Featured Articles

Oct
01
2018
By Fr. Roman Planchak
Beneath Your Protection

Beneath Your Protection

Featured Articles, Liturgy
IN 1917 THE JOHN RYLANDS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY in Manchester, England acquired a third-century papyrus fragment of great historic interest. It contained the earliest known copy of a hymn to the Theotokos. The verse, still used in the liturgies of all the historic Churches, reads as follows: “Beneath your protection, we take refuge, O Theotokos. Do not despise our petitions in time of trouble, but rescue us from dangers, only pure, only blessed one.” This hymn shows that, from as early as the 200s, Christians have looked on the Holy Virgin as their protectress. Our liturgical year includes feasts celebrating the…
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Sep
30
2018
By Fr. Roman Planchak
Giving Back to the Giver

Giving Back to the Giver

Christian Life, Featured Articles,
FROM TIME TO TIME, Christians in a number of communities, including the ancient historic Churches, are encouraged to tithe to their congregation. Tithing – the giving of 10% of one’s income – is mandatory in some groups. Mormons, for example are required to tithe and only tithe-paying members are allowed to enter Mormon temples and to receive its “ordinances” (sacraments). Many Pentecostal groups teach that, if you are not tithing, you are robbing God.   Tithing in the Old Testament The practice of tithing arose at the start of the Israelite nation. When the Israelites occupied the promised land, eleven…
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Sep
24
2018
By Fr. Roman Planchak
Imitator of Stephen in his trials

Imitator of Stephen in his trials

Christian Life, Faith, Featured Articles
FROM SEPTEMBER, 2013 TO APRIL, 2014 government and rebel forces struggled for control of the ancient Christian town of Ma’loula, Syria, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to a number of shrines and monasteries. One of them is the ancient Orthodox women’s monastery of St Thekla from which 12 nuns were abducted and held by rebel forces for three months. Almost unknown in the West today, St Thekla was held in great esteem in the early Church and is still revered in the Christian East. Her festival, on September 24, has attracted pilgrims since at least the fourth century.…
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Sep
16
2018
By Fr. Roman Planchak
I have been crucified with Christ

I have been crucified with Christ

Faith, Featured Articles
WHAT MAKES A PERSON RIGHTEOUS before God? It is a question that religious people continually ask of themselves and their spiritual leaders. Sometimes the answers they receive seem to come from “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Thus over-zealous people of all backgrounds have come to believe at one time or another that they fulfill “God’s will” by destroying the religious monuments of others. But what do the Scriptures tell us bring us closer to God? The Torah Jews consider the Torah (the Law) as the cornerstone of their experience of God. Just as Christians see the Gospels…
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Sep
01
2018
By Fr. Roman Planchak
The Beginning of All Holy Days

The Beginning of All Holy Days

Featured Articles, Liturgy
SEPTEMBER 1 MARKS THE BEGINNING of the Byzantine calendar church Year. An important part of this annual cycle of feasts and fasts is the sequence of the Twelve Great Feasts which, together with the “Feast of Feasts,” Pascha, commemorates the major events in the life of Christ. The first of the feasts in this annual cycle is observed on September 8, the Nativity of the Theotokos. Our “life of Christ,” then begins with the birth of His Mother, just as it concludes with the commemoration of her Dormition. “This day is for us the beginning of all holy days” (St…
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Jul
23
2018
By Fr. Michael Winn
Cathedral ‘built on perogies’ embraces its heritage

Cathedral ‘built on perogies’ embraces its heritage

Faith, Featured Articles, News
By Agnieszka Krawczynski NEW WESTMINSTER—A small Byzantine community in New Westminster is embracing its culture after decades of masking itself as just another Roman Catholic church. “Our Byzantine rite was not appreciated as much, so we were trying to look more like Roman Catholics – ‘Let’s just have two little icons, maybe one big icon, and that would be it. A crucifix, and we’ll be like our Roman Catholic brothers’ – without treasuring what we are meant to be and what we can be, if only we try,” said Father Mikhailo Ozorovych. “Now, there is a great revival of Eastern…
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Jul
04
2018
By Respected Author
The Pope Thanks the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church for Its Witness to Unity

The Pope Thanks the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church for Its Witness to Unity

Featured Articles, News
His Beatitude Sviatoslav has told the Pope that the road travelled by the UGCC was a path of martyrdom, a “testimony of the unity that Christ’s Church enjoyed in the First Millennium, at the time of the Baptism of Saint Volodymyr, and a particular witness of martyrs and confessors for Church unity, - in the 20th century.” “Our Church’s path of martyrdom consists in a recognition of the particular mission of the Successors of the Apostle Peter as visible servants of the unity of Christ’s Church,” the Head of the UGCC declared in his conversation with the Holy Father. His Beatitude…
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May
15
2018
By Respected Author
Statement of Bishop Stephen on the Canada Summer Job Grant

Statement of Bishop Stephen on the Canada Summer Job Grant

Featured Articles, UGCC
May 1, 2018 Христос Воскрес! [Christ is risen] Дорогі в Христі, Вітаю вас всіх Воскресінням нашого Спаса Ісуса Христа! [Beloved in Christ, Greetings in the Resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ!] As you may be aware, in 2018 the Government of Canada has imposed a new requirement to support so-called reproductive rights in order to apply for a Canada Summer Jobs grant. Many of Ukrainian and Catholic organizations have greatly benefited from these grants in previous years. Like my brother bishops, I am deeply saddened by the discrimination our Church is facing in light of the new ideological requirements as…
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May
14
2018
By Brent Kostyniuk
A Journey Together

A Journey Together

Both Lungs, Featured Articles
by Brent Kostyniuk When you are on a journey, it’s good to stop once in a while to check not only where you are going, but where you have been. Not that long ago every car had a glove compartment full of road maps, now replaced by GPS . However, there was something intriguing about looking at a map. By finding your current location, you could see how far you had come and how much further you had to go. Our Christian journey is a bit like that. Every now and then it is good to take stock of your…
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Apr
01
2018
By UGCC Bishops of Canada
Pastoral Letter of the UGCC Bishops of Canada on Pascha

Pastoral Letter of the UGCC Bishops of Canada on Pascha

Featured Articles, UGCC,
To the Very Reverend Clergy, Monastics and Religious Sisters and Brothers, Seminarians and Laity of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada: Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Though You went down to the grave, O immortal Lord, You destroyed the power of Hades and rose victorious, Christ our God. You who said "Rejoice" to the myrrh-bearing women; give peace to Your apostles and offer resurrection to the fallen (Easter Sunday Kontakion) Every human person longs for eternal life. Everything about how we live our daily lives points to how each of us was…
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