California dedicates new historic landmark: Ukraina (06/20/99)

California dedicates new historic landmark: Ukraina

by Maria Lewytzkyj
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

HAYWARD, Calif. - The newest California State Historic Landmark - Ukraina - was unveiled here on Saturday, May 15, and dedicated to the Ukrainian American community of northern California. The site immortalizes the Rev. Agapius Honcharenko, who lived on 40 acres of rolling California hills for 43 years in the late 1800s and early 1900s, blending a deeply spiritual life with his love of the earth.

Nearly 400 Bay Area Ukrainian Americans came to Garin Regional Park to witness the unveiling of the monument and help celebrate the remarkable life of Father Honcharenko, the first nationally conscious Ukrainian in the U.S., and his wife, Albina.

Guests were able to appreciate the magnificence of the site the Rev. Honcharenko chose for his homestead. It seems fitting that a person of such complexity built his homestead in the Hayward hills, a geologically complex landscape of sandstone and oceanic sediments.

Today, housing developments have cropped up on the hill and the preserved park is perched above California State University. One can only imagine the view that Father Honcharenko was privy to in the late 1800s.

At the gate to the site, Ukrainian men and women dressed in traditional attire welcomed guests with salt and bread. To fuse the Ukrainian and American spirits, at the start of the ceremony the Ukrainian Brass Orchestra from Sacramento performed the American and Ukrainian national anthems. Carol Severin, an East Bay Regional Park District Board member and coordinator for this event, served as the master of ceremonies.

Before the unveiling, guests were treated to performances by the Bandura Ensemble of Northern California, the Mriya Dance Ensemble of Sacramento, soprano/bandurist Alina Ilchuk and mezzo-soprano Maria Tcherepenko.

Jars Balan, author and scholar from Edmonton, spoke of Father Honcharenko's life. In his book "Salt and Braided Bread: Ukrainian Life in Canada," Mr. Balan describes Father Honcharenko's small yet pivotal role in establishing Ukrainian institutional life in Canada. "In some ways I am fulfilling a pilgrimage that I began several years ago," averred Mr. Balan.

Mr. Balan summarized his own research and referred to the work of others who also have found Father Honcharenko a fascinating figure. Although he was ordained a priest, Father Honcharenko spent most of his life unaffiliated with any Church. This spiritual, unconventional man based himself in the Orthodox Christian faith, yet broadened his beliefs to include his own perspective. As a result of his rather radical notions about society, his criticism of the rules of the Church and his independent views, which interfered in his relationship with other priests, he was not in good standing with the Russian Orthodox Church.

The dedication ceremony attracted many Ukrainian Americans, visiting Ukrainians and recent Ukrainian immigrants who reside in Sacramento. Guests included many dignitaries representing the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, chief among them Metropolitan Constantine, primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. Also present were clergy from Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Hayward and Redwood Valley, Calif., as well as Portland, Oregon.

Life as a fugitive

Father Honcharenko lived much of his life as a fugitive. Due to his bitter attacks against the tsarist government in Ukraine, the Rev. Honcharenko changed his name from Andrii Humnytsky in order to protect his family in Ukraine. Kyiv region village records of 1832, the year Father Honcharenko was born, list a Rev. Onufrii Humnytsky with son Andrii.

Father Honcharenko moved to the U.S. in 1865, after having traveled extensively in Greece, London, Syria, Jerusalem, Egypt and Turkey. Once on North American soil, his restless spirit continued to drive him. He helped establish a Greek Orthodox church and served in New Orleans. He visited Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Central America and Alaska before settling in Hayward, Calif.

His work in Alaska inspired him to begin publishing The Alaska Herald in 1868. He printed articles that fought for the cause of the Aleuts and against groups who tried to downgrade Alaskan citizens to a state of slavery. The central mission of The Alaska Herald, as reported by the San Francisco Call, was "to enlighten the Muscovites [a reference to former Russian colonists] of Alaska as to their duties and privileges now that they are U.S. citizens."

Published in 1868-1872, The Alaska Herald was printed in Russian and English. Due to his Ukrainian patriotism, Father Honcharenko often included the works of Taras Shevchenko, and articles on Ukrainian topics.

Throughout his life, Father Honcharenko openly expressed his opinions - which often brought him into conflict with the establishment. He uncovered what he viewed to be corruption, immorality and failings in the Orthodox Church.

Mr. Balan told guests that Father Honcharenko had a favorite saying: "No police, no priests." Over the door to his home, he posted the slogan: "Revenge on the wolves that devour the lambs." Both dictums are indicative of his utopian vision of the future society. He believed that those who did not need guidance or punishment would someday people society and that their daily lives would serve as their expression of love for God. Even while upper echelons of the Orthodox Church often attacked him, Father Honcharenko never succumbed to their intimidation, Mr. Balan noted.

Evidence of some of the attacks on Father Honcharenko can be seen in reports to Bishop Paul of Novoarkhangelsk (in Sitka, Alaska) that were sent from San Francisco. In one report, dated March 1868, Prince D. Maksutov, wrote, "Last year Agapius Honcharenko arrived in San Francisco, who escaped from a certain monastery. At the beginning, he was conducting divine services here, but since he is not following the precise rules of our Church, all those who share our faith left him and renounced him as a schismatic."

