1,000 Detroit Ukrainians gather for Millennium prayer service (12/28/86)

1,000 Detroit Ukrainians gather for Millennium prayer service

DETROIT - Close to 1,000 Detroit area Ukrainians came together for a Millennium prayer service for the persecuted Church in Ukraine, a church that has been enduring a heroic living martyrdom during the past several score of years. In 1988 Ukrainians will be commemorating 1,000 years of Christianity.

The Ukrainian priests of the Metropolitan Detroit area offered the moleben in the renowned Orchestra Hall. The 120-voice Detroit Millennium Choir, composed of members of all the Ukrainian church choirs, sang the responses.

Dr. Lubomyr Hajda of Harvard University addressed the throng of worshipers in Ukrainian, and Ihor Fedorowich, a graduate of the University of Michigan and Rhodes Scholar, spoke in English.

The player service for the persecuted Ukrainian Church began with the renowned Bortniansky hymn, "Sey Den," under the dynamic direction of Prof. Kyrylo Cependa. Dr. Bohdan Kushnir guided the large choir in rendering Hayvoronsky's prayerful composition, "Pomolimosia." The young and dynamic director, Prof. Paul Onachuk, then conducted Fedoriw's "Bohorodytse Divo." The choir sang against a beautiful background prepared by Adrian Bluj depicting the symbolic presence of all of Ukraine at the foot of the Millennium cross through the representative Ukrainian churches, St. Sophia's in Kiev and St. George's in Lviv.

Program chairman, Dr. Zenobius Stelmach then introduced Dr. Hajda, who spoke to the large assembly of Ukrainian worshippers about the plight of the church in Ukraine under the aspect of true and false scholarship. He said: "The most insidious way that the Soviet persecutors are persecuting the Ukrainian Church is by the perversion of truth and the contradiction of the Christian life-values the Ukrainian people acquired over the past 1,000 years of Christianity. Moreover the Soviet communist atheists are set on destroying the soul of Ukraine by the falsehood that Christianity and the Bible never brought happiness or true freedom to Ukraine but introduced new form of political subjugation. Through totalitarian insistence the Soviets are advocating the falsehood that communism alone can provide happiness and contentment from the cradle to the grave. And then, quite importantly, the chauvinism of the Soviet Communist masters forcibly attempts to destroy all semblance of Ukrainianism in the churches of the people or their language. And so, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church was outlawed and became part of the Russian Orthodox Church. The same happened to the Ukrainian Catholic Church which was absorbed into the Russian Orthodox Church."

Dr. Hajda concluded his remarks with the exhortation: "On the threshold of the Millennium of Ukrainian Christianity let us not lose hope or faith but strive with all our energies to overcome lies with truth, and historical distortions with real scholarship."

In his address, Mr. Fedorowycz briefly outlined the 999-year history of Christianity in Ukraine and related it to the modern-day martyrology of the Ukrainian Church and its people. "Christianity has been its vital force. It is our privilege and responsibility to preserve it and cherish it through scholarship, through historical publications, through a broad study of the Christian culture that has given Ukraine her identity."

"But," he said, "the publication of books and journals is not enough, because we are a living people and it is Christianity that gives us life. It would be wise, therefore, to mark our Ukrainian Christian Millennium by establishing fellowships for Ukrainian religious studies, scholarships for graduate and undergraduate students, and solid financial foundations to support and maintain our seminaries." He appealed to everyone to evaluate the impact that Christianity hi to make upon our lives in the next Ukrainian Christian Millennium.

The spiritual program of prayer for the persecuted Ukrainian Church continued with the singing of an ecumenical moleben, music for which was specially prepared by Dr. Bohdan Kushnir using Kievan and Galician church chants. Dr. Kushnir directed the choir in its responses to the priests' invocations. Bass baritone J. Cisaruk sang the selected epistle.

The afternoon concluded with the choir and congregation singing the powerful hymn "Bozhe Velyky."

Participating churches and choir directors were: Immaculate Conception Church, the Rev. Bernard Panczuk, pastor, Paul Onachuk, choir director; Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Dearborn Heights, the Very Rev. John Lazar, pastor, Silven Koltyk, director; St. John's church, Detroit, the Rev. Joseph Shary, pastor, Kyrylo Cependa, director; St. Josaphat's Church, Warren, the Rev. Michael Stelmach, pastor, Bohdan Kushnir, director; St. Michael's Church, Dearborn, the Rev. Wayne Ruchgy, pastor, Olga Dubriwny Solovey, director.

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