Washingtonians bless maple tree during celebration at monument (09/08/96)

Washingtonians bless maple tree during celebration at monument

by R.L. Chomiak

WASHINGTON - A new maple tree grows in the American capital that, if a wish comes true, will be there for Ukraine's 100th anniversary of independence.

The tree was planted on May 25 on the grounds near the Taras Shevchenko monument here. The wish by the Ukrainian community of Metropolitan Washington for its long life was offered by Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Yuri Shcherbak.

On a Sunday in August the capital is nearly deserted, but on August 25 more than a 100 people turned up for yet another observance of Ukraine's fifth birthday - this one near the 32-year-old monument that, as Ihor Gawdiak, the master of ceremonies for the event, noted, has served all these years as the gathering place for Ukrainians. "Most of these years," he said, "we came here and dreamed," about Ukraine's independence, while this time it is a five-year reality.

Seven priests from the Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches sang a moleben of thanksgiving. The Rev. Taras Lonchyna, pastor of Holy Trinity Particular Ukrainian Catholic Church in Silver Spring, Md., was the chief celebrant. The priests also blessed the "Ukrainian independence" tree planted at the southwest corner of the park.

In his remarks, the ambassador brought greetings from President Leonid Kuchma, which included praise for Ukrainians in America for their work on behalf of Ukraine's place in the world. Ambassador Shcherbak also reviewed the expanding pace of Ukrainian-American relations, and as an example of it mentioned that two Ukrainian Navy ships were crossing the Atlantic to Norfolk, Va., for joint exercises. (Earlier, the Ukrainian Embassy's defense attaché announced that the two vessels, the Hetman Sahaidachny and the Kostyantyn Olshansky, will be open to the public on September 14 and 15 at the U.S. naval base in Norfolk).

Taras Bazyluk, who as a boy growing up in the Ukrainian community of Washington had stood in the audience at numerous events held near the Shevchenko statue, this time spoke from the lectern as a representative of the White House to read President Bill Clinton's message on Ukraine's independence anniversary.

Mr. Bazyluk also told the audience, "I am honored and moved to stand with you before this statue of the great prophet, after whom I was named, to mark ... the great day he insisted would come."

And the poet's prophetic words, his "Testament," were read in Ukrainian and in English by a young girl, Daryna Yakusha, who was born in Ukraine and who is now a pupil at Washington's Ukrainian Saturday School, because her father is an International Monetary Fund official here.