Edward Evanko's new journey - as a Ukrainian Catholic priest (05/15/05)

Edward Evanko's new journey - as a Ukrainian Catholic priest

by Christopher Guly
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

OTTAWA - Over a career that has spanned four decades and included appearances in Broadway musicals ("The Music Man," "A Little Night Music") and in such Shakespearean classics as "Richard II" and "King Lear" at Canada's prestigious Stratford Festival, Edward Danylo Evanko loved a good story that featured the occasional twist in the plotline.

But he never expected that his life would imitate art.

Next month, the 66-year-old Winnipeg-born son of Ukrainian immigrants will return to his hometown parish, Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church, in the city's working-class, multicultural North End district, where he was baptized and where he received his first holy communion.

This time, and now sporting a salt-and-pepper beard, he will go there to receive another sacrament when Metropolitan Michael Bzdel, Winnipeg's Ukrainian Catholic archeparch, will bestow on him the holy orders and ordain him a deacon.

Less than two months later - on August 6 - Mr. Evanko will return to the church, lay prostrate before the archbishop and be ordained a priest in the Winnipeg Archeparchy.

Among the friends invited to the ceremony: actress Ann Blyth, who earned an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in the 1945 film, "Mildred Pierce."

As a rookie clergyman, the new Father Edward will serve as pastor of two rural parishes in the southwest Manitoba communities of Rossburn and Russell, both of which he has never visited before. But he does know each is located about a three-hour drive from Winnipeg - and a world away from the bright lights of London, New York and Los Angeles, cities he once called home.

"How are you gonna keep them down on the farm when they've seen Pa-ree?" jokes Mr. Evanko when he recalls a concern some of his superiors may have had during his recent time as a seminarian.

Not that long ago, he might have felt the same way, considering the success he enjoyed in show business.

After studying at the renowned Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the early 1960s, Mr. Evanko landed spots as a tenor with Benjamin Britten's English Opera Company and the Welsh National Opera, and received a three-year contract with the BBC Singers.

His career took off when he returned to North America in the late '60s.

He hosted his own national weekly television variety series, "The Ed Evanko Show" on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) English network out of Winnipeg for one season.

He appeared in over 200 musicals in Canada, the U.S. (including on Broadway) and Japan.

He recorded Broadway cast albums for Capitol Records and RCA Records, a pop album for Decca and two albums featuring Ukrainian songs.

He twice performed for the Queen and once for the Queen Mother.

In 1982, he traveled to Ukraine and appeared as a guest artist with the Winnipeg-based Oleksander Koshetz Choir.

More recently, he had roles in such movies as "Double Jeopardy" and in several TV series, including "Chicago Hope" and "3rd Rock from the Sun."

In 1997, Mr. Evanko moved to Vancouver. He got some acting jobs on Canadian-made TV shows ("Outer Limits," "Cold Squad" "La Femme Nikita") and taught acting.

He also became an active parishioner of Vancouver's Roman Catholic Holy Rosary Cathedral where he would read scripture during Sunday mass - and where his life would take a dramatic turn in 2001.

"I was at an Easter Sunday brunch and the associate pastor came up to me and said, 'Edward, have you ever thought about the priesthood?' " explained Mr. Evanko.

"I said, 'When I was an altar boy.' He then said, 'You only need say the word and you can be in Rome this fall studying for the priesthood.' I burst into tears and then said: 'You know, you're absolutely right. That's what I must do.' I didn't even say, 'Give me a day or a week to think about this.' It was like this door opened that I didn't even know was there."

That autumn, Mr. Evanko was on the path to priesthood when he enrolled at Pontificio Collegio Beda in Rome as a Roman Catholic seminarian for the Vancouver archdiocese.

"It was not easy at all," recalled Mr. Evanko. "I felt like the rich young man in the Gospel who's told to get rid of everything."

The following Easter Sunday he sang in a choir at a mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica.

However, Mr. Evanko's time in the Eternal City wouldn't last long.

