Fr. Cyril

Father Cyril Stavrevsky was parish priest here from 1979 to 2003. He was a native of Rochester and a first generation Macedonian American, his parents having come here from that country. During his growing up years the family used the Greek Orthodox church for baptisms and so forth, but like the families of other founders of St. Johns didn’t feel that they really fit in there and so were not regular attenders. As Carl Stavrevsky he was a civilian employee for the military occupation forces in Germany after WWII and was strongly influenced by an Episcopalian chaplain he got to know then. This is also where he met his wife, Margarite. In the very early 1960s he and his family attended a local Episcopalian church.

Then he saw the advertisement the founders of St Johns ran seeking members, and he responded, joining in with them in 1964, just after the initial beginning of the parish. As time went on he felt called to the priesthood and became a priest in 1969. After serving in various capacities away from Rochester, he returned to be the parish priest of St. Johns, falling asleep in the Lord while preparing for Vespers one Saturday night.  

Following are a few brief reminiscences of Father Cyril. Please feel free to add your own in the comments field, and help identifying and dating the photos would be great too.

Andrea Fedoruk: Father Cyril’s love and spiritual clarity was responsible for bringing my family back to the church. I continue to miss his unfailing kindness and thoughtfulness, as well as his depth of knowledge.

Irene Georgantas: I loved hearing Father Cyril give the final proclamation of faith on the Sunday of Orthodoxy--it was always with such passion and conviction. Inspiring!

 Steven K. Mojsovski: Father Cyril was my 1st spiritual father. I spent many sessions talking to him and asking him many questions about faith. Father Cyril opened my eyes to the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and also was a wonderful friend.

Gus Platas: My most vivid memory of Father Cyril is during our midnight Pascha service, when he used to run through the Church with his censer behind the altar servers, almost running over them with his enthusiasm.... many of us thought that the Holy Spirit overtook him and endowed him with so much energy and exuberance!

Ryan Platte: I’ll never forget my first encounter with him when I inquired about receiving Communion. Someone let him know I had a question for him, and in a minute out came this amazing, radiant priest, hunched over a bit in his age, his vestments a bit tattered. A fair amount of incense smoke came through the door with him, making the picture even more vivid. He was kind, patient, quite apparently in awe of God’s glory, and down to earth. His example helps me understand what it is to be an Orthodox Christian...

Jane Wargo (from an oral history interview): Fr. Cyril always could talk to a person where they were and explain things to them so they could understand.

Blessing of the boiler!

According to the Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity one finds that in the Bible the idea of blessing means to give favor. For example, in Genesis 27:11 Issac receives the favor or blessing (Hebrew, brch) of his father Jacob. There are liturgical blessings in the Bible too, for example the blessing of people in Numbers 6:22, or of food in 1 Samuel 9:13. The Orthodox practice, rooted in tradition and the scriptures, is to bless not only people and objects associated with the life in Christ, such as icons etc., but also to bless all sorts of objects of daily life and nature, whether animals, homes, or, as in this case, the new boiler of the church!

From left to right we have Vladimir Vukanovich, Ken O'Brien, Andrea Fedoruk, Bonnie Maye Schwarz, two unidentified people, and lastly Father Cyril Stavrevsky.The photo would seem to be from sometime in the 1980s.

Our "first" icon!

The icon shown here could perhaps be called our first icon. It was a card that was distributed at the first divine liturgy held in our parish. The card is the one Steve Merowsky's mother received, and kept safe all these years tucked inside her copy of Faith of Our Fathers: The Eastern Orthodox Religion, a book she used in teaching Sunday School.

On the back it reads:

This icon was Blessed and Distributed on the occasion of the Celebration of the First Divine Liturgy, St. John the Baptish Orthodox Catholic Church, Rochester, New York, on the Sunday of the Myrrh Bearing Ladies May 17, 1964, with the blessings of The Most Reverend Metropolitan Leonty, Archbishop of New York and the Americas by the V. Rev. Fr. Alexander Warnecke, Pastor, The Rev. Hieromonk Daniel (Krstich) of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Responses sung by Ss. Peter & Paul Orthodox Catholic Church Choir of Syracuse, N. Y., Mr. Oleg V. Beljaeff, Director.

TROPARION TO ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST:

The memory of the just is blessed, but for thee, O Forerunner, the Lord's testimony sufficeth; for thou has verily shown thyself to be the most honorable of the prophets, since thou wast blessed above all in baptizing him whom they prophesied. Then, having gladly suffered for the truth, thou didst proclaim also to those in hell God manifest in the flesh taking upon himself the sins of the world and showing great mercy upon us.

