"Why Don’t We Have Rusyn Food Festivals?" C-RS Genealogy Conference 2025 in Wilkes-Barre [3]

The presentation continues with an answer to the question "Why Don't We Have Rusyn Food Festivals?"

[Arrived here first? Jump back to the beginning of the presentation]

Let me first pose another question to you:

• What is “ethnic food”?
• What kind of food would you expect to find at an ethnic food festival?

Well, pierogies, of course! Halushky! Holubky!

We say that only because we’re focused on the foods of our own ethnic heritage.

But what does that mean to someone who has no idea what an Orthodox or Byzantine Catholic church is?

Here’s another question.

• What is “Slavic food”?

Same answer – pierogies, halushky, holubky, kolbasi – because that’s what we know. But are you familiar with ćevapi? What about sarma? What are pelmeni? What are piroshki? These are also Slavic foods, but they are associated with Slavs who are not us. What about Bulgarian food? Serbian food? Belarusian food? They’re Slavs too, but in our echo chamber, we think “Slavic” is somehow descriptive enough.

And a few of our churches have done some really odd and unfortunate things with their festivals. Fortunately these aren’t in this area. But in western PA you never know what can happen. Here’s a Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic church [location omitted] that hosted a Ukrainian food festival. And no, the parishioners aren’t Ukrainian. The pastor at the time was from Ukraine but he’s a Rusyn from Zakarpattia. I suspect this was his idea, though.

And then in [location omitted], we’ve got this very unfortunate promo ["Authentic Slovak Pierogies and Halushky Sale"]. When I asked someone on Facebook from this church about this, they claimed their church was founded by Slovak immigrants and their people are very proud Slovaks. I’ve done the research – they weren’t Slovaks. They were mostly from eastern Slovakia and the Lemko Region, but not ethnic Slovaks.

And then there’s a poster they put out for their parish festival that features the flag of Ukraine. If they are supposedly Slovak, where’s the Slovak flag? Well, if you go to their picnic grounds, they fly the flags of Ukraine AND Slovakia over the pavilion. I guess they don’t know a Carpatho-Rusyn flag exists. But would they even identify with it? Probably not.

And just so we don't think this is a phenomenon limited to Pennsylvania, here are two recent examples from Carpatho-Rusyn churches in other states, one from [location omitted], New York – a "Slavic Festival" serving "holubky, pirohy, halushky, kolbasa, ethnic baked goods," another from [location omitted], New Jersey – a "Slavonic Food Festival" offering "pirohi, haluski, holupki, kielbasa, potato pancakes, beef goulash, chicken paprikash" (note some items of Hungarian cuisine; they aren't even Slavs).

On the other hand, here’s a church in this area, of Carpatho-Rusyn origin, mostly Lemkos, who do not shy away at all from what they say they are when they have events. (And for the record, the foods on the menu are exactly the same!)

So why don’t our churches call their festivals and food offerings what they are, that is, Rusyn?

At least in this area they don’t. The easy and cynical answer would be: because we want to make money and nobody knows what Rusyn is, and so nobody would come and we wouldn’t make any money. It’s a vicious cycle.

Let’s look for a minute at the experience of two Rusyn churches in western Pennsylvania, one Byzantine Catholic, one Orthodox.

The Byzantine Catholic church in Uniontown has had a full-on Carpatho-Rusyn Celebration for decades. In a few weeks they will have their 43rd annual one and it’s still going strong.

I think they make money off of this, good money. And nobody can come away from this event thinking these folks are some kind of Russians or Slovaks or Ukrainians. Or if they do, they aren’t paying any attention. (Maybe they're focused solely on the food, and who can blame them, it's delicious and it sells!)

The Carpatho-Russian Orthodox church in Ambridge, near Pittsburgh, St. John the Baptist, began its Rusyn Food Festival in 1995 and it ran for 25 years. Like the Carpatho-Rusyn Celebration in Uniontown, it was actually far more than a food festival, with displays, Rusyn craftspeople, musicians and dancers…

As you can see from these clips, Pittsburgh’s newspaper always took great interest in this event. Despite its success, the parish reluctantly discontinued the event a few years ago due to lack of volunteers. Not because the event wasn't successful – they almost always completely sold out of all their food!

