www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Starting a Ruthenian Community in Omaha!

There is a movement to start a Byzantine Ruthenian community in Omaha. We will hopefully be holding our first Divine Liturgy very soon!!! Please let me know if you or someone else in the area is interested in being part of it.

Thanks - Matt

May God bless you all in your endeavor! Go Big Red!

Yeah! We have formed a small ByzCath community in Eastern IA (meeting in West Liberty, IA, 15 miles east of Iowa City).

May the Lord bless your work!

In Christ,
Adam

Why would you want to organize an Eastern Catholic church when there already is one in Omaha?

Ukrainians had no problem starting a parish in Knoxville when there was already a Ruthenian one there.

We have had our Ruthenian community for four years. There are no Ruthenians but there are a number of converts to the BCC. A couple of Ukrainians have attended a time or two but none will join us. The Ukrainians here seem to be far more interested in being Ukrainian than in being Eastern Catholic.

I suppose the question could be why a separate ByzCath group, and not be with the Melkites (or is this the same group)?

We had to work with both Parma and Newton, as our deacon is Melkite, but under Parma, as the Melkites are not in the position to support a lot of mission work. There could be a Melkite community in Des Moines as well. We need to figure out a way to be more missionary.

In Christ,
Adam

Could be that Ukrainians know who they are and want to preserve their heritage both liturgical and ethnic. They don't experiment with and change the Divine Liturgy, but hold on to its ages old deep reverence. We could go on and on, but risk being called unChristian.

Good for the Ukrainians!

So that explains why they go to the Roman parishes and ask us to bless their Easter Baskets.

What does THAT mean?

Your full of it.

And you are a deacon? God help us.

Pavloosh,

It means that when Ukrainian Greek Catholics in America move to a place where there is an established Ruthenian community but no Ukrainian community they tend to have nothing to do with the Ruthenian community but instead join the local Roman Catholic parish. When it comes to having their Easter baskets blessed they also ask the local Roman Catholic pastor to bless them instead of taking them to the local Ruthenian parish.

I will give myself the last word on this. Please start new threads with appropriate titles if you wish to continue to discuss the various issues in this thread.

Best wishes to all who are attempting to start missions.

John