Father Thomas Brown

There are several "sons of the parish" who have gone on to become priests. We heard about Father John Dresko before, and here we will remember Father Thomas Brown. In future posts we will look at the father and son duo of Father Cyril and Father Ken Stavrevsky.

Fr. Thomas was born and raised in the South. As a teenager he moved with his family to Geneva, NY. He graduated from Houghton College and Dallas Theological Seminary  with a Masters in Theology. He became a Baptist minister for a while and then started his search for the “true church”. Eventually he ended up at our parish around the same time in the early 1980s  as some other new members, e.g. Susan Deeb. Experiencing a call to the priesthood he explored this under Father Cyril and then  enrolled at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. Our parish helped him with scholarship monies and in May of 1988, he graduated with a MDiv. from St. Vladimir’s. He married Nadine Eskoff in July and on August 7th, he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Boris at our parish of St. John the Baptist in Rochester. On August 28, he was ordained to the holy priesthood by Bishop Boris in Ohio and was assigned pastor of St. Innocent’s Orthodox Mission in Westlake, Ohio. Two years later he was transferred to Protection of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church in Gary, IN. On August 4th, 1991, he collapsed at the end of the Divine Liturgy in the church and passed away in front of his parish. He is buried in the cemetery at St. Tikhon’s Monastery in Pennsylvania. May his memory be eternal.

(In recent years Matushka Nadine, who is Matushka Natalie's sister, has relocated to Rochester and is an active member of our parish, singing in the choir.)

Our Choir

The choir has a role of special significance in the life of an Orthodox church. They engage in an ongoing dialog with the priest throughout the liturgy from the very beginning of the service until the end. In our church there is no organ and the choir sings a cappella. St. Theophan the Recluse, (pictured at left,) said of Church music: "The purpose of Church songs is precisely to make the spark of grace that is hidden with us burn brighter and with greater warmth. This spark is given by the sacraments. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual odes are introduced to fan the spark and transform it into flame …"

 While the music we sing today is largely in the Slavic style, our choir also uses music and chants from the Byzantine, Greek, Serbian and other traditions. In the earliest years there was a little use of material in Church Slavonic, since in the 1960s the movement to translate and update church music for English was just beginning.

The story of our choir starts with assistance rendered to us by Saints Peter and Paul Church of Syracuse. Stepan Beskid of that church was the “cantor” or reader as we would say today, and with encouragement from him and Fr. Kozak a choir was formed with Anastasia Wargo as the choir director. Her sister in law Jane Wargo and Professor John Chaus were active in building the choir in the early years as well. Later on Bill Kosachook directed the choir for many years until the late 1970s. 

In the late 1970s Mark Bailey, then a student at the Eastman School of Music, joined the choir, and became its director. Mark came at a time when the movement to translate music from Slavonic to English was leading into the writing of new music. Part of the issue was that melodies written with Slavonic in mind for the words simply did not match well when the Slavonic was translated into English. Mark moved into this transitioning church music scene and became known as a writer of music himself; many of the songs our choir uses are written by him. 

(Pictured here are Bonnie Maye Schwartz and Mary B____? against the wall, and from left to right in the foreground are Paul Wargo, Anastasia Wargo, and Mark Bailey.)

In an interview Bonnie Maye Schwarz, who has been our choir director for many years, noted the importance of Fr.Sergei Glagolev to English language music. Fr. Sergei comes from a long line of Orthodox priests, and his father, Fr. Andrew, did the first English language translation of the music for the liturgy in 1948. Fr. Sergei continued this work of his father for many years at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, where his summer music institutes educated many.

Bonnie shares her commitment to the choir with her husband Doug Schwarz, choir member and reader. The extent of their commitment is readily apparent to anyone at all familiar with the length and number of Orthodox services, and the complex movement of the liturgical year and its accompanying rotation of music and chant. She is greatly heartened to see the choir grow as it has in recent years!

Fashion Shows!

Back in the 1970s one of the many fundraisers held was a fashion show. Yvette Kisil was the mastermind behind the show, and in the image here we see Anastasia Wargo on the "runway" in 1974. Perhaps something to try again? ;-)

Visit of Bishop Dimitri

In the early 1970s Bishop Dimitri came to our church. He is shown in the photo here, with Al Joseph, Andy Babish and some other, unidentified people. While the occasion of the visit is not known to this blogger, much is known about Bishop Dimitri, a most remarkable man indeed.

