Remember us in your will as a beneficiary! Our legal title is: The Mission Society of the Mother of God of Boronyavo.
Successful Pilgrimage Father Chris Zugger and Seminarian Michael Loughlin undertook a difficult, but successful, journey to the Shrine of the Weeping Madonna at Mariapocs and then over to Trans-Carpathia for 13 adventurous days in the villages and mountains. With Michael's help, Father Chris was able to get around using his
wheelchair, and had a variety of exciting experiences. The Mariapocs basilica is an awesomely holy place, where people are easily moved to tears at the presence of Our Sacramental Lord and of the Weeping Madonna. They also went on to visit a string of villages and towns, often being the first Americans in a particular place, and met a wide range of people from an elderly priest ordained by Bishop Romzha and exiled to Siberia, to the daughter of a priest who was never caught by the secret police, to energetic young priests fighting uphill battles against bureaucracy, Orthodox opposition, and the wreckage of communist ideology. Father Daniel and Pani Maria Bendas provided housing, and Pani Maria translated frequently during their time in Ukraine. Michael was also instrumental in "breaking the ice" with children, with his special way of getting them to laugh easily and so overcome the language barrier. They actually made it to Boronyavo, which lies at the end of a road twisting through the Hutsul countryside. The original church was pulled down by the new owners of the property, monks of the Order of Saint Basil the Great. They are now building a new church with a lower chapel and
an upper shrine, and have partly completed a three-story brick monastery. The miraculous icon was brought down from its temporary home in the third-floor chapel, and Father Chris was able to venerate it while a large group of parishioners sang and prayed around him. Finally, they had to return to Hungary, where their contacts made over the Internet via a Polish priest in Kyiv had produced a wonderful young couple, Michael and Marianna Glover, to assist them before and after their time in Ukraine. They are a devout English-Greek couple who lead Rosary groups and study sessions for the English-language parish of the Sacred Heart in Budapest, and who served three years in Kyiv at the newly reopened Church of Saint Alexander (closed in the 1930s). It was a great pilgrimage, and Michael will definitely be returning next summer to follow up on
personal contacts and projects. Above all, he will be able to return to Mariapocs and hopefully Boronyavo, and give thanks to Our Lady for her help and intercession.
Church in Kosice The city of Kosice has given the Greek-Catholic Church a very large plot of land in the shadow of Communist-era high rise apartment buildings. This southern part of the city was developed "without God" but now there is a thriving parish present. The temporary church on this site is crammed for every Liturgy, as there is "no room in the inn" due to the many worshippers. The site is large enough for a large complex to be built, which will include a much bigger church; youth center; education classrooms; apartments for celibate and married priests. This site has a high-profile: not only do literally thousands of families look out of their apartment windows to this plot of land, but it is easily accessible to the passenger railroad station and downtown offices. Divine Liturgies are offered in Old Slavonic, Slovak, and Hungarian, and this is a territory with a large immigrant population of Rusyns seeking work after leaving Ukraine. It is prime mission territory, where the Gospel can be proclaimed to religious indifferent but often curious families.
SAVING THE YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS - In the Communist days, nearly all children even from believing families went to Young Pioneer camps in the summertime. These camps taught Communist propaganda, but also provided healthy outlets for young people from cities and villages. Today many of these facilities are languishing, abandoned and empty. The Greek-Catholic Church has been buying up some of these camps, but needs our help to outfit them. Youth centers are extremely important: there are no after-school youth programs, and no summer programs at all. Drugs and gangs are becoming a problem, and young people of all ages feel adrift in the rapidly changing post-Communist societies. Parish houses in Trans-Carpathia serve as youth gathering places, along with religious education classes at all levels. New
centers and camps in Slovakia and Trans-Carpathia can rescue young people from the confusion of the times, remove them from bad influences, and give them solid groundings in faith and morals while providing resources for athletics, safe socializing, and playing. Without the guidance of the Church, an entire generation may easily slip into drug abuse, emotional despair, or so-called "socialist morality", which is basically no morality at all. It is interesting to note that Father Chris and Michael often heard of youngsters and teen-agers successfully bringing their parents back to church, or into the Church for the first time. This is a pattern that exists across the former USSR. So not only will these centers serve children and adolescents and young adults, but can bring back the "lost generation" of adults in their 40s and 50s as well. Projected centers are the following:
1) Maramoros this beautiful stretch of mountains and steep valleys has a former Communist camp and sanatorium purchased by Father Stefan Sich and Caritas Maramoros. The camp facilities still exist, and can be renovated to serve young people year-round from across Trans-Carpathia.
