PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Ukrainian community commemorated the 85th anniversary of the Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide of 1932-1933 on Sunday, November 4, at Heinz Chapel on the University of Pittsburgh campus beginning at 3 p.m.
Vocalist Maria Smereka sang “Stradalna Maty” as a procession of students of the local School of Ukrainian Studies, members of the Kyiv Ukrainian Dance Ensemble and School, the Poltava Ukrainian Dance Company of Pittsburgh, students studying Ukrainian language at the University, representatives of area Ukrainian organizations, celebrating and attending clergy, and invited speakers entered the chapel. The children and youth in Ukrainian dress carried sunflowers, which they placed at the foot of the altar steps, while the students placed sheaves of wheat.
All guests and participants were given a program booklet that included the pamphlet “Genocide in Ukraine 1932-1933; Holodomor: Murder by Starvation” published by the U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Awareness.
Youth of the Pittsburgh Ukrainian community during the procession in Heinz Chapel.
Representing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. were Metropolitan Antony, attended by subdeacons and a seminarian, and Pittsburgh Deanery clergy, including the Rt. Rev. George Hnatko (dean), the Rev. John Charest, the Very Rev. John Haluszczak, the Very Rev. Michael Kochis, the Rev. Robert Popichak, the Very Rev. Steve Repa, the Rev. Mark Swindle, the Very Rev. Timothy Tomson and Father Deacon Evan O’Neil.
Representing the Ukrainian Catholic Church in America were Bishop Bohdan Danylo, of the Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma, Ohio, and the Revs. Jason Charron, Ihor Hohosha and Yaroslav Koval of the Central Deanery.
Beginning the program, Metropolitan Antony related a story about one of his parishioners who was a survivor of the Holodomor, and who as a 12-year-old child had experienced and witnessed firsthand the horrible and agonizing death by starvation of her family, friends and neighbors. Seriously ill and facing major surgery, the woman was inconsolably troubled that during her life she had not done enough to tell her family, friends and acquaintances the truth of the Holodomor and to pass on to them a deeper appreciation and personal feeling for the human suffering of the victims of the Holodomor. The metropolitan concluded that all present have the responsibility to see in our mind’s eye how precious life is, to try to capture a sense of the suffering of all those who perished from the agony of starvation, and to maintain the memory of the Holodomor-Genocide so that such evil never again occurs.
Metropolitan Antony and Bishop Bohdan alternated in reading the names of 85 children who perished in the Holodomor and the names of other Holodomor victim – ancestors of local Ukrainians.
The hierarchs and clergy led all assembled in a panakhyda prayer service in memory of all those who had died as a result of the Holodomor. Responses were intoned by Stephen Zinski, cantor at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie, Pa.
Following the prayer service, Daria Pishko Komichak, executive secretary of the U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Awareness, spoke on the work of the committee. She emphasized that the committee was interested in helping local committees with resources for Holodomor commemorations and remembrances. She also asked that local committees participate in current projects, such as collecting stories from Holodomor survivors, working to develop school education courses, asking state legislatures for resolutions declaring the Holodomor as genocide, and providing libraries with materials about the Holodomor.
She re-emphasized the exhortation of Metropolitan Antony that we have the responsibility to keep the Holodomor before the peoples of the world, and we should work to make the Holodomor as well-known as the Jewish Holocaust.
Speaking next in Ukrainian was Volodymyr Lernatovych, associate professor of political science, who commented on new historical and political aspects of the Holodomor-Genocide, including Soviet-Russian revenge for prior Ukrainian attempts at statehood and opposition to Communism; confiscation of grain, gold, church bells and diamonds to feed the workers of Soviet-Russia’s growing industrial economy; the information blockade about the starvation; and Westerners who denied the Holodomor-Genocide.
The commemoration concluded with the singing of the “Prayer for Ukraine” (“Bozhe Velykyy Yedynyj”), followed by a benediction by Metropolitan Antony. Afterwards all were invited to come forward to receive a candle so that they could participate in the International Holodomor Memorial Day by lighting the candle on Saturday evening, November 24.
Gratitude was expressed to Dr. Roman Kyshakevych, chairman of the Ukrainian Nationality Room Committee at the University of Pittsburgh, and Wendy Lau, associate director of the Heinz Memorial Chapel, for arranging for the use of Heinz Chapel.