Browsing: Reflections

The Ukrainian Youth Association is a voluntary, non-profit youth organization that exists in Ukraine, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, France, Great Britain, Germany and the United States. It was founded in 1917 by Mykola Pavlushkov, who was devoted to waging war against the 1917 October Russian Revolution. The Ukrainian American Youth Association (UAYA) has been a vital entity in the life of Ukrainian American communities for nearly 70 years. Among the objectives of the UAYA is to offer Ukrainian youth opportunities for social interpersonal contact and mutual support; and, to stimulate their spiritual, intellectual, social, cultural, educational and physical development. Each of the 28 branches in the United States and those in other countries, have guided Ukrainian youth toward becoming knowledgeable and active members of their Ukrainian and local communities.

Every first Sunday morning in November, there is a hum in the air of the largest city in the world. It seems to be silently waiting for an important event to begin. It is the quiet before the storm, the eye of the hurricane. This event gathers tens of thousands participants from all over the world and millions of fans and spectators, including many Ukrainians. This worldwide event awakens the soul of New York City. This momentous grand event is the New York City Marathon.
The New York City Marathon is the largest running event in the world. The race course runs through all five boroughs of the city – Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx – and ends at Central Park. The total marathon distance is 26.2 miles or 42.195 km.

On Saturday, November 2, we attended the 125th anniversary celebration of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) in Morristown, N.J., a wonderfully organized event that was not only a reminder of how this organization’s origins began with Lemkos, but of the importance of continuing to preserve our community’s history.
As noted in the event “playbill,” 10 brotherhoods with assets of $220 assembled in Shamokin, Pa., on February 22, 1894, to establish the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz and held their first convention that May, with choirs singing the Ukrainian hymn “Shche Ne Vmerla Ukraina.” Records show that among the association’s founders were its first president, Theodore Talpash, and its second president, John Glowa, who were Lemkos from the villages of Łabowa and Zawadka Rymanowska, respectively. Dmytro Kapitula, a Lemko from the village of Świątkowa Wielka, served as president when the organization, increasingly identifying as Ukrainian, changed its name to the Ukrainian National Association in 1914.

Created in God’s image and likeness we, human beings, are meant to be free. Free as persons and communities, free…...

An unprecedented event took place in Rome on July 5-6. Desiring to demonstrate support for the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church at a time of war, shifts in interconfessional relations, fluctuating hopes amid heightened tensions, and humanitarian and social crises, Pope Francis invited the head, metropolitans and members of the Permanent Synod of the UGCC to a personal meeting at the Vatican.

Just over a year ago on July 7, 2018, a Ukrainian moral icon was laid to rest. Levko Lukianenko was a Ukrainian nationalist by his own appellation, a freedom fighter, dissident and one of Ukraine’s longest termed political prisoner. After independence Lukianenko became a politician, diplomat, but frankly he was never suited for that line of work. Politicians and diplomats are rarely moral icons.  

I knew Levko Lukianenko personally, having had  many opportunities to meet and converse with him. I attended his funeral in Kyiv and bade him farewell on behalf of Ukrainians abroad.

Some remarkable things have happened in Kingston lately.
For the 50th time I found myself on a stage facing a large audience attending the annual “Lviv, Ukraine” pavilion at the Folklore festival. The first time I did this I was a student at Regiopolis-Notre Dame High School. Now I am a senior citizen.

OTTAWA – The establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) could help pave the way for the Holy See’s recognition of a Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate, according to a Ukrainian church historian. 

OTTAWA – Growing up in Winnipeg, as the grandson of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada, touchstones to my ancestral homeland were everywhere – from my friends’ shared ethnic roots, to the food we ate and the traditions our families maintained.

Wife, two kids, house in the suburbs of Chicago, job as an office manager for the last 20 years. The…...

As the song goes, “Cherez tu banduru, bandurystom stav” (Because of the bandura, I became a bandura player). That led…...

Despite much pleading from the Ukrainian community and promises from Polish authorities, the wrongs of Operation Vistula have not been redressed, except perhaps…...