Sacred Bonds; Neighboring Churches United by Homeland, Divided by History

SACRED BONDS;
Two churches, situated on either side of a gentle rise in Palos Park, represent a history that began more than a millennium ago and half a world away.

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church, 8530 W. 131st St., is a relative newcomer to the neighborhood. Founded in 1919, the parish relocated to the suburb from 49th and Paulina Streets on Chicago’s Southwest Side in 1992. Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, just a block away at 8410 W. 131st St., was founded in 1909 and moved to Palos Park from the Burnside neighborhood on Chicago’s Southeast Side in 1976.

Whether coincidence or providence brought the two parishes so close, no one knows. There isn’t a large Ukrainian population in the area; both pastors report that parishioners come from throughout the suburbs.

“The problem we face is distance,” said Archimandrite Father Damian Messires, 46, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul. “We have members who come from as far east as Michigan City, Ind., and as far north as McHenry County.”

In other ways, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Sts. Peter and Paul seem quite similar. The two churches are crowned with central domes, and inside each is an iconostasis, an ornate screen that shields the sanctuary and separates it from the congregation.

Nativity is in the process of building its own parish center, so its younger members tend to gather at the longer-established Sts. Peter and Paul to participate in the church’s traditional dance group or to take lessons in the Ukrainian language.

They also share some common beliefs, some more ethnic than religious. Although Nativity traces its lineage to Rome, its liturgy owes more to the Eastern rites such as those conducted at Sts. Peter and Paul, an Orthodox church. Nativity’s Catholic masses have a pre-Vatican II flavor, with the priest’s back to the congregation during the service.

In their similar traditions–as well as in some fundamental differences–the churches may represent a microcosm of the history of Christianity and, more specifically, of the relationship of ethnicity to religious tradition and belief.

“The Ukrainian church is a church of a particular people,” said Rev. Walter Rybicky, O.S.B.M., pastor since 1994 of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, talking about both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. “It is Byzantine Christianity with a Ukrainian flair.”

Anna Kowaleski, 86, of Flossmoor joined the Sts. Peter and Paul choir at age 7, and the family’s representation at the church is into the fourth generation. She remembers attending the church’s Ukrainian school for two hours each day after her regular school day. “It was always much more than just going to church on Sunday,” she said.

Keeping alive Ukrainian traditions is one of the main functions of the parish’s Sisterhood of St. Anne, said Mary Ann Skocypec, 64, of Homewood. The women’s group organizes the church’s dance troupe and helps raise funds for improvements.

“We want to make sure the younger generation is aware of their heritage,” said Skocypec, vice president of the sisterhood.

The Ukrainian church–Catholic or Orthodox–plays a large role in family life. Symbols from the church such as icons and embroidered cloths hold a place of honor in Ukrainian homes, said Skocypec, whose home also features artwork traditional in Ukraine: painted boxes, embroidered costumes and intricately designed and dyed Easter eggs.

As a youngster, she and her family took “two buses and a streetcar” to get to church each Sunday, and Skocypec met her husband at Sts. Peter and Paul.

“The church truly reflects our culture,” said Stephanie Magioris, 77, of Palos Hills, whose parents were married at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was born into the congregation and says, “I feel it is my family.”

The two churches are related by their preservation of ethnic heritage and an adherence to Eastern religious rites. However, even the closest communities sometimes see things differently. The Catholic Nativity recognizes the Gregorian calendar and celebrated Easter last week. Sts. Peter and Paul abides by the Julian calendar, and its Orthodox Easter liturgy is April 27. And though the calendar debate reaches back to the 16th Century, the churches’ religious histories go back more than a millennium.

Ukraine accepted Christianity in 988 after the region’s ruler, Vladimir, sent out a delegation to investigate the monotheistic religions that were sweeping across the land. The group recommended the Byzantine tradition of Christianity as it was observed in Constantinople. Vladimir listened, but warfare and romance factored into his decision. He captured the Greek city of Kherson and threatened to invade Constantinople unless the co-emperors agreed to a marriage between Vladimir and their sister, Anna. The emperors agreed with the condition that Ukraine and its ruler accept the Christian faith.

“The Ukrainian church accepted the rites but retained the right to customize them,” Rybicky said. “The religion is imbued with cultural influences.”

Ukraine’s most important Christian church, the Cathedral of St. Sophia, was built in 1096 in Kiev, and the city rivaled Constantinople for Ukrainian religious authority. In the 12th Century, Ukraine, wracked by political infighting and invasions of Mongol and Tartar hordes from Asia, began to develop two divergent national identities–one identifying with Kiev, the other with Constantinople–and the church was split into geographically based metropolinates, or dioceses. In 1596, bishops from western Ukraine approached the king of Poland to act as an intermediary in uniting their churches with the Holy See in Rome.

But not all Ukrainian Christians accepted Rome, and this led to violence, culminating in the martyrdom of St. Josephat, Catholic archbishop of Polock. In the 18th Century the Russian empire absorbed Ukraine, and the czars encouraged–or forced, depending on your point of view–reunification of the Catholic with the Russian Orthodox church. In 1839, the Ukrainian Catholic Church was dissolved by imperial decree. In practice, however, that branch survived and established a metropolinate at Lviv, a part of the Austrian empire.