So you see – you can call your events Carpatho-Rusyn and they can still be a financial and public relations success. You just need the will and the courage to do it.

Do you attend a church of Carpatho-Rusyn heritage? I don’t only mean a Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic or an Orthodox Church of the American Carpatho-Russian Diocese. This also goes for a church historically called Russian Orthodox, if it was Carpatho-Rusyn people who started it.

Whether you do or don’t, there are a number of concrete things you can do.

Pennsylvania has a bounty of riches when it comes to recognizing history, from the state level on down. At the top of the food chain is the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC), which has installed hundreds of markers at sites around the state.

The most relevant of these to us doesn’t acknowledge us by name at all; in fact, it gives the credit to another ethnic group.

I mentioned Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, earlier in this talk. There’s a PHMC marker in front of St. Michael’s Greek Catholic, or should I say, Ukrainian Catholic Church.

ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH
Founded by Ukrainian immigrants in 1884, St. Michael’s was the first church of the Greek Catholic Rite in America. Present church edifice, of the Byzantine style, was erected in 1983.

This was erected in 1984 by PHMC. Problem is, from our point of view, there were no Ukrainian immigrants in Shenandoah at the founding of this church, only Carpatho-Rusyns, as I’ve documented pretty thoroughly in a blog post and an academic paper. Except for the priest, Father Voljanskyj and his assistant Dr. Simenovych. So we missed our chance there; I don’t know what could have been done about it then or now.

And local historical preservation organizations do this as well. The C-RS’s own headquarters in Munhall, near Pittsburgh, has a historical marker from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.

Our neighboring ethnic groups have at least a few PHMC markers around the state, and local groups, they don’t even have to be organizations per se, have memorialized sites of importance to their ethnic community. Here are two Slovak community markers in this area: Hazleton and Pittston.

I find the one on the right [in Pittston] interesting because it marks the site of a church that’s gone. Most likely we’re going to have a similar situation in this neighborhood, as the recently-closed Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Cathedral on North Main Street is evidently going to be torn down in the near future. [Indeed it was demolished just two days after I gave this talk, on October 14, 2025.] And by the way, there’s a PHMC marker almost right next door to that for the Slovak pioneer priest Fr. Joseph Murgaš at the site of the former Sacred Heart Slovak Roman Catholic Church.

So here’s a short list of sites I think would be worthy of some kind of historical marker, but only if they mention Carpatho-Rusyns as well.

[omitted slide suggesting various sites as the process has already begun!]

And there are museums in this area dealing with industrial history, some also with ethnic history. The top one is probably the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton.

It’s been many years since I was there to do research in their library and archives, but I will never forget that years ago they had file folders with all sorts of news clippings, event brochures, other ephemera from the many ethnic groups in NEPA. There was a folder for (if I recall correctly) Ruthenians, but it was rather sparse. Of course there were large amounts of materials in the Russian and Ukrainian folders, much of it tied to various churches, but get this: they had a folder for Greeks, but probably half of what was in there was events sponsored by the Greek Catholic Union of the USA – the oldest and largest Carpatho-Rusyn fraternal organization!

On a positive note: out in Pittsburgh, the Heinz History Center, a Smithsonian affiliate – has a Carpatho-Rusyn collection inaugurated by C-RS. It may not be extensive, certainly not compared to what they have from ethnic groups like Poles and Italians, but it helps to demonstrate that we exist, we are legitimate, and we are an important part of the story of the peoples of (in that case) western Pennsylvania. It’s got not only books and ephemera but many donated artifacts from individuals like Carpatho-Rusyn folk dress from Europe, religious items from homes and Carpatho-Rusyn churches, recordings, you name it. I’m not sure anything remotely like that exists in eastern PA.

And then there are local and regional historical societies all over the state, including some active ones in NEPA. Find out what your local historical societies have on/about Carpatho-Rusyns. Compare that with what they have on other local ethnic groups. Consider donating books like Magocsi’s Our People, or anniversary books from local Carpatho-Rusyn churches, and such. And if they have a lot of those books already, are they classified as Carpatho-Rusyn?

Now, if you ARE a member of a Carpatho-Rusyn church, here are some other things you can do to help our situation.

