At this joyous time of a difficult year, when we so long to gather in community to celebrate God the Son’s incarnation, but in many places are unable to do so due to public health measures, Bishop David, the clergy and religious of our Eparchy greet all the faithful in words and song.
As we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, may Christ, truly bless you and your family with peace, love and joy, now and in the New Year!
Святкуючи Празник Господнього Рождества, нехай Христос поблагословить Вас і Вашу сім’ю миром, любов’ю і радістю, зараз і в новому році!
During the remaining Thursdays in Lent, the Eparchy of Edmonton will be livestreaming a series of reflections on the theme of Christ in the Old Testament. These will be broadcast on the Eparchy's YouTube channel at 6PM Pacific time and 7PM Mountain time on Thursday evenings:
At this difficult time, when our communal observation of Lent and the approach to Easter has been disrupted by suspension of public celebrations of Divine Liturgy, this video series provides an opportunity to reflect, with the whole Church, on the promises of salvation made in the Old Testament, and how these are fulfilled in Christ.
Please note that in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Father Nakonechny's retreat on 20 –21 March has been cancelled.
Our new Apostolic Administrator, Bishop David Motiuk of Edmonton, has recorded a Lenten message on the theme of God's love for us: ‘While we don't have to do anything to earn God's love, God's love requires a response.’
On Saturday 8 February, Father Richard Soo SJ, a priest of the Eparchy of New Westminster and administrator of Dormition of the Mother of God parish in Richmond, celebrated Vespers — the evening prayer of the Church — at Holy Trinity Theological Seminary in Kyiv, Ukraine. Please enjoy the video of this beautiful liturgy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
If you missed our parish education presentation on the catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Christ Our Pascha, on 20 October, or would like to refresh your memory, some more of the videos that were presented that day can be viewed on the Royal Doors website. The videos include an introduction on the importance of the catechism by His Beatitude, Patriarch Sviatoslav.
His Beatitude, Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk
There are also articles and additional educational resources available at the same web page.
Our next parish education presentation will take place after Divine Liturgy on Saturday 15 December, and will answer the question The Eastern Catholic Churches: what are they?
If you missed our parish presentation on the Venerable (Servant of God) Andrey Sheptytsky, here is the video of the talk by Rev. Dr. Ivan Kaszczak, delivered in 2015 at the Ukrainian National Museum, in Chicago.
Fr Kaszczak is pastor of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in New York State, and the author of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky and the Establishment of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States, as well as other books and articles. His talk is a engaging introduction to the life and legacy of Metropolitan Sheptytsky.
Our next parish education event will be after Liturgy on 15 December, and will answer the question The Eastern Catholic Churches: what are they?
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Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Metropolitan Andrey:
Our Lord Jesus Christ — You always reward Your faithful servants, not only with special gifts of Your love, but also with the eternal reward of the saints in heaven, and in many cases You grant them the recognition of sanctity by Your Church here on earth.
We humbly pray: grant that Your faithful servant Metropolitan Andrey be numbered among the saints. Throughout his just life, ‘full of suffering and trials,’ he was a good shepherd for his flock and a great labourer for Christian unity. And through his beatification and intercession, grant our entire people the great gift of unity and love. Amen.
On Saturday 24 November, our parish will commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor—from морити голодом, ‘to kill by starvation’—, the man-made famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s. The full extent of this famine has only become known in the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of historical archives in Russia and Ukraine. Although the exact number who died as a result of the famine cannot be known, recent scholarship suggests it is between 3.3 and 7.5 million.
At the end of our liturgy on that day, we will have Panakhyda (memorial prayers) for the victims of the Holodomor, and after the service will gather in the parish hall to watch the film Bitter Harvest. This 2017, English-language film mixes romance and action genres to tell the story of the Holodomor through the experience of two young lovers struggling to survive and resist the Bolshevik forced collectivization of farms and starvation policies.
We expect to start the film at about 12:30 PM, and it is 1 hour and 43 minutes long. All are welcome.
If you missed our recent after-Liturgy presentation and discussion on Christ our Pascha, the catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, you can watch one of the videos from that presentation here. In this video, Right Rev. Dr Andriy Chirovsky from the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, speaks about the unique structure of this Ukrainian Catholic catechism and how it relates to the Byzantine Liturgy of St Basil the Great.
Our next parish education event will be after Liturgy on 17 November, and will be devoted to the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.