After visiting the Ukrainian Catholic Basilian monastery in Rome, he discovered his vocation was pulling him in another direction.

"When I started singing vespers with the priests and brothers, I had this incredible feeling. I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I'm not Roman Catholic. I'm Ukrainian Catholic! What am I doing here?' Having grown up in a westernized Ukrainian Catholic church in Winnipeg, the difference between the two never struck me before until then," he noted.

So he contacted Metropolitan Stefan Soroka, the Ukrainian Catholic archeparch of Philadelphia, and was accepted in 2002 as a Ukrainian Catholic seminarian at St. Josaphat Seminary in Washington, where he also attended Catholic University of America.

But it still wasn't quite the right fit.

Mr. Evanko wanted to be a priest in Canada - ideally attached to the Winnipeg Archeparchy.

Once again he was on the phone, this time to make his case before Metropolitan Bzdel and Winnipeg's Auxiliary Bishop David Motiuk. "We had a meeting," explained Mr. Evanko, "but it wasn't sort of, 'Oh absolutely, come on down.' They got back to me."

Act III of this personal drama led to a denouement.

Archbishop Bzdel accepted Mr. Evanko as one of his seminarians and in 2003 sent him to Holy Spirit Seminary in Ottawa, where he would also attend the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at St. Paul University - and unlike Catholic University - receive an education uniquely tailored to the traditions and rites of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The veteran singer, actor and recording artist had finally hit the right notes for the next phase of his life. He even managed to meld one of his lifelong passions into his studies for a master of theology degree in Eastern Christian studies. (He had obtained a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg in 1959.)

For his master's thesis, Mr. Evanko chose to write about the "Byzantine-Slav" funeral liturgy and the "facilitation of therapeutic Christian grieving." Not surprisingly, the paper focused on singing - "not only the singing we hear but the singing we take part in during a funeral liturgy," he explained.

"If it's done well with an eye and an ear to aesthetics and true prayerfulness, it can have a galvanic effect where you leave changed and somewhat transformed as a result," he noted.

The thesis also had some personal significance for him and built on an earlier paper he had written titled "Transforming the Toxic Seeds of Excessive Mourning into a Harvest of Peace and Joy."

Mr. Evanko's mother, Justyna Dmytryk, died a week before his 13th birthday. He never quite got over that loss until he began his graduate studies at the Sheptytsky Institute and began researching the concept of "lype" (pronounced lee-pay), the Greek word for "excessive sadness" and one of the "eight evil thoughts" or sins identified by the 4th century theologian Evagrios.

"It was kind of a catharsis for me and gave me a new understanding of what death is as not an ending, but the beginning of eternal life," explained Mr. Evanko.

While shedding a pain dating back to childhood wasn't easy, spending four years in the fishbowl existence of seminary life was no less difficult, he said. "There were times I kept thinking, 'What are you doing to yourself? This is so hard' - living cheek by jowl with people that you have nothing in common with, sharing a bathroom down the hall - it can be quite a challenge."

No audition or rehearsal for a show he previously endured compared to the scrutiny he also faced as a seminarian. "You're constantly evaluated on everything - from how you relate to the cook to how you conduct yourself in chapel," he said. "It's been described to me as boot camp. It's a very humbling process."

But Mr. Evanko was not unprepared for the grueling task of spiritual formation. And for that, he has the theater to thank. "As an actor, you're constantly having to assess yourself because you're the raw material for the parts you play and you can't allow some personality trait of yours to go unexamined," he pointed out.

Now, he prepares to take on the biggest role of his life - albeit with a hint of familiarity, if not destiny.

Seventeen years ago at the Manitoba Theater Center in Winnipeg, Mr. Evanko was cast as a priest in "Tsymbaly," a story by Vancouver playwright Ted Galay about a fictional Ukrainian settlement in rural Manitoba.

"When the vestments arrived for the play, I recognized them," explained Mr. Evanko, his voice lowering to a hush for dramatic effect.

The liturgical garb was from Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church.

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