We know that it’s still mainly the traditional churches where you are most likely going to find a lot of people in one place who have Carpatho-Rusyn heritage. I am talking about the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic, Carpatho-Russian Orthodox, and generally the Russian Orthodox or Orthodox Church in America parishes. I’d like to include Ukrainian Catholic churches in what I’m going to say, especially in Pennsylvania and some other places where they were founded mostly or entirely by Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants, but I’m going to speak frankly here, some of these ideas will be a lot more controversial in that setting and if you aren’t the kind to bring some grief upon yourself, I might suggest you either tread very lightly or perhaps consider some milder alternatives. (As I will show here though, even there you may have some opportunities.)

Congratulatory Letters

Members of Congress often recognize anniversaries of churches in their districts by inserting a resolution of congratulation into the Congressional Record. Such official commemoration of Rusyn-American history would be a fitting tribute to church founders and parishioners.

If your church will soon be celebrating a centennial or other significant anniversary, please send your U.S. Representative or Senator a brief note about the parish’s history—and state clearly that the parish was founded by Carpatho-Rusyns—and ask him or her to read it into the Congressional Record. This also goes for local officials, who are often requested to provide such letters for anniversary booklets and such.

Let’s look at some recent and not-so-recent NEPA examples of this: the effectively done and the ones that add no value in this respect.

First up is a Ukrainian Catholic parish of Carpatho-Rusyn origin: St. Mary’s in McAdoo (2016). They maintain a strong Ukrainian identity and have ensured the letter reads exactly how we would expect, without ambiguity.

"recent Ukrainian immigrants", "the Ukrainian population of McAdoo", etc.

Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church in Berwick (2009):

"a group of Russian immigrants laid the foundation..."

St. Michael’s Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church in St. Clair (2022):

"founded by Slavic immigrants"

St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Nesquehoning (1985):

"The founding fathers were immigrants who came to this country from Europe..."

St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church in Swoyersville (2005):

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, but it omits any reference whatsoever to the founders. For what this parish intended to communicate, this is fine, but when considering what it could have said and being entered into the record, it’s a missed opportunity. 

Parish History

Parish history used to be found in just one or two places: a commemorative book published by the parish on a special occasion such as a 50th, 75th, or later anniversary, or the dedication of a new church, and less frequently, in local newspapers. Today you also find them on parish websites and Facebook pages, where they have a much larger audience. Regardless, even the old-fashioned booklets are usually widely distributed among parishioners who may keep them for years or decades. And these can be a critical tool to generating ethnic heritage awareness and pride in the members and descendants of the founders.

Over the last few decades, some of these booklets have stood out for their clear presentation of the parish’s origins and the Carpatho-Rusyn ethnicity of the founders and immigrant members.

Lyndora, near Pittsburgh – in 1987, this was probably the first such book to clearly present its origin and that of its founders as Carpatho-Rusyns: with maps, village names, and most importantly, using the name Carpatho-Rusyn.

In 1992, the centennial book of St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Church in Mayfield, founded almost entirely by Lemko Rusyns, was probably the first such publication of a Russian Orthodox parish to use Magocsi’s maps of the homeland, even though the narrative described its founders as Carpatho-Russians. Despite the parish’s very strong cultural Russophilism throughout its earlier and recent history, its later publications have consistently described its founders as Carpatho-Russians and name their villages, correctly placing them within the Lemko Region of southeastern Poland.

And in 2001, the 90th anniversary book from St. John’s Orthodox Church in the Hanover Section of Nanticoke. This may be the first or surely one of the first Orthodox Church in America parishes whose history described the people as Carpatho-Rusyns, showed on a map the villages the founders came from, etc. I have to somewhat not humbly take credit for this. As I mentioned, I have family connections to this church and I kind of strategically worked my way into offering this information to St. John’s Church when they were planning their 90th anniversary. They certainly didn't have to publish it, but to their credit and my great satisfaction, they did.

And here are some more really good ones, the simply sad/bad, and the mind-blowing.

(Note the dates on most of these, mainly in the 21st century. You know how much information on Carpatho-Rusyns there is online and in books now, so there’s really no excuse for a lot of the bad ones.)

Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church, Berwick, 100th anniversary (2009):

"immigrant families of the Slavic and Russian descent settled in... Berwick"; "The Czech and Russian factions..."