One of the appealing things about him is how his personal story can connect with the many converts in the OCA. He was born in 1923, in Teague Texas, in a family of Baptists, but as a teenager both he and his sister converted to Orthodoxy, at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church in Dallas.

He served in WWII as a Japanese language instructor, and later used his Spanish language skills as a missionary to Mexican Americans. He became associated with the "Metropolia," our predecessor body, in the 1950s, being made a priest in 1954. Later, in the 1960s, he became bishop of the New England district and for a time was our parish Bishop. The church is fortunate to have such a diversity of talent and gifts as shown in leaders like Bishop Dimitri. Christianity Today has an informative article on him by Frederica Matthewes-Green. Read it and learn about his "Tex-Mex Orthodoxy!"

Father John Dresko

In addition to Father Ken (Stavrevsky) there have been others from our parish who have gone on to become priests. One early such example is that of Father John Dresko. He is a Rochester native and the son of John and Helen Dresko who were among the founders of the parish. Both he and Father Ken were altar servers and Father John also sang in the choir. Several years younger than Father Ken, he also went to St. Vladimir's Seminary. Interestingly upon graduation from seminary this Rochester native had his first parish assignment in Rochester; Rochester Michigan that is! Father John did a stint in the Air Force as a chaplain, and today is the priest of St. Paul the Apostle parish in Las Vegas NV. See if you can spot Father John in this photograph! (In the center leading the liturgy is Father Wojcik.)

In a future post we will look at another parish member who became a priest, the late Father Thomas Brown. His widow, Matushka Nadine Brown has recently relocated to the Rochester area and is now a key member of our choir. She is the sister of Matushka Natalie. 

The doors...

Here is a exterior view of our church from 1967, the year after we acquired the building. The photo shows the original doors, which were replaced in the later 1960s by the doors we still have today. Boris Glus was in charge of that project and recalls that they were purchased from and installed by Rochester Colonial.

Communion of the Apostles

In this blog post we return to the altar area and the iconostasis discussed in previous posts.This beautiful icon is a relatively recent addition to our church. It was done by iconographer Jennifer Taisia, then a member of the parish. It was "written" and constructed in her home workshop in sections, and then the sections were transported to the church in a moving van. In the photo here we see one of the sections being carried into the church. The sections were cleverly constructed for transport, and fit together neatly once installed at the back of the sanctuary.

The icon is a traditional topic for the back wall of an Orthodox sanctuary. It depicts Christ in communion with his Apostles, and by extension with the faithful gathered in the church. It lines up so that as one stands in the sanctuary and looks ahead through the royal doors in the center of the iconostasis one sees the priest, the gifts, and behind them the image of Christ offering the gifts himself.

The sliding walls

Some newer members won't recall these, but for all the years that we had occupied the building, and probably for many years before the entire basement had sliding divider walls that ran on tracks between the posts. These were usually left open, but could be closed, to create smaller spaces or rooms.

While it was convenient at times to be able to divide the space up, the convenience came to be seen more and more as outweighed by the space the dividers took up, and the way they made the space seem less open in general. So about 5 or 6 years ago a work party gathered and spent some hours removing the partitions. The people working on the project were surprised at how heavy the dividers were; they weren't plastic but wood, and with their weight, and the way they flexed about, were a bit of a challenge to get outside to the curb!

SS Peter and Paul Church, Syracuse

On more than a few occasions when researching the parish history of St. John the Baptist Church the name of Father Warnecke and the church he served, Saints Peter and Paul in Syracuse, has come up. Some of the posts in this blog have made reference to the fact that Fr. Warnecke and the Syracuse church stood in much the same relationship to our parish as a godparent to a godchild. Our parish benefited immeasurably from their support, and Fr. Warnecke's guidance. 

They are an older parish than ours, having been established in 1916. As is the case in our parish, many of the early members were Carpatho-Russians. The history of their church that was written in 1976 observes that:

The "new Americans" thus found either by choice or necessity a permanent home in America. And among the first considerations of these people was the establishment and upbuilding of their traditional way of worship. Great sacrifices were endured willingly and even cheerfully for the sake of the Faith which was the common heritage of these people, to which they adhered the more fervently because they knew it was provoslavniy - the True Faith.

We can be grateful indeed to those who established the Syracuse church, for their descendants generously supported our founders here in Rochester. Some of our parish have strong ties to the Syracuse church, including one of our choir, who is featured in a photo of the SS. Peter and Paul choir in 1976. Can you spot her in the photo? (This is what can happen when you lend the church blogger your books and photos!)

