NEWS AND VIEWS

Historic Prnjavor church to be rebuilt

by Yurij Holowinsky

I recently completed an extended active duty tour in Bosnia. Serving with the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, Stefan Karabin and I were tasked with traveling around the country and transiting through the Zone of Separation in order to assess the populace's reactions and feelings concerning the Dayton Peace Accords.

We were aware that in addition to the three main ethnic groups, Serbs, Croats and Muslims, there were other nationalities living in Bosnia, including Ukrainians. But we never expected and were both shocked and surprised when we learned about the Ukrainians of Prnjavor.

Lured by promises of fertile farmlands, the first groups of Ukrainian settlers arrived in Bosnia in 1890. They came from Brody, Ternopil, Rohatyn and numerous other villages of Halychyna (Galicia). By the turn of the century there were over 1,800 Ukrainian families living in the vicinity of Prnjavor.

Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky visited the faithful in 1902, 1907 and 1913. During the course of his third visit, it is very likely that he visited the Transfiguration Ukrainian Catholic Church in Prnjavor, built in 1910.

The church served as the cornerstone of the community, and survived both world wars. Now, as the pictures printed here clearly show, it has been completely destroyed during the last war in the Balkans.

Nevertheless, the indomitable Ukrainian spirit has not been crushed. The faithful have already razed the ruins and are beginning rebuilding. According to the Rev. Petro Ovad, the parish priest, the Ukrainians of Prnjavor will once again have a church of their own.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 28, 1996, No. 30, Vol. LXIV

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