Every year, Ukrainian Catholic bishops from all over the world gather together for a weeklong synod. The 2016 synod was held in the town of Briukhovychi, not far from Lviv. Every synod has a main theme that guides the discussions and this year, because this is the Year of Mercy, the bishops chose to focus on the ministry of the Church. The bishops addressed many angles of this ministry, but they also wanted to hear about the charitable ventures of a Ukrainian Catholic church beyond the boundaries of Ukraine. St. John’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Newark, N.J., runs numerous charitable projects and the bishops asked Ksenia Hapij to speak to the synod about what the parish does and how it accomplishes its work. Following is the text of her presentation.
My name is Ksenia Hapij. My parents brought me to the United States as an 11-month-old baby, and all my life I have belonged to St. John’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Newark, N.J. – a church of the Philadelphia eparchy. For the last 28 years, I have worked for this parish and have run the parish office. Please allow me to share my experiences of charitable work at a Ukrainian Catholic Church from an American perspective. I would like to begin by saying that, although there are very many poor people in the United States, a large percentage of the population lives comfortably and has enough to share with others.
Our work consists of three categories: We help our own parishioners. We help the people who reside in our parish’s city. We help the needy in Ukraine.
I have said “our.” Who are “we?” We are a small group of people that strongly believes in helping our neighbor. We roll up our sleeves, we earn people’s trust and engage the entire community in acts of mercy. It’s actually a very simple thing to do, and it can be done by anyone.
First of all, we visit our parishioners – the sick, the elderly, people who have been widowed – all of whom crave human kindness. To some we bring home-cooked meals every two weeks. We visit others on the Feast of St. Nicholas, on St. Valentine’s Day, or simply to say hello. We try to visit at least 50 to 60 homes every time.
Our church has been in the city of Newark – a city that houses many poor and needy people – for over 109 years. A Roman Catholic parish in the center of the city runs a soup kitchen for the poor, and we often supply this soup kitchen with donations of food and help them financially.
As for helping the people in Ukraine, the most important question one faces is whom to trust and with whom to work. We are in a more fortunate position than others, since we have close contact with laypeople, nuns, priests and bishops in whom we have complete trust. Though we are Ukrainians in spirit, we were raised in the United States, and there are times when our approach to problems differs from that of people in Ukraine. Through our work with the people in Ukraine, we found that it is not enough to want to help the needy; we must also strive to understand the people who are in need of help. Very often, even with the best of intentions, it is very easy to offend someone – and this would be in total contrast to our objective.
We have various contacts in Ukraine and, through our correspondence with them, we learned that there is a great need for clothing and shoes among the poor. The Redemptorist Fathers of our parish are very supportive, and several years ago they allotted us a room in the church basement where people bring all of their donations. In the last six years, we sent approximately 600 packages (about 40 pounds each) to various regions in Ukraine.
At one point, we received word that there is a great need for wheelchairs in Ukraine. Our first goal was to find used wheelchairs in our community. One day, one of our parishioners offered to purchase 100 new wheelchairs and asked that the people in our community match each of his chairs with yet another one. He set a wonderful example for others and received great support from the people in our parish community. To date, we have sent over 450 wheelchairs and hundreds of walkers and commodes to the needy in Ukraine. Throughout all of this we learned an important lesson: People will become excited about new projects, but as time goes by, this excitement wanes. It is wise to constantly change the direction of your work.
Next, we initiated a project of supplying the blind in Ukraine with talking watches. At first we bought Russian-speaking watches in New York City. Then we found that it would be less expensive to purchase these watches in Kyiv (also Russian-speaking, since there were no Ukrainian-speaking watches available in Ukraine). One day, we received a call from Father Roman Syrotych of Caritas in Kyiv, with whom we have been working closely for a number of years. He informed us that he had contacted a watch factory in China. They said that if we would be willing to order 5,000 watches, they would manufacture Ukrainian-speaking watches for us. To date, our church community has bought, and with the help of Father Roman, distributed approximately 7,000 watches for the blind.