Father Warnecke was a priest of many talents, and a great leader of enterprises. He was born in Wilkes-Barre PA in 1923, a region that is something of a heartland for the OCA. He attended the St. Nicholas Church school where he studied church music, Curch Slavonic, Russian Language and so forth. During WWII he served in the military as a Russian language instructor and in military intelligence. After the war he enrolled in St. Vladimir's Seminary, and Columbia University, at the same time! During his student years he helped establish the Pan-Orthodox Student Christian Movement. 

After his graduation he helped start the first English language parish in the NY city area, and then he was assigned to SS. Peter & Paul Church in Syracuse in 1951. Under his leadership the church grew and flourished, and became able to support many efforts and activities beyond the local parish level. One significant effort was the initiation of St. Andrew's Orthodox Camp on Oneida Lake. Fr. Warnecke was in many leadership roles in the greater church, serving for many years for example as chancellor of the NY-NJ diocese, on the board of St. Vladimir's Seminary and many other roles as well. Father Warnecke fell asleep in the Lord in 2001. Memory eternal!

Singing group from Ohio?

Your blogger is a little unsure about this image, except that it is of our church basement, back in the '70s, maybe earlier, and that the girls wearing similar dresses in the foreground of the photo were a singing group that was visiting here. Anyone remember anything about this group, who  they were, when this event took place? Please comment here! That was kind of nice having a Coke machine in the basement wasn't it? ;-)

Know Your Parish Leadership, 1973.

This is a group of the parish leaders from 1973, the time of the consecration of the current church building. Let's see if we can name them all correctly!

In the center is Father Wojcik. In the back, on the right, are Al Joseph and Andy Babish. On the right in front are Sandy Paiko and Gene Grenek. (At least we think that's right.)

The names we have for those on the left are: Dorothy V...?, Paul Prybla, Helen Dresko, Boris Glus and Donald A..? Can you help sort out who is who, and fill in the last names? Remember, if you click on the photo you can make it bigger for viewing :-)

Bingo!

As mentioned before, there were numerous fund raisers in the 1960s and '70s. There was a building to furnish, a parish to establish, a mortgage to be paid off and while the individual parishoners contributed generously, there were simply limits to what they could do. In addtion to the fund raisers mentioned already, church members ran a bingo game for some years in the 1970s. They rented a Knights of Columbus Hall on South Avenue and many parishoners worked these games. The top image is of Marge Cavalcanti, tallying up the proceeds by the looks of things.

Some other people who helped out were the folks shown in this next image. In the back we see Gretel Stavrevsky and Cora Joseph, and on the right in the
foreground is Lillian Stavrevsky.

Not just adults, but younger members worked these games too, as shown here with two of the Joseph brothers, Nick and David.

Please help identify this young sub-deacon

Among other photographs from Boris Glus' extensive collection of photos of church events over the years was this photo. It is from the early 1970s, since Father Wojcik was still here, who you see coming out from the Royal Doors. Out in front of him is Father Cyril, who at that time was probably already serving as chaplain at West Point. On Father Cyril's left is a young sub-deacon. He looks familiar, doesn't he? Or does he? We think we know his identity, but if you'd like to try a guess, please comment here! (Remember, you can left click on the image to view it in a larger size.)

Fundraisers

When the parish bought the current church building in 1967 it cost $67,000. In today's dollars that would be some $470,000 according to this inflation calculator. A lot of money! So the people of the church initiated a series of fundraising events that over the years represented a lot of work, a fair amount of money for the church, and sometimes some good fun too, judging by some of the photos. Jane Wargo recalled in an interview for example that in the 1960s they held a number of rummage sales in the Grange hall in Chili.


 Another good fundraiser done for a number of years in the 1970s is shown in the photographs here. This was the food stand that they ran every summer at the Monroe County Fair. Shown below are Al and Cora Joseph.

In the following photo we see Bill Cavalcanti and Cora Joseph.

More on the "Carpatho-Russians"

This ethnic group, not well known to many in the U.S., was commented on earlier in this blog. Recently the blogger ran across some wonderful images and books about the heartland of these people, Carpathian Ruthenia. This was in the World Digital Library, an online cooperative venture of a number of national and other libraries. In the European section there is a book from the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine showing rare images of the villages, churches and people in this region which was the center of this ethnic group.

As noted in the records, this mountainous region was largely in the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire before WWI, but afterwards some of it became part of Czechoslovakia. some fell to Poland, with most of it becoming what is today the Zakarpattia Oblast in western Ukraine. The natives were a rural peasant people who spoke a Slavic dialect similar to Ukrainian with Polish influences. Shown here is a group of women of the region.

