old majestic Saint Sophia Cathedral, aptly named “Holy Wisdom”,the announcement of the establishment of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Ukraine was made to the patiently awaiting crowd outside. As they celebrated the good news in the gathering darkness, the Christmas lights which decorated the capital city of Ukraine began to twinkle happily, accentuating the celebratory spirit.

As the nation celebrated, key members of the Unification Sobor gathered in the Office of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Andriy Volodymyrovych Parubiy. The Chairman expressed his gratitude to the special representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarch for their commitment and hard work in establishing the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church. For months the Exarchs had traveled long distances, suffered sleepless nights, held meetings, led discussions, and prayed deeply for the success of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The hours and effort extended by them is immeasurable.

In gratitude, Chairman Parubiy awarded the Exarchs of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I – His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, His Eminence Archbishop Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, and His Grace Bishop Ilarion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, Honorary Diplomas and awards on behalf of the Verkhovna Rada, thanking them for their extraordinary dedication, diligence and self-sacrifice on behalf of the Ukrainian nation and her people.

May the Lord reward the Exarchs for their selflessness and perseverance, granting them many blessed years. Eis polla eti Despota!

https://uocc.ca/press-releases/2018/12/19/the-exarchs-of-ecumenical-patriarchate-receive-the-highest-award-of-the-ukrainian-parliament

Upcoming news and events at our sister parishes and in the Ukrainian Community

January 11, 2019 Malanka at St. John’s Cultural Centre January 12, 2019 | 5:30 – MALANKA (Supper & Dance) at St. Michaels January 25, 2019 | 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Pyrohy Supper at St. John’s Cultural Centre February 1, 2019 | 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm – Pyrohy Supper at St. Andrew’s

UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF ST. ELIA.

ORDER OF SERVICES FOR JANUARY 2019.

6. - SUNDAY…..........SUNDAY BEFORE NATIVITY OF CHRIST.……… 10:00 A.M.

6. - SUNDAY….......... EVE OF THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST.…………........4:30 P.M.

7. - MONDAY…......... THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD………………….....10:00 A.M.

13. - SUNDAY………... SUNDAY AFTER NATIVITY ...............……………..10:00 A.M.

18. - FRIDAY…............ EVE OF THEOPHANY. BLESSING WATER ……....5:30 P.M. JORDAN BLESSED MEAL AFTER SERVICE

19 - SATURDAY……. HOLY THEOPHANY. BLESSING WATER ……........10:00 A.M.

20 - SUNDAY………... SOBOR OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST ...…………..10:00 A.M.

27. - SUNDAY………... ST.NINA THE ENLIGHTENER .................………..10:00 A.M.

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Ukrainian Cultural Heritage VillageJan. 19,2019 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Iordan, Feast of JordanAttend a water blessing at an ice cross to help observe the church holy day according to the Julian calendar that commemorates the baptism of Christ. Explore a number of historical buildings where costumed role players can demonstrate how Ukrainian pioneers celebrated this special day.

The Alberta Benevolent Cantor’s Association presents

Ukrainian Christmas CarolingВечір Української Коляди

Performances by:

Sing along carols with

cantors and voice coach,

Zoryana Orlova

Співаємо разом з

групою дяків

та Зоряною Орловою

Original Christmas Carols

byFather Mykola Petrushchak

Оригінальні Колядки у

виконанні

Отця Миколи Петрущака

With guest performers!

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When: January 9, 2019 Where: St. John’s Cultural Centre

At 6:30pm 10611 110 Av NW

Donations will be made towards the Camp Bar-V-Nok Society.

SNACKS WILL BE PROVIDED!

Христос Народився!