In another report, Father Nicholas Kovrigin wrote of Father Honcharenko: "Mister Consul warned me to not allow myself to receive him and not to talk to him." Following Father Honcharenko's arrival at the priest's home, Father Kovrigin wrote: "As I was already warned, I told him that I could not have anything to do with him and asked him to leave me alone. He left my apartment very angrily. The Slavs cannot stand him."

Father Honcharenko sought out Ukrainians wherever he traveled and yearned for a time when Ukraine would be free of tsarist autocracy. He came from a distinguished Kozak family, descendants of Col. Ivan Bohun.

"Father Honcharenko was, in many ways, a stereotypical Californian," Mr. Balan noted. "He loved liberty, enterprise and personal responsibility. He was a dreamer and a romantic, who thought deeply and looked down the road at how things might be." His California spirit to produce global change via local action is evident, notably in the experimental commune that emerged on Father Honcharenko's homestead in 1902.

Along with a few colleagues, newly arrived Ukrainian Canadians from Winnipeg, Father Honcharenko formed a commune on his land in California. Due to conflicting views on its management, the commune of a half-dozen soon disintegrated and the group returned to Canada. Members of the group became initiators of Ukrainian community and church life in various Canadian cities. After the dissolution of the commune they continued to correspond with Father Honcharenko and kept readers informed about him via the Ukrainian Canadian press.

Much of the interest in Father Honcharenko's life began with the work of two scholars, authors of two books about the cleric: "Ahapius Honcharenko and The Alaska Herald: The Editor's Life and An Analysis of His Newspaper" by Wasyl and Theodore Luciw, (Toronto,1963); and "Father Agapius Honcharenko: First Ukrainian Priest in the United States" by Theodore Luciw (New York, 1970).

A 30-year battle

The battle to dedicate the former Honcharenko homestead in his honor to the Ukrainian American community has lasted 30 years. Oksana Tscherepenko-DiRicco knows this battle intimately; her father played a role in the battle before her. Mrs. DiRicco, along with other members of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council (UACC), Northern California Branch, continued this fight.

The Russian American community had attempted to claim Father Honcharenko as their own and pursued the dedication for the Russian American community. Once the park dedication was secured for Ukrainians and the name "Ukraina" proposed, members of the UACC - Michael Car, Yurij Oliynyk, Tamara Horodysky and Maria Iskiw and Ms. Tscherepenko-DiRicco - formed the Ukrainian American Honcharenko Committee, which played the key role in organizing this event.

Father Honcharenko had owned the land until his death in 1916. Afterwards, the Meillke family purchased and owned it until 1991, at which time the East Bay Regional District took ownership. What remains of the homestead is the foundation of the chicken house, the couple's gravesites and a grotto where the priest meditated and conducted religious ceremonies.

Ron Meuhler of the East Bay Regional Park District explained that he has read a lot about Father Honcharenko in the Hayward Museum. During the 1950s the Meillke family bulldozed the house to stop vandalism. The grotto, a wind cave about six feet wide and three feet across that formed into the sandstone cliff, still stands. A few paintings, one of a cross, remain on the cave walls.

During the 43 years that Father Honcharenko and his wife kept the homestead, the grounds approaching the gravesites, which now are covered in grasses, were gardens. The blend of almond, walnut and peach trees near cacti fascinated many guests. In 1873 Mrs. Honcharenko wrote an article in a horticultural publication describing the planting of new olive trees. These olive trees still stand in the orchard 125 years later.

New public land

Prior to the memorial service (panakhyda) conducted at the gravesite on the dedication day of California's newest historic site, Mr. Meuhler showed a few guests around the grounds. He indicated the spot where the Honcharenko home once stood - now a field of wild barley and foxtail surrounded by fruit and nut trees; an old well where Indians once ground acorns lies a short distance away.

Father Honcharenko was always ready to share his land with others. For example, it is recorded that Father Honcharenko allowed victims of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 who lost their homes to stay on the land temporarily.

Currently, the site is in land bank status, which means it is owned by the public, but is not officially open. A few public access issues need to be resolved before the park can open, which may take a couple of years, according to Mr. Meuhler.

The UACC, in conjunction with other Ukrainian American organizations in the Bay Area, plans to host festivals on the land once or twice a year. Such activities will have to be coordinated with the Department of Interpretation of the East Bay Regional Park District. Some members of the Ukrainian American community have also proposed building a gazebo on the site.

As Mr. Meuhler explained, "If the Ukrainian community would like to adopt the area and help with its maintenance, there are possibilities."

* * *

The Rev. Agapius Honcharenko was a man who befriended people of diverse cultural backgrounds, yet never forgot his own heritage. Ukraina now stands as a monument to this unique person and a site where Ukrainians and people of all cultures can come to remember what a difference one life can make.

The Rev. Agapius Honcharenko, 1832-1916

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