No. 1016 (648) Ukrainian Church of St. John the Baptist - Perth

Parish Priest: Fr Ihor Holovko 20 Ferguson St, Maylands WA 6051 Fr Richard Charlwood—mbl 0439 622 056 T/F (08) 9271 4711—office ———————————————- Mobile 0432 233 405 Sr Nicodema Zemliak SSMI Home address now Unit 4, 26 Sherwood St, Maylands 16 Ferguson St, Maylands WA 6051 Tel 08) 9272 9361

Editor: Luba Valega PARISH WEEKLY NEWS Parish Postal Address: T: (08) 9276 3160 | M: 0401 309 228 PO Box 230, Dianella WA 6059 E: [email protected] 26th June –3rd July 2016 This is a weekly Parish newsletter for all to read, to inform you of what is happening in our Parish and share with you some interesting readings. Please feel free to share it around! This Week’s Readings Acts Heb 11:32-12:2 Gospel: Mat 10:32-33, 37- Sun All Tone 8 Epistle: 38,19:27-30

======Epistle - Heb 11:33-12:2 33—the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered, mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated-- 38 of whom the world was not worthy--wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God

Gospel - Matt 10:32-33, 37-38, 19:27-30 10: 32 So every one who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me 19:27 Then Peter said in reply, "Lord, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" 28 Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. ======

Words of Wisdom

God’s loving arms surround you… moment by moment , day by day. Caring hearts are whispering a prayer...for healing.

Healing is a journey through the gentle hands of time...May the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Book of II Thessalonians.

Page 1 Sun of All Saints Today, on this the month of June, we come to the cycle of services. That cycle began with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. That Sunday preceded the weeks of fasting of Great Lent which led up to the central event of the whole Church Year - the Resurrection of Christ. And since then we have followed the services of post Easter and the Sundays after to the Ascension, Pentecost and now today, the Feast of All Saints. This whole cycle is like a Church Year inside the Church Year.

Today on this first Sunday after Pentecost, we remember all of the Saints who lived and struggled and attained .. Why do we remember all the Saints on this particular day?

Well, the Church has a tradition of having a tradition of services after the main event the tradition of St. John the Baptist after the of Christ, since he was involved in the baptism of Christ; the tradition of the celebrating Holy after the Nativity. All sainthood is possible because of the bringing of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we could not be holy, we could not be perfected. So, we could think of today as the celebration of all the Saints related to Pentecost. The world today cares little for the "." Christian people are often ashamed to speak about sanctity and holiness. Yet Christ said: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words... of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father..." Again, many young Christians seem to think one who strives for holiness is a "sissy." Yet just the opposite is true. It takes great courage and strength to follow Christ. This is exactly what Jesus asks of us: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect." This means that we are called to be Heroes. Thousands of young people are fallowing heroes to achieve for greatness in the world. High schools and colleges are full of young people who want to become great doctors, great lawyers, great teachers, nurses, engineers, writers, and the like. This is a good thing. But as followers of the Lord, we all ought to desire to become great Christians, too: great in faith, in love, in charity, in mercy, in humility, in hope, in sanctity. How can one become a Saint? This is an important question. We all ought to strive for perfection and glory. All members of the Early Church were called "Saints," because they were the redeemed of God who strove for perfection in every Christian virtue. by Fr Iraneaus 2015 ====== Meets For Annual Retreat Posted by: Ivan Mysiv in General June 17, 2016 From May 30th to June 3rd the clergy and some of their wives gathered together with and Bishop Venedykt, Auxiliary to the of L’viv, for their annual spiritual retreat, at Pallotti College, in the stunning beauty of the Yarra Valley. This year’s retreat was a particularly graced time for all who attended, as we met together for prayer, worship, fellowship, and the joy of catching up with friends from inter-state. Our retreat master this year was Bishop Venedykt. This turned out to be a refreshing and challenging choice, as Vladyko Venedykt has much to offer. He is possessed of a rare blend of spirituality and practical wisdom. He has an astute knowledge of our times, a clear-sighted view of the problems of our age, both within and outside of the church, but crowning all of this, he is able to inject a very piercing and crystalline monastic spirituality that draws upon the radiance of the patristic tradition in the discourses he gave to us over four days. He was adept at weaving together the elements of byzantine hesychastic spirituality, practical asceticism, many elements from the western religious and academic traditions, as well as his native “Orthodox” monastic tradition, making his discourses both engaging, fresh, and challenging. I will reflect on the retreat of 2016 in four sections, which do not represent the summation of all that was shared at the retreat, but are four vignettes which capture the essential elements which came to the forefront for me. 1. God is not absent and removed from the world Bishop Venedykt was able to powerfully demonstrate through a sustained meditation on the mystery of the Cross that God is not absent, but is one who enters the world, so fully in fact, that he is crucified and undergoes the death we will all have to undergo at the last. Unless we accept Christ our crucified saviour as a scandal, and as foolishness, there can be no possibility of the gospel of freedom in Christ.