Religiously they were predominantly what is referred to as either "Eastern Catholics" or "Uniates." Their story is significant not only to our parish but to the Orthodox Church of America as well, since after the followers of this church came to America many of them became part of the former "Metropolia," which later became the OCA. What follows is an attempt to relate briefly a very complicated and often contentious story!

Essentially what happened is that in the European borderlands between West and East there was a tremendous amount of political and religious rivalry between Roman Catholic and Easter Orthodox princes and powers. The Easter Catholics or Uniates are an outcome of this rivalry. They are a church which largely follows an Orthodox style worship and tradition, but recognize the primacy and authority of the Pope, rather than the collegial body of Orthodox metropolitans and patriarchs. So for example their priest can marry, as in Orthodoxy, but they still accept the authority of Rome. At left is one of their churches.

When these people came to the U.S. and brought their church with them, there was a good deal of confusion. Roman Catholic leaders here were not familiar with their situation, and unsympathetic to it in many cases, finding the marriage of priests mentioned above unacceptable, and so on. A leader of this people, Father Alexis Toth, a Uniate priest, struggled with these issues and in the end led many to reunion with the then main Orthodox body in the U.S., the Metropolia mission of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Carpatho-Russian Uniates who returned to Orthodoxy form an important part of the history of today's Orthodox Church in America.

Men & Women of the Parish, March 1967

Here are two snapshots of some of the men and women of St. John's in March of 1967, not long after moving into the present church building. The men are shown seated at a table in the basement. From left to right they are: unidentified, Joe Cherney, Carl (later Fr. Cyril) Stavrevsky, Fr. Warnecke, John Dresko, Marty Staschak and "Sam," (also known as "Sam the Albanian.") All of these men were active in the establishment of the new parish. Carl Stavrevsky, later Father Cyril, became a priest in 1969 and later served this parish, where his son, Father Ken James Stavrevsky serves today. Father Warnecke was the priest of St. Peter and Paul in Syracuse, and a major figure in Orthodox circles in upstate NY. He, and his parish, served in something of the role of godparents to our parish. "Sam the Albanian" was actually named Sam Theodore, something like that, but many found his full Albanian name difficult to remember, hence "Sam the Albanian!" He was a member of the small Albanian church that our parish worshiped in for almost two years prior to purchasing the current building.

Next we have a group of women of the parish, also from March 1967, in the kitchen. (It was a more traditional era...) From left to right we see Helen Dresko, Dorothy Stavrevsky (Father Ken's grandmother,) Ann Paiko, Dorothy Staschak, Katherine Youney, Jane Wargo and Sultana Popoff. Again, a key group of our founding members. Without the dedication, hard work, and faithfulness of all of these servants of God our much loved parish simply would not exist!

So, you want to build an altar...

After our parish moved into their new church building in 1966 there were many changes that had to be made in order to create an Orthodox worship space. In an earlier post we looked at the building of the iconstasis, the wall of icons that divides the sanctuary and the nave. Inside the nave, the area where the priest celebrates the Eucharist, is an altar. Originally the altar was one from another church, but then in 1970 a new altar was built. Shown at left are George Kuyon and Walter Kisel, in the rear of the photo, with the altar in George's workshop in Gates. The cost of the altar was sponsored by Katherine Youney, right, and Fr. Wojcik, left, was the priest at the time.

While there are certain specific guidelines for altars derived from Exodus and Leviticus, for example they are not to use nails or screws, but must be pegged together, there is some latitude in the dimensions and woods used. This altar was built in part with birch plywood for example. The altar is not actually fully assembled though until the consecration, when it is hammered together with a rock, by the bishop and priests presiding. At that time a sacred relic is placed and sealed inside the altar as well.

One element that is required is a sort of drop box in the center of the altar to hold the relic. The custom of having a relic of a martyr or saint included in the altar goes back to the earliest days of the church, when they would celebrate the Eucharist in the catacombs over the grave of a martyr. The plan on left is one of the original drawings done to design the altar. If you click on it to see it larger you will see how the center post is lower, and allows for a place for a relic.

Traditionally an altar will hold a relic of a martyr. In our altar however, as in many churches of the Orthodox Church of America that were built in those years, the relic is of Saint Herman of Alaska. He was not a martyr, but the problem was that while, with the Slavic background of our church, the natural thing would have been to get  a relic of one of the "new martyrs" of Russia, those priests, monastics and faithful killed by the Communists, during the Cold War years this simply wasn't possible to do, and so churches built in that era often used relics of Saint Herman, the first Orthodox saint of North America.