Soon after the excitement of the speaking watches began to wane, we were approached by an American scout, whose grandfather was of Ukrainian descent. He offered to organize a shoe drive in his community for the needy in Ukraine. We followed his example and organized a shoe drive in our own church community. Ultimately, our joint effort brought in 2,000 pairs of shoes, as well as 2,000 pairs of socks.
When war broke out in eastern Ukraine, we were all very upset, and remain deeply concerned about this tragic war. Therefore, when we were approached by volunteers in Ukraine with a request to help buy tourniquets and hemostatic bandages for the wounded, within a couple of months we purchased and shipped over 700 tourniquets and packages of bandages to Ukraine. All of this cost approximately $16,000.
Ksenia Hapij
Bohdan Tokar and his mother, Halya, of the Bohdan Society for invalid children in the area of Chernivtsi.
Every year before the feast of St. Nicholas, we send gifts to the children of incarcerated mothers and to other needy children in Ukraine. And I should mention that we often ship diapers to invalid children and to the elderly in Ukraine. We receive all of these diapers as donations.
People in the United States have a tradition of donating money for charitable causes in lieu of flowers at funerals. Through donations at funerals, we helped fund a summer camp for the children of the streets of Kyiv; we helped the hungry in the city of Newark in our own United States; we helped the homeless in Kyiv; we helped alcoholics who live in the alcohol abuse center in Drohobych; we helped the Bohdan Society near Chernivtsi, whose members include over 300 physically and mentally handicapped children; we helped hospitals in eastern Ukraine, that treat wounded soldiers; and we helped the charitable ventures of the Redemptorist parish of Perpetual Help in Ivano-Frankivsk.
Another good way to raise money for charitable projects is to organize breakfasts in the church hall after Sunday services. Parishioners who buy these breakfasts have an opportunity to learn what causes their donations will be supporting on that particular Sunday. In our church hall there is a permanent exhibit of photographs and thank-you letters from those whom we have helped. We feel it is important that our donors know exactly whom they are supporting and why.
2016 is the Year of Mercy, and we have set a new goal for people in our community. We would like to give a gift of $10 to 2,016 needy people in Ukraine. We hung a poster at the entrance to the church and drew a thermometer that shows how much money we have collected. We are proud to say that we have already filled our first thermometer and are now working on reaching our next goal of helping an additional 2,016 needy people in Ukraine. We know that the sum of $10 will not solve anyone’s financial problems, but this one-time aid may provide a small token of moral support, and may show the needy in Ukraine that there are people in this world who care.
Our volunteers are of various ages: young children who wrote letters to Ukrainian soldiers on the frontlines; students who acted on the example of the adults in their community and through their own initiative organized a clothing drive in their school for the needy in Ukraine; young people who organized a food drive for the needy in the United States; adults who spend many hours sorting and packing clothes, wheelchairs, walkers, etc. There is also a 94-year-old woman who can no longer hear very well or see very well, and yet wanted to join us in our charitable ventures. So she started a charitable project of her own – she crochets hats for needy children in Ukraine. To date, she has made 3,678 hats! This woman is my mother.
What we have done and continue to do in our parish community is but a small brick in the huge structure of mercy. But although there is no limit to human misfortune, we strongly believe there is also no limit to mercy – it simply needs to be constantly reignited. Not everyone among us is in the position to give gifts of wheelchairs and other expensive necessities, but we can all embrace a person in need in one way or another. Everyone is in the position to offer moral support, no matter how old they are, and no matter what the circumstances of their lives.
We can speak much and often, but whoever we are – whether we are a simple person like myself, a nun, a priest or a bishop – none of us have the right to be content simply with words. We must all serve, not only with words, but also by examples of generosity, because people throughout the world, no matter where they live, will not do as we command them, but will follow our example!
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “What you do screams so loudly that I can’t hear your words!”
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To support the parish’s charitable projects, readers may contact St. John Ukrainian Catholic Church at 719 Sanford Ave., Newark, NJ 07106.