The founders of the church came from a cluster of about 6 villages in northern Zemplyn County – all Carpatho-Rusyns. No Czechs or Russians among them.

St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Dunmore, 100th anniversary (1911):

"The region from which our church’s founders emigrated was located in the Carpathian Mountains..."

That is true, but they belonged to a specific ethnic group (you know which one!), which was never named in the book. Are they keeping it a secret?

St. John’s Orthodox Church in Edwardsville, 100th anniversary (2010):

I’m at a loss to explain this one. It may have been well intentioned, but it’s such a huge miss... the book itself is artistically presented, it’s really beautiful, a standout. The narrative doesn’t give any ethnic name for the founders of this parish. But then we come to this page:

"The native Lemko land of our forefathers: Lemkovschina"

Overlaid on a map of Ukraine! "Lemkovschina" is nowhere on this map at all. It is true, the founders were primarily Lemkos, and this tagline was lifted from an older anniversary book from this parish, but the accompanying image in that older book showed a small map of the area around Sanok and some actual Lemko-relevant images. I really have no idea what they were trying to do here.

St. Michael's Orthodox Church in Jermyn, 90th anniversary (2001):

"...a hardy Carpatho-Russian people of God, that migrated to America from Lemkovina."

That’s not too bad, we would prefer Carpatho-Rusyn, but okay. But then "The majority of the migrants were from the village of Malo-Celo, Nove-Sancz" – folks, there is no such village. (Actually this just means "Little Village"!) The majority were from the village Verchomlja Velyka, or in Polish, Wierchomla Wielka and its neighbor Wierchomla Mała, in Nowy Sącz County. So we see what they were probably aiming for. But it’s not hard to double-check this.

We already praised this next church for its centennial book that used Magocsi’s homeland maps, referred its founders as Carpatho-Russians and Lemkos, and named the villages most of them came from. Well, they keep getting better at this. Fast forward 25 years...

St. John’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Mayfield, 125th anniversary (2016):

"small numbers of Carpatho-Rusin immigrants came from... Lemkovshchina (or Lemkovina)"... "These people were neither ethnic Austrians nor Hungarians, not Poles nor Ukrainians, nor for that matters ethnic Russians, but rather 'Rusin'..."

This is great (not perfect, but better than most), but wait until you see what else they put in the book:

Authentic Lemko imagery and a foldout center spread showing a map of Lemkovyna with the names of families that came from the various villages that made up the immigrant congregation!

This was the work of a C-RS member some of you might know, Maryann Bacsik from New Jersey, whose mother was born in Mayfield and grew up in St. John’'s Church. The whole thing was just next level. (Maryann also did the same sort of map for her own Lemko-dominated parish in Singac, New Jersey.) Bravo!

This example is something you might never think was possible, in a very good way.

St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, Minersville, 100th anniversary (1996):

"your Ukrainian forefathers..."

Here’s their version of a congratulatory letter from their congressman. It reads as we’d expect for a Ukrainian Catholic parish, even one founded entirely by Carpatho-Rusyns.

But when we go to the history, we’re in for a shock:

"the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy ruled large parts of Galicia and Carpatho-Rus... This region... particularly the Sanok region of the Lemkivshchyna province." "...thousands of Carpatho-Rus peasants left their farms..." and finally, Magocsi’s "Map of Carpatho-Rusyn Homeland"!

Let's not forget that this is the church that most of the people in Cass Twp. and Branch Twp. who made their townships among the highest-percentage declaring Ukrainian heritage on the 2000 U.S. Census would have been affiliated with... so if nothing else, they would read this book and see, probably for the first time, that their ancestors were Carpatho-Rusyns.

Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church, Hanover Section of Nanticoke, 100th anniversary (2012):

A parish history "Including Discussion of the Lemkos... our forefathers."

This has to be a first for a Ukrainian Catholic parish, or almost any parish for that matter. The material on Lemko identity, history, culture, etc., goes on for many pages. The only negative here would be that it emphasizes the supposed Ukrainian identity of Lemkos and goes on to harshly criticize the Carpatho-Rusyn revival in the homeland in the wake of the fall of the socialist governments that generally banned the Rusyn nationality in favor of the Ukrainian nationality. But the parish deserves credit for devoting so much space to otherwise solid information that the parishioners would probably never have been exposed to previously.