When interviewing George Kuyon about the building of this altar, George said that working on this project had been one of the most profound spiritual experiences in his life. He recalled driving from his workshop in Gates to the church, with the altar secured in the back of his pickup truck, feeling as though nothing could happen to him, that his trip was blessed by what he was doing, which of course it was!

The Iconostasis

In previous posts we have seen photos of the interior of our church dating from when we first purchased it from the Lutherans who had occupied it as St. Mark's, and who had moved to a new site in the suburbs. It was a typical Protestant setting, with largely bare walls, a pulpit for the minister, a choir loft and so forth. Naturally enough, an Orthodox church building needs to meet the requirements of Orthodox worship. One of the most significant needs in converting this space into one fitting for Orthodox worship was to have an "iconostasis." 

The iconostasis can be thought of as a line that separates the nave, where the worshipers stand, representing the human world, and the sanctuary, representing the divine world, where the altar is, and where the priest celebrates the Eucharist. An iconostasis can take a variety of forms. It can be literally a wall, with doors set into it, as ours is. It can also be represented by sections of stands or in other ways, but the common purpose is to separate the two areas, and to allow for presentation of icons.

Our iconostasis, shown above in a recent photo, was designed by parishioner Samuel Milley and built in the basement in sections by a group of parishioners, including a young Steve Merowsky Jr. and his father. It was assembled and set into place in late 1967 or early 1968. The center doors, or "Royal Doors," were a gift to this parish from St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Mayfield PA, the home parish of founders like the Wargo family, the Staschak family, Tatiana Sweda and others. It is a lovely, traditional style iconostasis, on which one will find those icons common to Orthodox believers and worship.

Icons are of course another vital element in Orthodox worship, and perhaps one familiar to those who otherwise are largely unfamiliar with Orthodoxy. Icons in Orthodox understanding are not simply "pictures." They are a spiritual device that allows one a certain window on the world beyond. They are not worshiped, but rather serve to facilitate our worship and prayer.

On the left is a 1960s photo of the icon found above and centered behind the iconostasis, that of the "Theotokos," or "God bearer," the Virgin Mary, flanked by two angels. This icon of the Theotokos is a very traditional style icon done after the iconostasis was put into place. It is the work of James McKean, a parishioner at the time, and was hung on the wall by George Kuyon and Walter Kisel. George recalls that it was quite a challenge to mount and center this large, and heavy icon, (it is painted on masonite,) while he and Walter were balancing on two long extension ladders! Below is a 1960s photo of the icon, notice the walls are blue and the angels have not yet been done.

The languages of St. John's

The story of today's Orthodox Church in America, and that of our parish, is in part one of an ongoing effort to share the riches of Orthodoxy with Americans of all backgrounds, not just those with roots in traditionally Orthodox countries. All ethnic groups of course feel the pull of the homeland and the mother tongue, not just Russians or Greeks. Until relatively recent times for example many churches in the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran church were insistent on the use of German in worship.

The history of the OCA, being connected as it is with missionary efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America, means that for many years it was common for services to be conducted in "Church Slavonic," which is a sort of old style of Russian. Until comparatively recently many clergy in the OCA and it's predecessors were Russian immigrants, and often spoke Russian by preference. (Shown here is the cover of a bilingual service book, in Slavonic and English.)

By way of illustration, at a council of bishops in 1967 of our predecessor, the "Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church," the proceedings were conducted in Russian, not English. And it wasn't until well into the 1970s that a wide range of liturgical music, theology and so forth were being actively translated into English.

Despite the emotional tug of attachment to mother tongues, and traditions of Church Slavonic, visionary leaders realized that to be a truly American church, the use of English was of vital importance. Metropolitan Leonty, despite the fact that he himself was more comfortable in Russian than English, was a strong proponent of the use of English in church services, and under his leadership in the 1950s and early 1960s many English language parishes were started, including ours.

Even so, in the early years of St. John's there was a little use of Slavonic, since that is what some were familiar with, but over time that ceased. What we enjoy today is a parish that while delightfully multilingual, with speakers of Carpatho-Russian, Ethiopian, Greek, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian and other languages among our members, we are blessed to be able to share the treasury of Orthodoxy together in English.