Page 2 He is a scandal to those who want God to be some sort of power figure, the deity of a primitive sort of group “religion”, and foolishness to those who want a God that fits neatly into an intellectually constructed artifice: comfortable, safe, and ungen- erous. We will be serving our own ego-centric needs first, fashioning a false idol and bowing down in worship not to the true and living God, but to something we have created, which we want, and which we control. The reality is that the scandal of the Cross is as difficult to understand and accept today as it was 2000 years ago. There cannot be a truly Christian path through this life that seeks to evade the cross and still retain its integrity and vitality: “In the Cross of Christ I glory.” It is through the Cross that the One we long for, longs for us, speaking directly to each and every one of us from the centre of pain, abandonment, failure, and defeat. Yet this is the place from which new life, and the joy of the resurrection, springs forth. “I came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. To recognise this gift, which is in each and every one of us, nourishes the life of faith as ministers and servants of Christ, and is the heart and core of every Christian’s lifelong search. 2. We remember, only to forget Within our culture, which emphasises “self” in so many ways, there are deeply held convictions that obstruct our vision of God’s presence among us. After a period of recollection we inevitably must return to the daily routines and challenges of our life in the world. This is where Vladyka was able to draw deeply on the collected wisdom of the monastic tradition, explor- ing a kind of practical asceticism of the “unseen warfare” which is designed to strip away these illusions of the ego-self, and guide us into a way of living that is simply present before the presence of God. Practically speaking, we human beings actu- ally inhabit several “worlds” at the same time. The spiritual, the bodily, the intellectual, the mercantile, and the hedonic, for example, are all aspects of life simultaneously present within our lives symbolically as “worlds” that shape us as humans, and which interact and influence each other within the dynamic life of the human personality. This theme was constantly present in our reflections upon the body, the soul, and the spirit as “layers” within every human life. In the gift and joy of a “calling” we have to each promise to change our lives, not just once, but as a promise which must be renewed and pursued with every breath we take, until our very last. Herein lies the arena where the struggle must take place against all that sepa- rates us from God, and which obstructs our path to the freedom of faithful service in Christ. Our freedom for communion with God is a freedom for that sacred exchange between God and Man, a sharing of God for which we were created. We are to live a life of Communion. 3. Inner attention and the remembrance of God . The bishop insistently demonstrated the need for an inner state of vigilance and watchfulness amid the activities and confu- sions of life. There is an art to “remembering” that must find actual time – seconds, minutes, and hours – within the frame- work of every passing day of only 24 hours. It is within the 24 hours of every day that the tendency of sleep and forgetting overtake us. We need to find time to be alone with God, and this is what the call vigilance and watchfulness. It arises from the Christian hope, that we live in the joyful expectation that we are going to meet the Lord. We are not to practise this for its own sake, but vigilance and watchfulness guide us into a wider and more expansive life, the more abundant life which Jesus came to give us. Salvation is precisely this: a bestowal of life – just as we sing at Pascha- “and upon those in the tombs bestowing life”. To be “saved” is to be made “more alive”, and to participate in a larger, more vivid, and unified, life made possible through the Holy Spirit. 4. Openness to the currents of earthly and divine life Speaking in ways that seemed very pregnant with symbols and meaning drawn from the writings of Vladimir Solov’yov, the bishop spoke of that uniquely Eastern Christian concept of “Bogochelovechestvo”- divine humanity, or “God-manhood.” In sharing His divine life with us, God is drawing us into the “fullness of being”. We do not accept the dualistic notion of es- cape from the world, flight from the body, or rejection of the physical and “enfleshed” nature of the human person, but seek their transfiguration; nothing is abandoned by God, who seeks us through the glorious flesh of His Son. In Christ we behold the human “flesh” transfigured in glory; it is a promise that our human nature is permeated by the divine, that our sufferings, and even our death is redeemed in joy, nothing is lost, and all is gathered together. The “holy and glorious flesh” speaks di- rectly to us of the transformation of matter by the Holy Spirit. In the face of Christ, “One of the Holy ” we are led to gaze again and again upon the radiant beauty, upon the face of divine love . Fr Justin McDonnell ======The Eparchy has a new priest Posted by: Ivan Mysiv in General June 15, 2016

