Bishop Losten feted on 25th anniversary (02/23/97)

Bishop Losten feted on 25th anniversary

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Basil Losten of the Eparchy of Stamford celebrated the 25th anniversary of his episcopal ordination at a banquet held at the Sheraton Center Hotel in New York City on January 12.

Over 300 guests and representatives of 45 Ukrainian American organizations gathered to honor Bishop Losten on his silver jubilee. Msgr. John Terlecky, coordinator of the Diocesan Jubilee Committee, read a greeting from Gov. George Pataki of New York, and two representatives of Rudolph Giuliani extended greetings from the mayor.

The banquet was opened by Myroslaw Shmigel, chairman of the New York Metropolitan Jubilee Committee. Bishop Vsevolod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. offered an invocation. Celebratory remarks were offered by Leo Gallan, Iwan Sierant, knight of the papal Order of St. Gregory, and Ambassador Anatolii Zlenko, Ukraine's permanent representative to the United Nations.

The Very Rev. Patrick Paschak, pastor of St. George Parish in New York and vicar general of the Stamford Eparchy, served as the evening's master of ceremonies.

Guests were entertained by the Syzokryli dance ensemble, which performed a "Pryvit" (Welcome) dance and greeted Bishop Losten in the Ukrainian tradition with bread and salt; the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble directed by Lydia Krushelnytskyj and a choir of seminarians from St. Basil College of the Ukrainian Catholic Seminary in Stamford, Conn.

Msgr. Losten was consecrated bishop on May 25, 1971, by Metropolitan Ambrose Senyshyn of Philadelphia, Bishop Jaroslav Gabro of Chicago and Bishop Michael Dudick of Passaic, N.J., in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia. He was named bishop of the Stamford Eparchy in 1977.

Diocese-wide celebrations of the bishop's silver jubilee took place from September 1996 through January 1997 in Albany, Buffalo, Johnson City, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn. Bishop Losten earmarked all proceeds - $160,000 from the jubilee banquets held throughout the Stamford Eparchy and $40,000 raised at the New York banquet - to support seminarians from Ukraine studying at St. Basil College.

This spring Bishop Losten will be marking the 40th anniversary of his priestly ordination.

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