"Team Ostroh" visits with Ukrainian Americans in Minnesota (12/22/02)

"Team Ostroh" visits with Ukrainian Americans in Minnesota

by Dr. Myron B. Kuropas

MINNEAPOLIS - "Team Ostroh" consists of two very dynamic people from the National University of Ostroh Academy: Dr. Ihor Pasichnyk, rector, and Natalia Lominska, vice-rector.

They are a "team" because they complement each other in their presentations about the university. Dr. Pasichnyk, a psychologist-mathematician during Soviet times, represents the evolving present, that historical personal segment of Ukraine that has successfully removed its Soviet crust and is moving towards the cultural West, away from Moscow.

Eight years ago, Dr. Pasichnyk was offered a decrepit series of buildings in Ostroh as the future location of a reborn Ostroh Academy. Today that site is the home of a thriving liberal arts university that is fast becoming a beacon of higher education. Many believe Ostroh will soon set the pace for a future educational renaissance in Ukraine.

Natalia Lominska, a 34-year-old educator who completed her master's degree in America, represents the future - that segment of Ukrainian higher education that is still on the horizon. Familiar with Western ideas, Ms. Lominska articulates the hopes and dreams of the Ostroh experience while participating in its resurrection. Given the Soviet mind-set of President Leonid Kuchma's bloated Ministry of Education, this is no easy task.

Unlike other recent visitors from Ukraine who visit New York and Washington exclusively and believe they have "seen America," Team Ostroh has traveled to America's heartland, where diverse Ukrainian communities have thrived since the early 1900s.

Last year they visited Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, New York City and Newark, N.J.

This year they completed a monthlong tour of Ukrainian communities that began in Minneapolis, and took them to Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, Milwaukee (where they visited with Maria Pyskir, who authored a book on her experiences with UPA), Boston (where they visited with members of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, as well as members of Harvard University administration) and Kerhonkson, N.Y., (where they attended the 50th anniversary celebrations of Soyuzivka).

"We are not here just to raise money for Ostroh, but to get to know the Ukrainian diaspora," explained Dr. Pasichnyk during his visit to Minneapolis. "There is so much about Ukrainians in the United States that we in Ukraine know little about."

"We're also happy to bring some good news from Ukraine," concluded the rector. "Not all that is happening in Ukraine is bad."

The Minneapolis visit began with a tour of the Ukrainian cultural museum at St. Constantine Ukrainian Catholic Church on Sunday, October 27. The brainchild of its late pastor, the esteemed Msgr. Stephen Knapp, the museum contains photos of many Ukrainian Catholic churches around the world (some of which were destroyed by the Soviets), as well as various cultural artifacts including Easter eggs, embroidery and wood-carving.

A bronze plaque hangs in the foyer of the church, listing all of the benefactors. Amazingly, the "pyrohy ladies," lead the list with a donation of $100,000.

Following the liturgy, a reception organized by local luminaries Walter Anatas and Dr. Michael Kozak was held in the church hall, where Team Ostroh spoke.

Next on the itinerary was St. Katherine Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Arden Hills, Minn., where another reception, organized by the Minnesota UCCA chairman, Mykola Maigets, a member of Ukraine's fourth wave immigration to America, was held. The Rev. Petro Siwko, was especially gracious in welcoming the guests from Ostroh and urging parishioners to donate whatever they could to the Ostroh building program. Also a relatively recent arrival in the United States, the Rev. Siwko projected genuine warmth and caring both in his remarks and welcoming demeanor.

Completed in 1995, literally in the heart of the North Woods, the Byzantine-domed St. Katherine Church is home to one of the few parishes in the United States that publishes a bimonthly, bilingual bulletin. Edited by Maya Gregoret, the September-October issue contained 32 pages of liturgic information, photos of local parish activities, news from Ukraine and interesting reporting on issues of significance to Orthodox believers. Of particular interest were articles about a former pastor, the Very Rev. Stefan Zencuch, returning to Arden Hills for a visit, and the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performing at the Calvary Baptist Church in St. Paul last September. Both the orchestra and the chorus were founded by Dr. Roger G. McMurrin, an American, who moved to Kyiv along with his family in 1993.

No visit to Minneapolis would be complete without a trip to Mall of America, the largest mall in the United States, and the second largest in the world.

The final stop on the daylong itinerary was at St. Michael's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Minneapolis, where Dr. Pasichnyk and Ms. Lominska were greeted by the pastor, Father Evhen Kumko, and Michael Karkoc, long-time UNA activist. A "Volyniak" (someone who hails from the Volyn region of Ukraine) by birth, Mr. Karkoc visited Ostroh last summer and praised the institution as one that is in the forefront of Ukraine's renaissance.

Before leaving for Chicago the following morning, the team paid a visit to the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota (see The Weekly, November 17) where they announced the establishment of a Ukrainian Immigration Research Center at Ostroh.

A total of $5,120 was collected for Ostroh by parishioners from the three parishes, many of whom were pleased to greet visitors from Ukraine.

"Minneapolis is so far off the beaten track that few people make it up this far," one participant told me. "Even Ukrainian American leaders tend to avoid us."

Team Ostroh, on the other hand, was delighted with the opportunity to meet and greet still another Ukrainian community.

To make a tax-deductible donations to the hard-working people at Ostroh, checks should be made out to: Ukrainian National Foundation/Ostroh Fund, and mailed to Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, 107 Ilehamwood Drive, Dekalb, IL 60115.

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