www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Cincinnati, OH and surrounding

I may have the opportunity to relocate from a smaller area of CA with decent access to a Byzantine church to the Cincinnati area. Anyone know anything about the area and the Byzantine community there? I haven't been able to find much (one Byzantine prayer community with a weekly Liturgy in Dayton and an every-other-week Liturgy at a Maronite Church in Cincinnati proper). I'm looking for general insights on the area and any details anyone might have on the Byzantine life there. My family has never been to Ohio and, as transplants, we'd be relying on the church/faith community to help us find our legs and get rooted. Are we in for a lonely ride if we relocate? Is Catholic life generally active there? Are there communities to live in between Cincinnati and Dayton? Where should I look for housing?

A bit more context: my wife and I are in or mid-30s, we have 4 children (soon to be 5) under age 10 and homeschool. We are involved in a homeschool coop in CA and have a pretty strong and well established parish community. Like many Byzantine communities it’s spread out across a pretty wide area, but we do have some neighbors that go to our church. We would be relocating for a job opportunity for me and would like to find a community similar to ours, if possible. Thought? Tips? Hot takes?

Christ is in our midst!!

chooch factor,

Have you checked the directories of the Eastern Catholic eparchies? There are both Ukrainian and Ruthenian eparchies in Parma, OH. Each should have parishes in both Cincinnati and Dayton. There may also be a Romanian parish, but, again, check out the directories and see if you can pinpoint a parish near where you wish to relocate.

Go to www.byzcath.org [byzcath.org] and drill down in each of the eparchies. Here's what I found:

Metro Area: Cincinnati (OH)
St Michael Byzantine (Ruthenian) Church
Status: ACTIVE CHURCH

Good luck.

Bob
Moderator

Bob,

Thank you for the input. I hadn’t checked the Eparchial websites, only Google maps. Unfortunately, however, none of them list anything in the Cincinnati area (perhaps St. Michael referenced above is closed or mis-located?) except for the “St. Barbara Byzantine Prayer community” which sounds like a mission parish to me. There’s nothing wrong with a mission, I’d just like to know if the community life is active and where people who attend are living. I’d love to hand my shingle in a Catholic community and live near other active Catholics.

Christ is in our midst!!

Go to the upper left corner of the forum screen to "www.bycath.org." Scroll down to the list of eparchies. I found this listing under Ruthenian eparchies--the Parma eparchy and typed in Cincinnati in their "find a parish" block. From there I'd go to the metropolitan phone book or use some other source to rind this parish. It's listed as active. The listing for Dayton lists a parish that is canonically suppressed.

The database claims to be dated so it might take some more work.

The other option is to simply contact the actual chancery of the eparchies and flat out ask where they ahve a parish.

I contacted the Eparchy of Parma today and, unfortunately, it looks like St Michael has been closed, just FYI.

Christ is in our midst!!

How about Dayton?

I'm a Maronite who lives on the northern side of the Cincinnati area. There is a Maronite Catholic Church in town, St. Anthony of Padua. The parish priest is Fr. George Hajj - a good man. The parish is active. Most of our non-Lebanese parishioners are either "canonical converts" or regular visitors from nearby Roman parishes. Qurbono/Liturgy is weekly at 10:30am on Sundays, and 6pm in the evening on most weekday evenings. The parish has a fairly active men's group that I'm the de facto leader of. We also have a Byzantine mission that meets once a month, I believe.

That's a long way of saying, you do have Eastern options in Cincinnati proper.

As far as Catholic life generally speaking, there are lots of active groups and parishes in the area. My wife and I belong to one homeschool group and have friends in several others. There's a local Roman parish, St. Cecilia in Oakley, that has a very active homeschool community and young adult life.

I grew up on the Indiana side of this area and have always been quite partial to it. I have, however, known folks who moved here from California and didn't like the fact that it's not nearly as sunny. We tend to get lots of rain and cloudy days.

Hope that helps.

Phillip,

Thank you for the information! I appreciate the insight into the homeschool communities and the area. Not to take things too political, but I’m willing to give up some sunshine in exchange for a little less “dystopia”.

I noticed the Maronite parish as I was looking at a map. I’ve always been curious to attend a Maronite liturgy, so it’s good to know it’s there. Any advice for a first time attendee other than study Aramaic?

You don't need to study Aramaic to attend a Maronite Liturgy. In fact, we don't use Aramaic. We use Syriac, which is a dialect of Aramaic.

Most of the Qurbono - at least in my parish - is in the local vernacular with plenty of Arabic also thrown in for the first-generation immigrants. We have pew "missals" that make following along quite easy.

the biggest thing I would say is, don't compare the Maronites (or any of the Syriac traditions) with the Byzantines. Many look at the Maronites, see how different we are from the Byzantines, and assume those differences are because we're "latinized." Now, we are certainly latinized to an extent, but the differences in our liturgy when compared to the Byzantine liturgy aren't necessarily a result of latinization. More often than not, they're a result of the differences between the Byzantine and Syriac traditions themselves.

Reach out to the Dayton community. They are looking to start (if they have not already) in Cincinnati. This is a very recent development, so I am not sure what the status is.