2) Dobra home to a newly built chapel, this camp in Slovakia already has served as the site for successful retreats and gatherings. The Association of Christian Intellectuals sponsors gatherings twice a year to promote spiritual growth among young professionals. Dobra has successfully served Slovak, Hungarian, and Rusyn populations, separately and together. A foreign developer promised to leave the site alone, but the exarchate needs to raise $50,000 to make the purchase from the present owners.
3) Korolevo this parish in Mukachevo Eparchy is headed by an energetic young priest, Father Ivan Isajavich. The old Soviet grammar school has been given to the Church, complete with hammer-and-sickle emblems above the doors, and been re-named The Bishop Romzha School. This large but run-down facility has classrooms on three levels, kitchen, playrooms, large yards, and
extensive storage buildings that now hold flood victim relief aid. Named after the first officially recognized martyr of our Church, this School would serve children and teen-agers year-round with academics, spiritual exercises, athletics, nutritious food donated by local families, vegetable garden, and drug-free socials. Please mark your donations "youth centers."
TREBISOV Iconostas in Trebisov The Church of the Assumption was confiscated in 1950, and the parishioners forced to attend Orthodox worship or go underground. Over the years, the historic iconostas (built in 1886) was dismantled, and its beautiful antique icons sold. There are only twelve left now. The Greek-Catholics have full use of the church building again, but must re-build the entire iconostas. The people will do the work, but each icon costs $150. The pastor, Msgr. Dusan Seman, will arrange for your name or the names of deceased loved ones to be written on the back of each of 36 icons, and for the donors names to be remembered at the altar. This will be a traditional iconostas of four rows, crowned by the Apostolic Cross, and with traditional gold gilding. One family could unite in Christmas giving this year and buy an icon in Assumption Church, providing for the restoration of proper worship and being remembered gratefully for many Christmases to come! Trebisov was once almost exclusively Greek-Catholic, with the exception of small Lutheran and Jewish congregations. Today the Orthodox parish has a total of 192 worshippers, but Assumption parish is trying to serve over 4, 500 regular worshippers plus reach out to people of Greek-Catholic heritage who are not active. The parish needs to build a youth center, very badly, and provide on site housing for priests, who now live around the town. A new complex has been approved by Bishop Milan your donations will make an enormous difference in the future of young lives and in the restoration of our Church in its ancient homeland.
Recruit New Members use your Christmas mailing list! An easy way to spread the word about our work is to forego sending Christmas cards this year and instead send copies of this newsletter to everyone on your Christmas list, with a little note asking them to read it and give a membership and/or specific gift in honor of our Infant King the Christ Child. It doesn't cost that much, and with the help of some friends or relatives, you can easily get the copies folded and put into business envelopes and sent out. You never know who will respond, and the souls being helped on the other side of the Atlantic or at our Seminary will be grateful for whatever comes to them.
SEMINARY The Seminary of SS. Cyril and Methodius had a successful campaign to create its endowment fund and is now affiliated with Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. After 50 years of existence, this means our Seminary is well on its way with theological accreditation, and therefore the granting of degrees. One member of the Society, Michael Loughlin, is now a first-year student at the Seminary. It is worth noting that Michael and his two classmates were not born into the Byzantine Catholic Church, but rather have come to it out of love for its worship, spirituality, theology, and community-oriented parishes. The Church in America has superseded an "ethnic" identity, and
thus is able to reach out to entirely new populations with our spiritual heritage. Those who hosted Michael and Father Chris in Ukraine were always surprised to find a "German" priest and an "Irish" seminarian who were Greek-Catholics, but also always pleased to see that our Church has expanded so well.
All support of the Mission Society’s work is in addition to members’ and donors’
existing support of their local parish, their eparchy, and the Metropolia of Pittsburgh. Renewal of our
Mother Church in Central Europe cannot mean a diminishment of our financial and spiritual dedication to
the church in America.
Mission Society of Our Lady of Boronyavo
The Mission Society is an independent organization dedicated to the renewal and strengthening of
the Byzantine Catholic Church in America and Central Europe.
Mailing address:
1838 Palomas NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110
telephone (505) 265-5350.
website: www.missionboronyavo.org
LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES:
Denver: Fr. Deacon Andrew and Olga Bodnar: 303-932-1490
Phoenix: Diane Rabiej: 480-460-0902
Albuquerque: Sven Svensson (505) 292-4271
NATIONAL LEVEL:
Chaplain-Moderator: Rev. Chris Zugger
National Board:
Fr. Deacon Andrew & Olga Bodnar;
Cassandra Epstein; Diane Rabiej
Newsletter Editor: Rev. Chris Zugger
Newsletter Layout: Stephanie Block
Webmaster: Hubwest