Community Chronicle

Remarks by Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.N.

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BOSTON – The Boston Friends of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) held a cocktail reception for Bishop Borys Gudziak, Ukrainian Catholic Bishop of Paris, France, and President of the University, and more than 60 invited guests on Friday evening, October 28, at St. John’s Seminary, the seminary for the Archdiocese of Boston, which sits on an expansive campus adjacent to Boston College. Also present were a number of seminarians and members of the staff. The reception was held in one of the seminary’s high-ceilinged, gothic rooms with windows overlooking the rose garden with a towering statue of Our Lady, the cloister, as well as the façade of the Romanesque chapel. In the stately surrounding provided by the seminary, guests had ample time to mingle and to speak individually and in small groups with Bishop Gudziak and Alexander B. Kuzma, the Ukrainian Catholic Educational Foundation’s (UCEF’s) chief development officer.

Community Chronicle

Boston parish celebrates its patronal feast day

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BOSTON – Boston’s Ukrainian Catholic Parish of Christ the King celebrated its patronal feast day on Sunday, October 30, with a special festive liturgy and an open pot-luck buffet in the parish center following the completion of the service. The celebration attracted many parishioners and guests. All of the food was prepared, donated and served by volunteers from the parish. The highlight of the 109-year-old parish’s “praznyk” (feast day) celebration was the performance of a number of classical pieces of music by violinists Liubomyr Senyshyn and Lillian-Terri Dahlenburg, who are both graduate students at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Mass. They were accompanied by Galyna Kryvanych on the piano.

Community Chronicle

Arts Against Aggression pickets Boston performance by Putin friend

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BOSTON – Some 20 Ukrainian American activists led by Dmitry Smelansky and Julia K. Bezborodov from Arts Against Aggression set up a display and picket in front of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) titled “Putin and Matsuev House of Horrors” on Saturday, October 29, protesting a performance by Russian pianist Denis Matsuev. The performer is one of more than 800 Russian cultural figures who signed a collective letter supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion and illegal occupation of Crimea. He also made further statements personally supporting Mr. Putin and called for even more aggressive action against Ukraine, particularly in Donbas. In keeping with the fact that Halloween was being celebrated that weekend in Boston, protesters positioned a number of skeletons carrying signs detailing the horrific results of Mr. Putin’s hybrid war in eastern Ukraine along the sidewalk in front of NEC’s Jordan Hall to greet concert-goers. One of the protesters was dressed in a Putin costume.

Community Chronicle

Boston observes annual day honoring Ukraine’s heroes

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BOSTON – Ukrainians of Boston marked the annual “Sviato Heroyiv,” a remembrance of all those who gave their lives for Ukraine’s freedom, on Sunday, June 14, with a solemn requiem liturgy followed by a panakhyda and a wreath-laying ceremony at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church; a formal program in the parish center; and a picnic/barbecue in the parish kitchen that spilled onto the extensive parish grounds. Although organization of the event was spearheaded by the Boston branch of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (UAYA), a number of other Boston-area Ukrainian America organizations took part in the ceremonies, including Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church, St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church, local branches of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the Ukrainian American Veterans and Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization, as well as the Sunflower of Peace Foundation, which raises funds for medical kits for Ukrainian troops at the front in eastern Ukraine. The program drew some 70 participants and was conducted under the verse of the Ukrainian poet Vasyl Symonenko, who was killed at age 29 by the Soviets in 1963 for his patriotic writing, “My people exist! My people will always exist!” It also noted the 150th anniversary of the birth of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky; the 100th anniversary of the World War I battle at Mount Makivka; the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazism; the 65th anniversary of the death of Gen. Roman Shukhevych, the supreme commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA); and the 25th anniversary of the student hunger strike of 1990.

Community

Ukrainian American Heritage Foundation of Boston curtails its activities

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BOSTON – After extensive consultations early this spring, the executive officers and the board of directors of the Ukrainian American Heritage Foundation of Boston, acting in accordance with its charter and by-laws, voted to curtail the 95-year-old organization’s activities and to distribute the bulk of its assets between the two Ukrainian churches in the city. The move came after a multi-year effort by most of greater Boston’s Ukrainian American cultural, educational, social and youth organizations to develop a center that could serve the entire community as a focal point for the myriad activities that occur during the year. Although a building and land had been bought in Dedham, Mass., an immediate suburb of Boston, and plans for a center were drawn up, enthusiasm and serious support never materialized and the site was sold at a loss. As a result, at the joint pascal meal (Sviachene) of Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Parish and St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Parish of Boston which was held on Sunday, April 26, Walter Boyko, president of the Ukrainian American Heritage Foundation (UAHF) presented the Very Rev. Roman Tarnavsky, pastor of St.

Community Chronicle

Boston Friends of UCU support Good Governance Program

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BOSTON – The Friends of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) Boston Branch began the new year with a planning meeting on January 4 to formulate goals and to develop a series of fund-raising events in support of its current project to raise $100,000 to endow a lectureship in UCU’s Business School’s new Good Governance Program. They also turned over a check for $3,000 that had been given by a parishioner of Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church for the program to Alex Kuzma, chief development officer of the Ukrainian Catholic Educational Foundation, who had come to Boston to attend the meeting, participate in the planning and give an overview of the international fund-raising accomplishments for UCU in 2014. The group has been very active in its support of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv and raised more than $75,000 for a room in the new administration building, which was officially dedicated as the Boston Seminar Room last year. The Good Governance Program was developed in response to last winter’s Revolution of Dignity with its demand to an end to systemic corruption in all levels of government and its calls for the introduction of transparency. Its statement of purpose says: “A new country needs leaders of quality.