TROY, N.Y. – Despite the uncertainty and wariness about public gatherings that accompanies today’s COVID-19 environment, New York Capital District residents assembled at Taras Shevchenko Place in Troy, N.Y., for a flag-raising ceremony marking Ukraine’s 29th Independence Day. Under a bright and sunny sky, Father Mykhailo Myschuk, pastor of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Watervliet, N.Y., read a prayer for the Ukrainian Nation by Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky, leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in 1901-1944. Everyone joined together to sing Ukraine’s national anthem as the flag was raised. On this special day of joyous remembrance, the simple act of people gathering together to recall the many decades of trials and tribulations by tens of thousands who sacrificed to build the nation-state of Ukraine provided comfort and hope to Ukrainians as they boldly face the future.
– Gerald Tysiak