Father Kozak

One of the earliest priests in our parish was Father John Kozak. He was a handsome and capable young man with a family, a wife and five children, and every Sunday they drove in an old station wagon from Syracuse, where he was based with Father Warnecke, to Rochester so that he could celebrate the liturgy. This photo shows Father blessing the Pascha baskets in 1967. He was much loved in the parish and it was hoped he could become our first permanent assigned priest but health issues precluded his being able to do so. He is remembered with warmth and respect by many still today. Standing closest behind him, left to right, are Mary Cherney, Anastasia Wargo, and Joseph Wargo. Can you recognize anyone else? Post a comment here and help identify them!

(By the way, if you haven't noticed, you can click on the photos posted in this blog to see them larger size.)

The "Antemension"

One of the joys of researching our parish history is the opportunity to speak with so many good people, to hear so many interesting stories, and to see so many fascinating things. Today I spoke with our parish priest, Father Stavrevsky about his life in our parish, and the history of the last fifty years. Father invited me to come into the altar area and as we discussed some of the items found there, such as the beautiful altar built by church members (more on that in a future post,) he unfolded and showed me the "antimension." This liturgical item is a piece of linen, given by the bishop to the priest, and in part serves as the priest's "license" from the bishop to celebrate the divine liturgy and holy mysteries.

The antimension is essential to conducting the service, the Eucharist cannot be celebrated without it. It is unfolded during the liturgy and serves to catch any crumbs that might fall from the bread. It may be used in special situations as a substitute for an altar table, and in fact when a military chaplain Father Ken used an antimension in just such manner when out in the field.

Father Ken unfolded the antimension that I might see and photograph it. It is about 16"x16", and has the imagery typical of these items, namely the four evangelists, one at each corner, and in the center the entombment of Christ. The sense here is that out of Christ's death comes life for all of us. As is the custom there is a small relic (St. Herman of Alaska) sown into the back of the cloth. On the front, under the imagery, one can see, although faded by time, the signature of Metropolitan Ireney, the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church of America at the time this was given in 1972.

A (very) brief history of Orthodoxy in America

In North America the Orthodox church and faith are largely unknown to most people, or thought of perhaps in a casual and confused way as a sort of Catholic church that uses Greek or Russian for some reason. Part of the reason for this of course is that much of the early immigration to this continent and the founders of the various nations and colonial realms were largely from Western Europe, and thus either Roman Catholic or Protestant.

The only early Orthodox presence was on the far western edge of things in Alaska, which was a Russian colony and where figures like the missionary later recognized as St. Herman did much to establish an Orthodox presence in that area. Herman and other Orthodox clergy were tireless advocates of fair and respectful treatment for the native peoples, and established deep roots among them.

This Russian Orthodox foothold extended down into northern California, and being the earliest Orthodox presence in North America took onto itself, according to Orthodox canon and practice, the general shepherding of Orthodox peoples throughout the United States and Canada.

As time went on, many peoples from traditionally Orthodox countries besides Russia began to immigrate to the New World. Greeks, Syrians, Albanians, Macedonians, Carpatho-Russians and many others came here and sought to preserve their native Orthodox traditions and customs in their new home. In the late 19th and very early 20th centuries there was a window of opportunity for the establishment of some form of overall, unified Orthodox church in America. 

Bishop Tikhon of what was then called the "Metropolia" was a staunch advocate of Orthodox unity, and a keen respecter of the needs of the various ethnic groups. He sought to build a collegial body within which regional and ethnic traditions could be respected, but that would provide a cohesive unity beneficial to both the "cradle" Orthodox, and those in their new home who might be attracted to the treasure of Orthodoxy.

Unfortunately the onset of WWI with the subsequent terror of the Bolshevik Revolution, and the dissolution of the old empires led to a great surge of conflict and nationalism and ethnic focus. The resulting complications and tensions put much of the earlier work to naught and led directly and indirectly to the confusing aspect of Orthodoxy in North America today, where there are multiple "jurisdictions," all with their own bishops, monasteries and so forth. In recent years the long lasting impact of WWI and subsequent events seems to be receding somewhat, and new hopes and possibilities for great Orthodox unity in North America are emerging.

Please note that this is indeed a very brief and greatly simplified presentation of a hugely complex history. It is done only to illuminate that which is often so confusing to those coming to Orthodoxy and to provide some background to the establishment of our beloved parish. It is not intended to stand as a complete or in depth examination of a many faceted and at times contentious history.There are many good books on the topic, one being Orthodox Christians in North America: 1794-1994, by Mark Stokoe and Leonid Kishkovsky.

