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04/23/2023 | 8m 5s | Video has closed captioning.
Though small in number within the United States, traditional Ukrainian Catholic churches still exist. One small parish has churches in Belfield and Fairfield, North Dakota. Their Easter celebrations are a visual wonder to behold. And members of the little congregation are passionate about their faith.
Aired: 04/23/23
♪ Let us praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Lord have mercy ♪ ♪ May we be delivered from all affliction, wrath, and need ♪ ♪ Let us pray to the Lord ♪ ♪ Lord have mercy ♪ - [Narrator] When he rises from the dead, he's there again amongst us.
What greater joy can we have than knowing Jesus is really alive?
♪ The most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious lady ♪ ♪ The mother of God and ever-virgin Mary ♪ ♪ With all the saints ♪ ♪ Let us commend ourselves ♪ ♪ And one another, our whole life ♪ ♪ To Christ, our God ♪ - This is an unusual community.
We don't have too many places in the US where you have five generations of Ukrainians per capita.
This is the second densest population of Ukrainians in the country.
The Ukrainian Catholic Church, officially as we know it, started in 988 during the reign of Volodymyr.
He had decided that his country should be religious, and so he sent delegates to the nations around him and the ones that came back from the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, they said, "When the liturgy started there, we didn't know if we were in Heaven or on Earth."
And so he said, "Okay, we'll be Christian."
The Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church are complimentary.
We don't have anything that contradicts our theology or their theology, but we emphasize different things.
We have the beauty of the church, the icons, everything is chanted.
We also emphasize the mystery of God in our churches.
♪ For those who have lost their loved ones, oh ♪ - The deacon is a servant first and foremost, the deacon is the servant of the people.
The deacon is the transition point between the altar and the people, which is why I'm out on the Celia leading the prayers.
And part of the function of that is so that everyone else can be at prayer.
The deacon is always directing with the orarion, the stole that's in my hand, so that everyone can just get lost in prayer.
- I'm kind of an MC.
I tell the people what's going to happen.
I tell them to be attentive to what's gonna be taking place, and the priest follows, and does his part all the way through.
When we chant, we sing to God.
Every song is sung.
As you were in church, you understand where we're at.
♪ They hurdle the hills, and run down the dales ♪ ♪ To the place you have chosen for them ♪ Cantering is assisting the priests with the music and the tones of the liturgy.
We sing tropars, and kondaks and we answer the petitions, the acttenias.
We're assisting the priest with the liturgy.
♪ Formally bless thy resting from your world ♪ It's a spiritual environment.
As we experience Easter, we're all gonna experience the joy with the words and the different melodies.
We'll experience with the lights turning on when we sing "Oh Joyful Light," and everything, if a person really tries to hone in and tune into the words and the tradition, it all has a meaning and it's all helping a prayer.
- Easter, which we actually oftentimes will refer to it as Paska, we have lots of services during Holy Week.
Couple of services a day, each one different, each one rich in the meaning of what's going on in the day.
We begin on Saturday before Palm Sunday when we celebrate the resurrection of Lazarus, and then we end on Easter Sunday with the resurrection.
The Ukrainian traditions are very much alive.
The Pysanky egg tradition goes way back.
Here you have an egg with a shell, so it represents the tomb, the shell, the white, and the yolk.
It represents the Trinity.
A lot of the ways that they decorate the Pysanky have these symbols of new life on them.
- It takes anywhere probably from six to 10 hours to do one Pysanky egg.
Every egg is extremely special.
You cannot make two eggs identical.
- Among the various traditions that we have in the Byzantine tradition, are the blessing of the baskets and the foods that are associated there.
Wonderful things that God created that we put aside for those 40 days of Lent, so that we can reflect on all of that sacrifice that our Lord went through for us.
And now we're going to feast with great joy.
- And then our procession around the church symbolically followed the Myrrhbearing women's footsteps who defied danger, death, and despair to seek Jesus' body.
- We have not varied much in our church.
We have not made a lot of changes in our church.
Changes were made, but we've come on back to where it was.
- Each church probably has about a hundred parishioners.
Not only have they maintained this for a lot of time because of the great faith of the people that are here, but I really see energy really happening to grow the parish.
We have young families, and so I really see a lot of life blossoming, as well as we have strong elders here that have maintained the faith that are pillars to the community.
♪ Holy Spirit, now and forever ♪ - The Ukrainian Catholic religion is really important to my family, especially the tradition part of it.
The Pysanky eggs, they're bright, colorful, they're really fun to make.
It's fun when we get to go home and go and eat all of this food in this basket that's part of our tradition.
- Our family believes in taking the Eucharist on the tongue.
We've always been interested in the Byzantine Catholic Church, so when we saw how the Ukrainian Catholic receives it in the mouth, that was kind of the push we needed to try our first mass and our liturgy.
And after we went the first time, we really liked it and so we kept coming back.
It's really homey.
We're all kind of so closely knit together.
We all know each other.
And during the Easter celebrations, it's really joyful.
♪ Christ is risen from the dead ♪ ♪ Trampling death by death ♪ ♪ And to those in the tombs, giving life ♪ - I really experience a connection to my heritage.
There's been hundreds of people here for generations.
So as I'm in the church, I do feel my ancestors, which is encouraging and it's really present to think how many people have contributed spiritually and physically within the church.
- [Cantor] Christ has risen!
- [Congregation] Indeed, he has risen!
- We have a lot of young people that's left because of jobs, but when they come back they always come back to this church.
I feel that we are gonna grow.
Our church is never dying.
God won't let it die.
And that's up to us to keep going.
(cantor speaks Ukrainian) (congregation speaks Ukrainian) - This is a place where Heaven comes and touches Earth.
So when we come through these doors, when we come into this place, we get to touch Heaven in a way.
And it's a very special and a unique way.
- [Cantor] Christ has risen.
- [Congregation] Indeed, he has risen!
(cantor speaks Ukrainian) (congregation speaks Ukrainian) - [Narrator] Funded by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, and by the members of Prairie Public.
