"Prjaševcy in America": Father Andrew Slepecky's Chronicle of Our History

Father Andrew Slepecky (1894-1976) – in Rusyn, Андрій Шлепецькый/Andrij Šlepec’kŷj – was a prominent Orthodox priest in the United States, born in Velykŷj Bukovec’ (now Bukivci/Bukovce), Zemplyn County, arriving in the U.S. in 1912 and ordained in 1916. He served (in one case also established) Carpatho-Rusyn Orthodox parishes of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America:

Reading Eagle, Sep. 4, 1966

• Manville, NJ: Ss. Peter & Paul (1916-1917)
• Allentown, PA: St. Michael the Archangel (1917-1918)*
• Alpha, NJ: St. John the Baptist (1918)
• Urey, PA: Ss. Peter & Paul (1918-?)
• Dixonville, PA: St. Mary (~1920)*
• Olyphant, PA: St. Nicholas (?-1921)
• Nanticoke, PA: St. John the Baptist (1921-1929)
• St. Clair, PA: St. Michael the Archangel (1929-1975)

*Very little is written, even by Fr. Andrew himself, about the Allentown and Dixonville parishes. If a reader has any information about either one, please get in touch with me.

From 1951 to the 1960s he was head of the "Carpatho-Russian Administration" within the Metropolia, until that "Administration" was dissolved and most of its parishes were reintegrated into the Metropolia. (Some joined the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese, or would end up there eventually, as did his longtime charge, St. Michael's in St. Clair.)

His obituary in the Shenandoah, Pa., Evening Herald of November 2, 1976, read:

Right Reverend Andrew Stephen Slepecky, 81, pastor emeritus of St. Michael's Orthodox Church, St. Clair, died Sunday [October 31, 1976]. He had been ill the past year.

Born in Czechoslovakia, he came to the United States in 1912 and entered the Orthodox Seminary at Tenafly, New Jersey, and was ordained in 1916 at New York City. He served parishes in New Jersey, Allentown, Uray, Dixonville, Oliphant, Nanticoke and at St. Clair from 1929 until 1975. Rev. Slepecky was an organizer of the United Orthodox Brotherhood of America and wrote many articles for the Russian Messenger Newspaper and for Swit and Pravda. Since 1949, he had been administrator of the Orthodox Church of America and spiritual advisor of the Federated Russian Orthodox Club and Frackville Deanery.

Presentation: "Carpatho-Rusyn Village Consciousness as manifested by immigrants in the U.S." (ASEEES 2016)

ASEEES, the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, held its annual convention from November 17-20, 2016 in Washington, D.C. This author was honored to be a participant in the scholarly roundtable "The Carpatho-Rusyn Global Village".

This roundtable discussion took place on November 17, and the context for it was the following.

When Marshall McLuhan popularized the concept of the global village in the 1960s, he anticipated that the rise of new media would allow for the instantaneous communication among individuals on all sides of the globe and bring about village-like networks in a virtual space. Similarly, Benedict Anderson has emphasized the role of the proliferation and circulation of print media, in particular, the newspaper, in constructing the concept of the nation. While the Carpatho-Rusyns have never had a nation-state of their own, they have maintained strong global networks among individual villages spread out in several countries through the production of newspapers, magazines, almanacs, books, and – most recently – websites and social media pages. As such, this roundtable will investigate how Carpatho-Rusyns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries used print media to create international networks between home and abroad, explore the influence of religion on their maintenance of a transnational community, and examine the virtual village-like mentalities and behaviors present on the Carpatho-Rusyn internet today.

I gave one of five presentations that made up the roundtable. The slides and my commentary follow here.

Over the past two decades, in my research of the Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant settlements of the U.S. -- primarily Pennsylvania, but also New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio, etc. -- in which I especially focused on chain migration from homeland villages to American towns, I have discovered many examples of "village consciousness" as expressed by Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants, and I would like to share them, and my interpretation of them, in the hopes that other scholars may find aspects of this topic that warrant and inspire further study.

Author to Participate in Scholarly Roundtable "The Carpatho-Rusyn Global Village" at ASEEES Convention

This year's annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES - formerly AAASS) will take place from November 17-20, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Your author will be a participant on a roundtable discussion, "The Carpatho-Rusyn Global Village."

Panelist discussants will be:

• Bogdan Horbal (New York Public Library)
• Joel C. Brady (University of Pittsburgh)
• Richard D. Custer (Independent Scholar)
• Maria Silvestri (John and Helen Timo Foundation)
• Kristina Marie Cantin (University of Tennessee)
• Elaine Rusinko (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), Chair

Date: Thursday, November 17th
Time: 5:00 to 6:45 pm
Location: Mezzanine, Truman, Wardman DC Marriott

In my allotted time I plan to discuss how the first waves of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants in the U.S. expressed their "village consciousness"  -- in print (the Rusyn immigrant press, and publications for public consumption within and outside of the Rusyn community) and in other ways: tombstones, stained glass windows, other monuments, village reunions, village-native clubs, and collections of funds to support home villages.