But Orthodox and Catholic congregations alike were nearly destroyed in the 1940s when the Soviets overran Eastern Europe. The entire Christian hierarchy in Ukraine was arrested by the secret police, and the Soviets arranged a “synod” that effectively eliminated organized religion. The churches, according to Rybicky, continued underground and reorganized openly after the collapse of the Soviet system.

Such a close relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox Ukrainian churches has led to some family fights. In an interesting note, Messires said Sts. Peter and Paul was originally founded as a Ukrainian Catholic parish, but the congregation voted to joined the Orthodox church in 1929.

According to Messires, the two major issues that sparked the vote were ownership of church property and priestly celibacy. In the Orthodox tradition, the congregation owns the property; the Catholic hierarchy lays claim to church property. Catholic priests are celibate, but Orthodox priests can be married (though not the church’s archimandrites, bishops and archbishops).

But the twists and turns of intertwining history become more colorful and immediate when Kowaleski remembers the situation that led to the changeover, which occurred when she was just out of her teens. The congregation, in addition to mulling over the weightier issues, had been experiencing a personality conflict with several of its priests, so tempers might have been a bit short, she recalled. It was about 2 a.m. and the parish priest, along with several parishioners and deacons, had been traveling to congregants’ homes via streetcar to bless bread at Easter time.

With one home to go, the priest decided to call it a night, Kowaleski said. One of the parishioners disagreed, a heated argument ensued, “and (the parishioner) punched him. (The priest) turned up Sunday with a black eye.”

After bailing out the parishioner, parish members voted to join the Ukrainian Orthodox church.

The congregation, to Kowaleski’s knowledge, hasn’t engaged in fisticuffs since, inside or outside the church. And, she said, the Ukrainian Orthodox rituals are similar to Eastern Catholic rites she grew up with. “The liturgy is the same,” she said.

In both churches, the priest enters the sanctuary through a set of doors in the middle of the icon screen, which are called the Royal doors. Smaller deacon’s doors flank the center doors. Icons are arranged in a specific order: the Virgin Mary to the left of the Royal doors, Christ on the right and the Last Supper overall. Patron saints of the church and of Ukraine and the archangels Michael and Gabriel guard the deacon’s doors.

Iconographic painting is an expression of spirituality rather than physical likeness. “Icons are images that portray heaven on earth,” said Rybicky.

At Sts. Peter and Paul, the iconostasis was painted in a western tradition–think Michelangelo–which contrasts with the large icons on either wall, which are painted in the Byzantine tradition. The stylized human forms–elongated necks, heads held at odd angles, and long, tapered fingers–are typical of iconographic painting, said Messires. “The artist is seeking not physical but spiritual beauty.”

Color also plays an important role in the Ukrainian church, Catholic or Orthodox. “It is a theology of color,” Messires said.

Blue robes represent humanity, red is the color of the divine, so Christ is outfitted in a red undergarment to represent his divinity and wears a blue mantle to signify his taking of human form. Rybicky said the church–with its overwhelming iconography and stained glass–tells the whole history of salvation in pictures, following tradition from the days when congregants were unable to read.

Easter, or Pasca, is the major religious holiday of the Byzantine tradition. “In Ukraine, the streets are decorated for Easter like we do for Christmas,” said Messires, who grew up in south suburban Harvey.

Both clerics say the churches have steadily growing congregations. Nativity has about 330 families, and Sts. Peter and Paul have about 195 families. Nativity still offers a liturgy in Ukrainian, and the choirs at both churches sing traditional hymns in English and Ukrainian.

While some Ukrainian traditions have become Americanized over the years, the churches do their best to carry on their heritage. At Sts. Peter and Paul, pussy willows were planted and are used, in addition to palms, on Palm Sunday.

“The Ukrainian region was not conducive to palm trees,” Messires explained. “We tried to carry on the tradition at church.”

Kowaleski said holding on to a heritage can be difficult, especially as families grow and move away.

“My daughters didn’t learn the language. I sent them to school, but they had minds of their own,” she said. “It’s harder today. In the old neighborhood the church was a second home.”

GRAPHIC: PHOTOS 8PHOTOS (color): The iconostasis (left) at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church is typical of the ornate screen that shields the sanctuary and separates it from the congregation in a Ukrainian church. Rev. Walter Rybicky (above), pastor of the church, lights a candle by windows that were brought from the parish’s original building on Chicago’s Southwest Side.; PHOTO (color): Father Damian Messires stands by the iconostasis at Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, where he is pastor.; PHOTO: Father Damian Messires of Sts. Peter and Paul points out his church’s icons, with stylized human forms typical of iconographic painting, he explains.; PHOTO: “Icons are images that portray heaven on earth,” says Father Rybicky. This icon is found in his church.; PHOTO: Rev. Walter Rybicky of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church says his church’s icons and stained glass tell the history of salvation.; PHOTO: An icon from Sts. Peter and Paul. Tribune photos by Karen Engstrom.