Choir loft

Here is another early shot of the church from 1967 showing the choir loft that was on the left as you faced the altar area. Celebrating the liturgy is Father John Kozack (more on him in a future post.) The choir were a group visiting from St. Vladimir's Seminary.

If you click on the image to see it larger you will note there are now two familiar looking icons on the wall. Those two icons, of the Theotokos and Christ, are on stands now flanking the steps up to the "royal doors" of the iconostasis. The icons were gifts to the parish from Sts. Peter and Paul church in Syracuse.

The new church building!

As previously mentioned the parish had, through much hard work, managed to acquire a former Lutheran church that was for sale on South Goodman Street. It was a handsome stone building constructed in the 1920s, when the neighborhood was a strongly German enclave.Naturally, being a Lutheran church, it had a certain style and layout, which differed of course from that found in Orthodox sanctuaries.

The walls were bare of icons, there was no iconostasis, none of the furnishings associated with Orthodox worship. Shown here is a photo of that space in early 1967, with Father Warnecke of Syracuse celebrating the liturgy.

For those familar with today's space it is startling to see what it once looked like. The platform in the front was much larger, with a small choir loft on the left as one faced the altar area. There were no icons on the walls as yet, only a stained glass image seen in the center high on the wall. (This was removed and an icon of the Theotokos done by a parishoner named James McKean was mounted in that space. George Kuyon was one of the men who hung the icon and recalls how tricky it was to hang  and center it while balancing on extension ladders!)

It started in their homes.

The initial meetings of the group seeking to build a new Orthodox church in Rochester were held at individual homes, including the home of Martin and Dorothy Staschak at 13 Phyllis Lane, shown here. This is a recent photo of the home where in February 1964 the decision was made to make a formal petition to the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, as the Orthodox Church of America was then known.

Having received the blessing of Metropolitan Leonty in April of 1964 to start a new parish, the members, who numbered 63, met first for worship first at the Colgate Divinity School chapel, and then from 1965 to early 1967 they worshipped at the Albanian church that was on East Avenue at the time. It was a very small congregation, with no priest, and the new parish of St. John's could supply that lack because they were supplied with a priest coming in each week from the church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Syracuse. Father Warnecke was the priest there, and he was instrumental in aiding in the start of the new parish, in supplying not only general guidance, but priests to celebrate the liturgy, and later in providing church furnishings such as icons.

By the winter of 1966-1967 they had raised sufficient money through fundraisers and amongst themselves to purchase a Lutheran church that was for sale on South Goodman Street, where we still worship today. The first service was held there on January 22, 1967.

Earlier histories & records

While following this blog to learn more about the history of our parish, and awaiting the publishing of the 50th anniversary history in May this year, there are other resources to enjoy as well. At our parish website there is an archives section which has downloadable files for example of the 1973 consecration book and the book done for the 20th anniversary in 1984. The OCA itself has an excellent archives and history section online. Happy reading and viewing!

The beginnings...

In the early 1960s a group of friends and acquaintances in the Rochester area had come to feel more and more the need for an Orthodox church at which they could worship. There were several Orthodox churches in Rochester then, an Albanian, Greek, Russian and Ukrainian, all strongly ethnic in culture and language. This group of friends did not fit neatly into any of those three groups, since the friends were many of them Carpatho-Russian, some Macedonian, and a few of other backgrounds.

So in early 1964 at the urging of John Wargo, one of the older members of the group, they began to look into starting a new church, that would be in English and accessible to all. They worked with Father Warnecke of Sts. Peter and Paul church in Syracuse, a parish of what was then known by the rather confusing name of the "Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic" church, the forerunner of today's Orthodox Church of America. Father Warnecke advised the group on how to proceed and they submitted a formal application to Metropolitan Leonty in Februrary 1964. Their proposal was welcomed and the new parish of St. John the Baptist in Rochester was formally established. (Metropolitan Leonty is shown here. He was a visionary leader and a keen proponent of establishing English language parishes that would open the treasures of Orthodoxy to all in this country.)

Oh, the "Carpatho-Russians?" They are not a well known group to many, but they are, or were, a distinct ethnic group. They were a Slavic people from central and eastern Europe, with their own culture, speaking their own Slavic dialect, as well as Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian or other languages, depending on what empire or nation they happened to be under. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries many emigrated to the mining and steel mill centers of the Pennsylvania and New York border region, and some of the industrial cities of  the Mohawk Valley, out in Ohio and so on. Most of our founders were Carpatho-Russians who had come to Rochester to work from places like Mayfield PA and Elmira NY.