St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church, Nesquehoning, 75th anniversary (1985):

Recall that I held up this parish’s booklet’s congratulatory letters as an example of what not to do. Well, if we also look at the historical background in the same book, the story is much more positive:

"Our forefathers... in the area of Podkarpatska Rus’... The name Ruthenian, used to identify our people, comes from the word 'Rusin'... To further qualify the name, they referred to themselves as Carpatho-Rusins, since they lived within the Carpathian Mountain region."

Considering for when this was published, 1985, when new materials about our heritage were just starting to become widely available from the Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center, this is actually quite good. Again, not perfect, but combined with some of Magocsi's maps and you have one of the better examples of a Carpatho-Rusyn-aware parish history from the 1980s.

St. Michael’s Orthodox Church, Old Forge, 100th anniversary (1991):

"These people are known as the 'Little Russians (Malo-Russians)'. They are generally divided into two groups: those under Polish rule known as Galicians (or Lemko) and those under Austro-Hungary known as Carpatho-Russians (Uhorschani) from in and around the Carpathian Mountains."

I want to like this one, I really do – at least they didn't shy away from talking about the ethnic background of this historic parish. It was one of the very first Greek Catholic parishes in the U.S. to transfer to the Russian Orthodox Church through the direct influence of Father, now Saint, Alexis Toth. And it even mentions villages from which the Lemko founding members came from. Unfortunately, even that is marred by misspellings of village names, which even in 1991 should have been fairly easily checked (if not quite as easily as it would be today), so the value added there is limited unless someone very aware of the geography is reading it and can figure out where e.g., "Chaina" (should be Czarna) and "Grichova" (should be Hańczowa) are. But far more serious are the old, discredited Russophile ideas about Carpatho-Rusyns/Lemkos being "Little Russians" and the errors of geography. Lemkos also live(d) "in and around the Carpathian Mountains" and are also "Carpatho-[Rusyns]" along with the "Uhorschani." And both groups of Carpatho-Rusyns are then lumped together as "the local Russian community."

This is one of those historical sketches that has lived long beyond its appearance in a book aimed at parishioners from 30+ years ago: the same text appears today on the parish’s website.

St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church, Old Forge (1972):

"The anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania attracted thousands of immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the turn of the century. These tillers of the Carpathian Mountain soil left their homeland..."

Meanwhile, down the street at the Byzantine Catholic parish that separated from St. Michael’s when the original parish joined the Orthodox Church, we’ve lost any mention of an ethnic origin at all, only talking vaguely of a large geographical area that takes in many ethnic groups, most of whom were not Byzantine Catholics. The only mitigating factor is that this book appeared in 1972 when the Byzantine Catholic Church in America was trying hard to shed any remnants of ethnic identity, and reference materials on Carpatho-Rusyns were not readily available.

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, Olyphant, 40th anniversary (1944):

"People of Russian descent began immigrating to this country... The majority of these people, who immigrated here from Galicia, Austria, Hungary..."

For a parish that was founded almost entirely by Lemko Rusyns, today we might look at this and laugh, or cry. But considering the year it was published, 1944, the fact that it at least mentioned Galicia, and not suggesting that the members were Russians from actual Russia as many Russian Orthodox churches of the time were claiming, was a positive sign. Problem is, in the 80 years that followed, have such parishes elevated their histories to comport with modern ideas of nationhood and ethnicity with respect to Carpatho-Rusyns / Lemkos? At least where this parish is concerned, last I checked (yesterday), a very similar text appears on the parish website talking about "a group of Russian immigrants, most of who came from Galicia, Austria-Hungary Empire."

St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church, Pittston, 100th anniversary (2015):

"Early immigrants from Eastern Europe who settled in the Pittston area..."

Not incorrect, but this "no specific ethnic group" approach is not really helpful at all as history. On the other hand, the parish website’s history section talks about Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants and the specific areas the founders of St. Michael’s came from. That's wonderful. It’s a shame the centennial book couldn’t have included that information.

