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Dear Incognitus,

I think you are correct. We received a total of $300,000 in grants to produce a one hour t.v. proram for the acclaimed PBS series 'The Visionaries' about our charitable organiztion; 'Emergency Medical Aid for Ukraine - EMAU'.

PBS suggested that the final production be aired sequentially in different geographic areas over time (a few months), and not nationally on one single evening. We were a bit perplexed as to why they wanted to stagger the airing of the show over time and geographic zones, but we complied with the public network's wishes.

Every time the show was aired, our youth group's national executive offices in New York City were flooded with calls from USA based Apostolic and Sectarian Christian Churches. It seems they all wanted to get more information on our activities because they to wanted to develop such programs for their churches in different parts of the world.

In the end, the network's motives for airing the show in a staggared manner over different geographic zones and time periods became 'crystal clear'. If the show had been aired on one single evening in the United States, we could never have managed to respond to all of the inquires from the various churches who were interested in emulating our charitable group.

Due to the airing of the original show on PBS, we have been able to expand our activities further to include joint projects with Irish Roman Catholics and American Lutheran Churches who have charitable medical projects in Ukraine.

Here is one of the links again:

Emergency Medical Aid for Ukraine - TV production for PBS [ukrweekly.com]


Hritzko

Anton,

I responded to the best of my abilities concerning the issue of the Cyrilic alphabet and I made this clearly known to you.

IMHO, your recent posts are not productive to any discussion relating to Eastern Churches, therefore, I'm ending my discussion with you concerning the subject matter of this thread.

Hritzko

Ukrainia my happy home,
Name ever dear to me,
When shall my labors have an end?
Thy joys when shall I see?

Oh, Kiev, thou city of my God,
Shall I thy courts ascend
Where evermore the angels sing,
Where Sabbaths have no end.

When shall these eyes thy Godly walls
And glorious gates behold,
Thy bulwarks filled with Rusyns strong,
And streets of shining gold.

The Vatican, she doth with glee
kiss up to Muscovy,
And so we know there'll never be
a Patriarchal See.

With profound apologies to Alexander R. Reinagle for mangling his hymn, Jerusalem, My Happy Home. Well, Tim, it looks like we're doomed. Now he'll never speak to us again.

I've packed my bags and bought tickets for Romania, just to get as far away as I can from this endless discussion.

--tim

[To love and assist with all your spirit a desperate and hopeless peoples you have never met, will never financially benefit from, and will never receive any gratituide from, is in my humble opinion what Jesus taught us to do.

'To love Ukraine is to love Christ, and to love Christ is to love Ukraine']

And that's where we differ. In my parish we believe that to love MANKIND is to love Christ. We, don't designate who is worthly based on their national origin, religious orientation, or cultural identity. On the third Sunday of every month we have a special charities collection. It is the priest along with the parish council that decides where the money should go. Over the years we have sent money to hospitals and orphanages in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Poland, Mexico, etc. Locally we have supported Covenent House (a RC organization), local soup kitchens, etc. We have a food bank where the parishioners bring in food which is distributed to the needy within the city. We have had clothing drives for local charities as well as places like Albania which was sent to aid both Christians and Moslems..

Though your support for the people in Ukraine is commendable it is not exactly what Christ taught us. Nowhere in the Bible did Christ teach us to be so selective in our charity. The Bible teaches us to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and comfort the sick and dying. Nowhere does it mention it's to be done in Ukraine only! Or only amongst a certain class of people!

[However, due to the act of genocide and bloody history of my ancestral homeland this past century by a peoples to the North, I do have reason to fear them. You must come to terms with the fact that there are millions of people in Eastern Europe who still fear the Muscovite Empire due to the attrocities they have committed over the past few generations, and aggression they continue to exhibit to heighbooring countries. It will take time and clear evidence for that fear to subside.]

And how does this statement correspond to the following comment you made in the previous paragraph? Namely, and I quote - "I have yet to meet someone I hate.'

You talk and act like there was no communist party or communists in Ukraine! Look at the leadership and important politicians within the communist party and you may be surprised at the results you come up with. For they were not all just Russians! I'm beginning to see a pattern. If you do something bad you are Russian. But if you do something good you become Ukrainian. A case in point was when a few years ago that teenage boy refused to return to the 'old country' with his parents and sued them. Of course the news media here in Philly stated he didn't want to return to Russia. There were 300+ local Ukrainians that called the news channels stating that he wasn't Russian, he was Ukraininan! A few months later a man that belonged to one of the local UGCC's by the last name of Federonko was being deported back to Ukraine because it was proven that he was an SS Officer and a concentration camp superior during WWII. Of course, once again the news media listed him as being deported back to Russia. Yet not one of the 300+ Ukrainians bothered to call the news media to complain or correct them! It was OK for him to be a Russian then!

You act like the only people that suffered under communism were the Ukrainians. All the people in in eastern europe suffered under communism including the Russian people themselves who suffered the longest! You seem to forget the fact that the two most oppressive communist rulers that persecuted the church the most were Stalin and Khruschev. And neither were Russian! Stalin was Georgian and Khruschev was Ukrainian. He was born near the border of Ukraine and Russia and spent most of his formative years living in Ukraine!

Now, snce we have gotten completely off the subject matter of this thread, I don't intend to respond to more Ukrainian nationalistic or political banter.

incognitus writes -

[Is Ortho-Man unfamiliar with Eastern Europe?]

Yes I am familiar with Eastern Europe. All four of my grandparents came from various parts of Eastern Europe.

[In that part of the world, talking about religion for an hour is guaranteed to involve sixty minutes of politics. ]

That may be true in your parish but not in any of the three Orthodox parishes I have been a member of for my 64 years on this earth. Every one of those parishes consisted of at least 75% membership of people who identified themselves as Russian, Ukrainian, Belarussian, Carpatho Russian, Lemko, Galician, or a number of other ethnic slavic identities. At least 50% were immigrants and the other 50% either first or second generation American born.
And never once did I ever witness either a discussion or argument regarding ethnic identity or 'old country' politics. They were all too busy building on what they shared which was their love for Christ and the Holy Orthodox Catholic faith. They all see the Church as 'the house of God' rather than the local 'ethnic social club'. After Liturgy they are too busy discussing what has to be done within the church building itself or what the parish needs. A case in point is that the parish will celebrate its 30th anniversary next month. When the parish was built there wasn't enough money for bells. So we spent 20+ years listening to a recording! A few years ago a Romanian American family comissioned seven bells to be cast in Russia and shipped over. The bells arrived in the middle of Great Lent. The entire parish longed to to hear the bells ring for the Pascha midnight services. So seven men from the parish got together to try and figure out what they could design and build as quickley as possible so the bells could be rung for Pascha and henceforth until a bell tower could be designed and built. What they built was a portable bell stand that could be rolled outside for the bells to be rung. And the bells were rung for Pascha! If you look at the cultural background of those seven men you find that some or immigrants whlie others are 1st generation American born. Some identify themselves as Ukrainians, others Russians, others Carpatho Russians, other Lemko, still others Romanian or Greek, and one Irishman! That's what can be accomplished when your priorities are based around God, religious identity, and love of your parish instead of 'old country' arguments on who did what to whom and when.

I hope this thread will be closed by the Administrator before it gets out of hand any more than it is.

OrthoMan

P.S. Each or the seven bells has a quote from the Bible written in English, Slavonic, and Romanian!