On Sunday, 29 May 2016 in front of a full Cathedral at North Melbourne, in the presence of Bishop Venedykt Aleksiychuk of Lviv Ukraine, numerous priests, dea- cons, seminarians, religious sisters, family, friends, and parishioners of the parish, His Bishop Peter Stasiuk ordained Father Justin McDonnell to the priesthood. Saying the words, “, which always cures the infirm and supplies what is wanting, elevates the devout deacon Justin to the priesthood, therefore let us pray for him.” The cathedral choir sang the responses beautifully giving melody to the deeply meaningful prayers of the rite of ordination, for which they are thanked with hearty enthusiasm. Father Edward Kostraby and Michael Zylan pre- sented Fr Deacon Justin to the bishop for ordination, and Fr Olexander Kenez then led him around the altar for the singing of “Ye Holy Martyrs” and “O Isaiah Rejoice”. The cathedral was filled with joy and prayer as the newly ordained presbyter was clothed in the vestments of the priesthood. He then joined the rest of the priests in the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. Last week after Holy Liturgy on Pentecost Sunday June 19th, CYM Perth organised a commemoration of Ukrainian Heroes - Zeleni Sviata The commemoration began after Divine Liturgy with a procession to the monu- ment outside the Ukrainian where Vasyl Czwerenczuk and Bohdan Mykytiuk laid a wreath in memory of all those who gave their lives for the freedom of Ukraine especially those in most recent times namely the Heavenly Hundred and the soldiers in Eastern Ukraine defending Ukraine from Russian aggression.

After the Memorial Service-Panakhyda, Bohdan Mykytiuk briefly outline the significance of the Ukrainian He- roes - Zeleni Sviata commemoration which was followed by lunch prepared by David Marunczyn and assisted by Dannika Porter, Marta Osoba, Mark, Janine and Borys Marunczyn. The proceeds of the lunch and donations for rehabilitation of sol- diers defending Ukraine from Russian aggression was well over $1000 and a full report will be posted in the coming weeks.

In the past those unable to attend the commemoration have made a generous donation for rehabilitation of Ukrainian soldiers and the support of their families. Donations can be to CYM Perth BSB 704235 Account# 00001654 Description Rehab Ukr Please support the soldiers defending Ukraine from Russian military aggression and donate generously

Church decorated with greenery Day Date Time Feast Special Feast Days - Julian calendar

Sun 26th June 2016 9:30am Divine Liturgy 1st Sunday after Pentecost and Sun of All Tone 8 Saints

Mon 27th June. 2016 No Divine Liturgy Beginning of St Peters Fast

Tues 28th June 2016 9.00am Divine Liturgy

Wed 29th June, 2016 9.00am Divine Liturgy Moleben to Our Saviour, Jesus

Thurs 30th June, 2016 9.00am Divine Liturgy

Fri 1st July,2016 9.00am Divine Liturgy Moleben to Our Saviour Jesus

Sat 2nd July, 2016 6pm Vespers In English 7pm Divine Liturgy

Sun 9:30 am Divine Liturgy 3rd July, 2016 2nd Sun after Pentecost Tone 1

Cleaning Church Roster A RESTORATION (Maintenance) fund has being organised for our Church renovations. This June 18th—Irene Grynychyn thank you is separate to the yearly upkeep (podatok) fund. If you wish to donate, please see Luba Valega. The If anyone can help clean church once a month (pref on Sat morning) Church building is in need of repairs and so the Par- ish Council is asking for your support. please let Luba Valega know. ======Church donation . 3rd collection Pente- Perth Parish of St John the Baptist cost for Ukrainian refugees was $494.00. Is celebrating May Jesus bless her always. 50 years of the church building ======Built in 1966 If you wish to make a church donation direct via bank See attached poster send to Dnister (Ukrainian Catholic church) BSB 704235/ acct 00006479 Of details of celebration lunch to be held on and email Luba for confirmation [email protected] to confirm 17th July, 2016 at Maylands Golf Club, Or post cheque to PO Box 230, Swanbank Rd, Maylands Dianella 6059 — ======Tickets will be available from Luba Valega from this coming Sunday until 10th July. $30 adults—Children $15

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