NEWS AND VIEWS

Seattle community welcomes new priest, Father Abraham Miller

by Orysia Bilyk Earhart

SEATTLE - The liturgy at our Ukrainian Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Zarvanycia (Zarvanytsia) in Seattle was held in Ukrainian. Nothing special about that. But, the priest who was saying the mass in Ukrainian was not Ukrainian. He was an American, a very unusual American, who fell in love with our Eastern-rite traditions and listened to the voice of God who directed him to us through a fascinating journey.

His name is Father Abraham Miller. He came from Chicago and he is going to help us build our church.

Born as Anthony Joseph Miller of German and Irish parents, he grew up in Yorktown Heights outside of New York City and attended St. Patrick's School in Yorktown, N.Y., and JFK High School in Somers, N.Y. Since childhood, he longed to become a priest.

At first, young Anthony was drawn to the Franciscans and had taken Spanish in high school in order to be ready for missionary work in South America. However, we all know what God can do to the best of plans.

In the summer between his freshman and sophomore years, on the way to their vacation home on Long Island, he noticed an unusual church: St. Mary's Ukrainian Church. It piqued his interest. So he and his mother attended a liturgy unlike any they'd known in their Roman Catholic Church. Anthony was captivated.

He loved listening to the old "babtsi" (elderly women) singing off-key. He loved the smell of the incense and the sounds of the liturgy. Even the oppressive heat of the day did not deter him from embracing the experience of an Eastern-rite service. He felt he had finally found his spiritual home.

Back at school, he found an article about the Basilian Fathers in Guidepost Magazine. So when he graduated from high school, he joined the Basilians and began his novitiate in Glen Cove, N.Y. After that, he studied philosophy and theology in Rome at St. Anselm's while living at the Basilian Generalate, where he learned Ukrainian by immersion. He also took classes on the Byzantine rite, iconography and liturgical chant, among others.

When he took the Basilian habit, Mr. Miller took the name of Abraham. When I asked him "Why Abraham?" he replied that, like Abraham, he felt he was heeding God's call, and starting on a new journey into a foreign land. For an American to turn toward the path of Ukrainians, that indeed is stepping into a foreign world. He felt this name was appropriate for his new life. After his ordination in 1979 by Bishop Basil Losten, of Stamford, Father Miller finished his studies in Rome and was assigned to Hamtramck, Mich., to the Church of the Immaculate Conception as an associate pastor.

His years in Hamtramck gave him much joy in the people he met, especially Dr. Bohdan Lonchyna, who was his tutor in Ukrainian. It was Dr. Lonchyna who guided him in the Ukrainian language through grammar drills, books, articles and the reading of the gospel. Father Miller said that he found Dr. Lonchyna not only a gentleman who respected and loved Ukrainian traditions, but also, through his love of the Church, an inspiration.

While at Hamtramck, Father Miller decided to obtain a master's degree in library science from Wayne State University, specializing in archives and materials preservation/conservation. In 1985 he was called back to Glen Cove to organize the Basilian Provincial Library and to teach English and liturgical chant.

In October 1988, Father Miller was asked to go to Chicago to help build a church for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish. Through his leadership, a new church and rectory was built in Palos Park, Ill. His interests also involved him in other activities such as membership in the Ukrainian Folk Ensemble Baida, and he received a Certificate of Special Studies in Technical Services in 1992 from Rosary College.

In 1994 he felt called to another kind of ministry and become a chaplain at Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago. This, along with joining the eparchial clergy, opened new landscapes in his ministry to the Ukrainian people.

As a chaplain, he visited Ukrainians who were sick and found that they remembered him from when he would serve liturgy at Ss.Volodymyr and Olga Parish. He came to understand that people come to hospitals for healing, and not just to be treated as "patients." He saw that those who cared for others found healing in their own personal lives. He said that helping others reconnects us with our own humanity and through that connection, we experience healing ourselves.

Father Miller was asked if he would like to come to our parish here in Seattle. Our priest, Father Joseph Ostopowich, found the three-hour journey from Vancouver, British Columbia down to Seattle difficult, especially after 9/11 when the border crossings tightened. Added to that, he also had numerous commitments in Vancouver which prevented him from becoming our full-time parish priest. He knew Father Miller, and knew that he would be an excellent pastor for our Ukrainians here in the Northwest.

Father Miller is one of those rare priests who understands how important it is to adapt our Ukrainian heritage within the country we live in. That does not mean forgetting our heritage. But, while we preserve our traditions, language and rite, we also need to be open to what America offers us. We should not consider ourselves isolated emotionally and culturally from the land that nourishes us.

Our Ukrainian Catholic Church in America has deep roots, going back over 100 years to its beginnings. We need to embrace these roots. They are part of our heritage as much as the roots of our Ukrainian forefathers. We need to embrace those Ukrainians who have established a new life here in the past, and bridge that life to the present so that we can feel at home in both the Ukrainian and American society we live in.

Father Miller has wonderful ideas to help us grow as a people of faith and as Ukrainians. He is planning to start religion classes not only for the youth, but also for adults. He would like to teach scripture, Eastern spirituality and liturgical chant. He sees a future in which we can be comfortable in both communities, where we do not have to sacrifice one at the expense of the other.

He wants us to become a community of faith, strong in the knowledge of who we are as a people of faith and as Ukrainians who have been welcomed here in this great land.

God guided his servant well. Father Abraham Miller is a blessing.

Orysia Bilyk Earhart is a Ukrainian community activist in Seattle. Among her roles is that of secretary of the Ukrainian American Club of Seattle.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 22, 2006, No. 4, Vol. LXXIV

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