His Eminence Metropolitan Yurij Kalistchuk recently presided over a service marking a 75th parish anniversary at the Descent of Holy Ghost Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Hafford.
Metropolitian Yurij is the national spiritual leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada. Sunday, June 19 he performed the Pontifical Divine Liturgy to celebrate the milestone in Hafford. It was his first visit to the community.
"The spirit here is fantastic," he said. "People say the bishop gives them energy, but the people give the bishop energy, and that's very, very important for me."
Parishioners of the parish currently number 37, however 200 people turned out for the celebration, which included a water blessing Saturday and, Sunday, a banquet and program following the morning service.
"The Hafford parish is not a big parish," he admitted, "but it appears to be a very busy parish."
Canada's faming community's are getting smaller and smaller, he said; when the machinery was smaller more workers were needed.
"When industrialization came along, people left for the cities to get a higher education and there was no reason to come back," he said. "Very few people remained on the land."
He was all the more pleased with the turnout to the Hafford parish anniversary.
"A lot of people who left have come back for this celebration, this 75th anniversary. I've seen friends from Winnipeg and from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario," he told the Regional Optimist.
"They were staying in the same hotel I am and I got up early yesterday morning for a cup of coffee, and there they were. There was a sister from Winnipeg and a brother from Waterloo. It's been very nice to meet them and they are enjoying this celebration."
Hafford has given Canada a lot of professional people, doctors, lawyers, university professors and businesspeople, he said.
"They're out there in other places pursuing those careers," he said, "but they don't forget where they came from and where their parents are from, and grandparents, probably, who are buried here. Now they've come for this celebration and it's wonderful to see them all."
He added, "In the city we don't get that many people, it's very true."
Metropolitan Yurij presided over a three-hour service, full of all the pomp and circumstance expected of a full liturgy performed by a bishop.
The traditions and rituals all carry special meanings, not always currently understood, but still special nevertheless.
"In the past, people got caught up in the spirit of the thing," he said.
"Nowadays not many people have enough of that," he said, "so there needs to be greater explanation of the liturgy itself and particularly a typical liturgy when a bishop is leading the service."
His Eminence originally comes from Lachine, Que. His parents went from the Ukraine to Germany at the time of the Second World War, then emigrated to Quebec. His family left there for Hamilton, Ont. in 1963.
"I was not quite 12 years old," he said.
He took his secondary education in Hamilton, then moved to Winnipeg for theology courses. Afterwards, he went back to Ontario to get a music degree and an education degree.
"Fifteen years after graduating from seminary, I accepted the call to become a priest," he said. "I was a deacon for under 24 hours, a priest for 15 months and now, over 21 and a half years as bishop, and not quite a year as the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."
He now carries responsibilities as bishop for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and metropolitan for all of Canada. He is eager to learn more about the central diocese and western diocese, which is Alberta and British Columbia.
"So the next few years, I'll be very busy travelling."
He said, "Most of my experience has been in the big city, but the farming experience is not foreign to me either. I enjoyed coming to North Battleford 11 years ago, and Glaslyn 10 and 11 years ago, and I visited the beautiful Turtle Lake."
His Emminence The Most Rev. Metropolitan Yurij Kalistchuk, smiled and said, "I told people that if I should disappear one day, I will be found at Turtle Lake!"