I will also give insight into the seeming mid-century loss of village consciousness -- the disappearance of geographic identifiers in published historical narratives -- and how village consciousness has resurfaced in recent decades, especially through increased travel to the homeland, genealogy, print media, and the manifestation of virtual village communities on the web and social media.

The full slate of Carpatho-Rusyn panels/roundtables and events at the ASEEES convention is as follows.

You can see the most up-to-date scheduling/location information at the ASEEES online convention program (search for "rusyn"; there is also a panel on Lemkos -- search for "lemko"). (All attendees are supposed to register for the conference, but this is not always strictly enforced. Just sayin'.)

I will post a summary of the roundtable here sometime in the days after the event.

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

Rusyn Testaments Etched in Granite: The Genealogical Treasure of Rusyn Immigrant Gravestones

(originally published in the New Rusyn Times, May/June 2002)

For many people, a walk through a cemetery is something to be avoided except on the rarest of occasions and which inspires feelings of dread and images of the gothic horror movies that frightened us in our youth. But for me, a visit to a cemetery – most especially, a Rusyn cemetery – is usually a peaceful, heartwarming exercise. It inspires my imagination as I think of the early immigrants buried there, the vastly different world they left even long before I was born. I ponder their lives as I see their pictures, as many of the traditional stones will have. I feel at ease, knowing that I'm among my own people – gone from this life but still present in the memory of the living, present likewise in the hereafter.

St. Michael the Archangel Greek Catholic Cemetery, Shenandoah, Pa. – the oldest Rusyn cemetery in the U.S.

My reverence for their memories increases with each visit - knowing that their legacy, humble as it may be, reduced to a few lines of Slav expressions on the simple stones, surrounds me while I'm there, and is carried with me every time I meet their descendants, see the churches they lovingly built and supported, and uncover a new story about their way of life we can only imagine.

Then & Now (Bradenville, Westmoreland Co.)

Then and now, in Bradenville, Westmoreland County.
Specifically, Snydertown, St. Mary's Byzantine/Greek Catholic Church and Cemetery.

Then: (1932)

Now: (2016)

Also in Snydertown, in the shadow of St. Mary's Church, are two social clubs of the local Rusyn and Slovak American residents. I'm looking for information on the names of their founders, vintage photographs of the inside of the clubs or their members, etc. Please get in touch if you can help with this info.

The American Greek Catholic Beneficial Society, founded 1916.

The American Slovak Society Home, founded 1923.

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

Rusyn Spotlight on: Centralia, Columbia County

Assumption of the B.V.M. Greek Catholic Church, Centralia

The prayers, thoughts, and eyes of many will be focused on Centralia, Columbia County, Pa., this weekend. The historic Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is hosting a pilgrimage for the Catholic Church's Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The church in Centralia was selected to have one of the special Doors of Mercy in the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia for the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy inaugurated by Pope Francis.

CONYNGHAM TOWNSHIP, Columbia County — Centralia is the spookiest and saddest place in Pennsylvania. An unquenchable 54-year-old underground coal fire compelled the relocation of virtually the entire population of the borough through federal government buyouts in the 1980s.

From a population of more than 1,000 in 1980, only a half-dozen holdouts remain in the Columbia County community — residents who struck an agreement with the government allowing them to stay until they die.

Improbably, however, there is life beyond their scattered homes. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church — perched on a hilltop just outside the borough line — is still active, drawing congregants from afar on Sundays and holy days.

This Sunday, the church will host a daylong event welcoming the faithful for liturgy and prayer. It's the first such event since Assumption was declared a holy pilgrimage site. (Morning Call, Aug. 26, 2016)

Tribute to American Rusyn Olympians from PA and with PA Roots

With today's closing of the Summer Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, we want to remember a pair of American Olympians of Carpatho-Rusyn heritage. One of them is a Rusyn Pennsylvanian, and the other is a Rusyn American of probable Pennsylvania roots.

First, our Pennsylvania native:

Christa Harmotto Dietzen (born Christa Deanne Harmotto), of Hopewell Twp., Pa., is a 29-year-old indoor volleyball player who plays the middle blocker position. She competed on the U.S. Olympic Team this year in Rio, as captain of the U.S. Women's Volleyball Team. The team lost to Serbia in the semifinals, taking home a bronze medal. Congratulations!