Transfiguration Ukrainian Catholic Church, Shamokin, 100th anniversary (1984):

"John Hassich... first known Ukrainian immigrant in the Shamokin area... followed by Stephen and Philip Murdza and others. They came from the Western tip of Ukraine, where the Carpatian [sic] mountains extend into Austro/Hungary, to join the Tatra mountains. The early arrivals... came from... a region called Lemkovia [sic], who became better known as Lemkos. Then came the Boykos and Karpatho-Rus. These were dialectic names because their speech was dialectic... They came from all points of the compass in the Ukraine."

There’s a lot to process here, most of it problematic. A plus is that this was probably one of the first Ukrainian Catholic churches in Pennsylvania to write about Lemkos in its parish history and to mention the villages they came from. The rest of it is kind of a mess, geographically and semantically. The Lemko Region isn't in Ukraine, not even the "Western tip." "Their speech was dialectic" – excuse me, but probably almost every human being’s native tongue is "dialectic" and Karpatho-Rus [sic] is not a name that has anything to do with their regional dialect. Anyway, the final sentence I called out above contradicts everything they wrote before it.

St. Michael’s Orthodox Church, St. Clair, 100th anniversary (1997):

"A number of Slavic people, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, emigrated to the St. Clair area in the early 1890’s. Having similar backgrounds from Carpatho-Russia, Czechoslovakia and Galicia..."

It’s a bit surprising that a parish in the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, as St. Michael’s is, doesn't even claim that its people are ethnically Carpatho-Russian. I guess that’s implied, but we might point out that Czechoslovakia didn’t yet exist in the 1890s, and it didn’t exist in 1997 when this book was published. You might think I’m nitpicking, but if this is the only thing a young member of this church ever reads about their family heritage, it’s not likely they will learn much accurate information from it.

St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church, Wilkes-Barre, 125th anniversary (2013):

"In the mountainous region of Carpatho-Rus, known also as Carpatho-Ruthenia, situated between present day Slovakia and Ukraine... In the 1870’s and 1880’s, the first wave of Carpatho-Rusyn immigration brought significant numbers of Greek Catholics (Byzantine Catholics) to the United States."

This parish hit a lot of key points with this one: geography, historical and present-day? Check. Naming the ethnic group that founded the parish? Check. Calling them Carpatho-Rusyns? Gold star! They even correctly identified St. Michael’s in Shenandoah as the first church the Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants founded. I could quibble and point out that this parish also has a significant number of families with Lemko heritage, so Poland should also have been mentioned, but officially, the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church doesn’t acknowledge that Lemkos are Carpatho-Rusyns and may be members of their parishes, but that’s a discussion for another day and time. Very well done overall.

St. John’s Byzantine Catholic Church, Wilkes-Barre Township, 50th anniversary (1979):

And now from an older booklet from a daughter church of St. Mary’s in Wilkes-Barre. A really good start – a map! Of Subcarpathian Rus’, with village names and everything! So how is the history text?

Wow! This parish was so far ahead of its time, not just pointing out they are Carpatho-Rusyns (well, they used the 'i' spelling; it was 1979, after all), but they even had a Carpatho-Rusyn festival! And more on Rusyn history and the county of Ugoča that most of the parish families came from than you could ever want from a parish history of this kind. Bravo! But on a sad note, we see one of the key movers of all this was clearly George Daru, a lifetime member of St. John’s who was the church cantor for decades. George passed away on August 31. He was a good friend to me, to the Carpatho-Rusyn Society, and a true Carpatho-Rusyn patriot. May his memory be eternal, vičnaja jemu pamjat'.

And last, but certainly not least, another Ukrainian parish's booklet:

Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church, West Easton, 80th anniversary (2001):

I’m going to warn you to brace yourselves to see something you have probably never seen before and, unless someone in a similar church is moved by this presentation, are not likely to ever see again!

Almost immediately the reader is greeted not only by the Ukrainian national symbol, the tryzub, but by the Carpatho-Rusyn national emblem that we know and love. There’s even a detailed explanation of the symbolism. What gives? This is a Ukrainian Catholic church!

A few pages later we’ve got little essays about Carpathian Rus’ and its geography, and also Spiš County. We learn that many families in the parish trace their roots to Carpatho-Rusyn villages in old Spiš County: Sulín, Závodie, Osturňa, Jakubany, Krempach/Kremná, Krendžilovka, and Medzibrodie. (They gave equal time to Ukraine / Galicia and its history and geography, and the Galician region of Staryi Sambir, whose Ukrainian natives made up the majority of this parish.)

