June 26, 2019 – Canton, Ohio
“What can we be doing now to make our parishes (and thus our eparchy) more dynamic?”
Bishop John Michael
I returned from the Orientale Lumen conference in time to attend a Divine Liturgy in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Byzantine-Ruthenian Eparchy of Parma, Ohio on Saturday, and another celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Byzantine-Ruthenian Metropolia of Pittsburgh.
What, you may be asking, is a Metropolia (alternatively known as Metropolis or Metropolitan Church). This is a blog, not an encyclopedia article, so I don’t want to get into an academic discussion; Wikipedia is a good place to start to look up a precise definition. What all this meant for me, though, is a different matter, and not so academic.
The events I attended highlighted a really fine and proud history in the United States and a well organized, developed community that is clearly focused on the Good News of Jesus Christ. While they are very conscious and proud of being a church in the United States, the events also honored the culture and ethnic heritage that they brought with them from Europe starting in the late 19th century.
Can I say I was envious? Well, yes. But was I also proud? You bet!
The Byzantine (or Greek) Catholics of the Transcarpathian region of Western Ukraine and Slovakia came to the United States in far larger numbers than Romanian Greek-Catholics. As a result, they have had their own bishop since 1924. Today, they comprise four dioceses headed by a Metropolitan Archbishop in Pittsburgh.
While it goes without saying that comparisons are odious, I cannot help but wonder how different the situation in our own eparchy might be if we had been given a bishop in the 1920’s rather than the 1980’s. As I have often observed, we seem to have begun (as the American expression goes) “a day late and a dollar short.”
Still, the past does not equal the future. What can we be doing now to make our parishes (and thus our eparchy) more dynamic? More in tune with Jesus and His Gospel? More alert to the will of the Father and the promptings of the Holy Spirit?