The Cathedral parish at North Melbourne, Australia, celebrated its annual Parish feast day, (praznyk) the feast of Ss Peter and Paul. It seems that everybody really enjoyed the day.
The day began with a Divine Liturgy and ended with a parish family dinner in the parish hall.
As has been the style of late, the day was described as “one of the best”, “a real holy and fun day”.
Many people commented that the Divine Liturgy was an intense religious experience. The whole religious atmosphere was very peaceful, solemn, and very spiritually uplifting. The choir under the direction of Prof. W. Holovko produced one of its finest moments. As the choir director himself commented “It worked for us today”. The point is that it always “works” because we have a very beautiful and accomplished choir.
The parish hall was filled with close to 170 guests. Volodymyr and Paraskeva Laholat produced their typically very tasty meal which featured some three meats. The service was professional.
The parish choir opened the afternoon with a prayer and a couple more songs. The folk group “Rodyna” set the tone with their beautifully haunting folk music. Everybody wanted to hear more.
The parish was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the episcopal ordination of Bishop Peter Stasiuk along with his 70th birthday. Fr. Olexander Kenez marked his 30th anniversary of his priesthood while Mr. Michael Moravski, in a short speech, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the first blessing of our North Melbourne Cathedral.
To everybody’s pleasure the speeches were short and to the point. Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon was the presentation by the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Melbourne of the church banner which will be delivered to Kyiv in the next few weeks. The banner, a work of art by Maru Jarockyj, represents the Madonna of the Holodomor. Stefania Chudiak did the sewing of the banner. Australia will present this banner as a gift to Ukraine. It will be in Kyiv Sobor on a permanent basis.
There was much joy. Those present were very relaxed. Mr. and Mrs. Laholat entertained those present all afternoon with their music and song. There were moments when people took to dancing in the isle in the filled hall.
You can tell that some days are very successful as this one was. People linger long after all the formalities were over. You can say that we all witnessed a day of community building and one which was very effective.
Thank you and God Bless you to all who made it possible.
Eparchy press bureau