And this great introduction to the parish members’ heritage had this specific focus on Carpatho-Rusyns, and this in the book of a Ukrainian church. Most Carpatho-Rusyn churches can't claim to have done even a fraction of what this book represents. So how on earth did this happen? It turns out that the parishioner who volunteered to put this anniversary book together is Carpatho-Rusyn and a lifelong member of the parish, whose immigrant grandparents came from Spiš County. I must salute Marlene Bogusky Lightcap for stepping up and creating this groundbreaking, transformative book, which is what our Carpatho-Rusyn ancestors deserve, to be rightly recognized for their institutions and identity.

Celebrate the Parish’s Immigrant Origins

Here are concrete ways within a Carpatho-Rusyn parish to amplify its ethnic origins:

Fundamental to some of these tools is to have a good idea of where your parish founders/immigrant predecessors originated, what were the main villages, or generally which regions. And if you don’t know, you could ask me – I’ve researched every parish, I know!

The immigrant congregation of St. John’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Lyndora was made up of at least 25% of Carpatho-Rusyns from Habura, Zemplyn County, and the parish today celebrates this in their parish hall, with a photo of the village and a poster-size display of photos taken in the village.

Paul R. Magocsi’s Map of Carpatho-Rusyn Settlement should be displayed in the parish hall, perhaps with pins or other marking of where various families came from.

Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church in south Philadelphia does this, albeit with an older map. Years ago they had the families whose ancestors were early members of the parish stick a pin in their village on the map.

Promotion with Carpatho-Rusyn Confidence is Attractive!

How are parish spokespeople promoting the parish’s ethnic heritage when it’s appropriate? Just in the last few years I have seen:

• Pysankŷ classes where they advertise teaching the “Ukrainian art of egg decorating” – at a Carpatho-Rusyn church? Yes, Ukrainians are well known for pysankŷ and that may be a draw for the public. But Carpatho-Rusyns make pysankŷ, too!
• Selling Slovak heritage shirts (at a Byzantine Catholic church in western PA).

Does your church have a bookstore? I’ve seen plenty of parish bookstores that have all kinds of Russian, or Ukrainian, or Slovak items (yes, even at churches that should be comfortable with saying they are Carpatho-Rusyn), but not a single thing Carpatho-Rusyn.

What’s in your parish library with regard to ethnic/religious heritage? Are there books about Carpatho-Rusyns and the history of their churches and religious culture? 

If your church has a table / display at a community event, make sure Carpatho-Rusyns are part of the story and those working with the public can and will clearly say the church was founded by Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants, and who Carpatho-Rusyns are. (more on that in a minute)

A simple statement in a church outreach brochure can also state this clearly. I recently saw one at the Byzantine Catholic church in Lansford that does this perfectly. Yes, you want your church to grow by bringing in new members regardless of their ethnic heritage. But would you want to join a community that doesn’t seem to know much about themselves, or doesn’t know enough to explain it to others?

One of the fundamentals of networking and self-promotion is the “elevator speech.” That means being able to get your point across in the time it takes to ride an elevator to your destination or before your audience gets off on their floor.

So I want to suggest some elevator speech lines you can use to say who we are to someone who knows nothing, or next to nothing, about geography, history, or whatever we can get bogged down in and end up just taking the easy way out by saying “it’s complicated” or “the borders were always changing.” That’s true, but the history of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Hungary have all that and the only thing they really have that we don’t is a country named for their ethnic group.

Let’s say you’re working at your Carpatho-Rusyn parish’s “ethnic food festival” (or better yet, Carpatho-Rusyn food festival!). Inevitably someone will come by and ask

• “What ethnic group is this?”
• “What’s a Rusyn?”
• “This is basically like Russian, right?”

Here’s your elevator speech, or portions of one you can use as needed:

In conclusion: Clearly we have some steep hills to climb to course-correct and more effectively communicate to the general public who we are, where we come from, and how what our predecessors have built belongs to Carpatho-Rusyns and not another ethnic group. But the tools exist, and what I’ve suggested may be helpful but it’s just a start. Let’s work together to spread the message among our own and beyond.

Original material is © by the author, Richard D. Custer; all rights reserved.