North jersey's Ukrainians say Happy 100th to the church that welcomed them to new life

As waves of Ukrainian immigrants arrived in America over the past century, they found their way to St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church. And when they did, they found a place they could call home.

On Sunday, they descended upon the gold-colored building on President Street in Passaic to celebrate the church's 100-year anniversary.

But the event — featuring a hierarchical divine liturgy and a dinner — also provided an apt reminder of the central role the parish has played in the lives of its 350 member families.

Some were in tears as they recalled how the church had sponsored their families so they would be permitted to come to America, and the congregants helped them find jobs and a place to live.

Others called the church a spiritual anchor that bound them together with other like-minded souls who shared a mother tongue.

And some, who arrived to the celebration with their parents and children hanging on their arms, said it provided a cultural identity to several generations of their family.

For Natalie Warchola, it was all of that.

"We came to American penniless," recalled Warchola, whose family settled in the Ukrainian neighborhood around Hope Avenue in 1962 and joined the church. "The women in this parish got together, and overnight, we were fitted with towels, sheets and clothes to wear to school."

At services, she still sees some of those women in church.

"It pulls at the heart knowing that these people have helped us the way they have," Warchola said.

A longtime active member in the church, she is curator of a soon-to-open church museum that will display artifacts from the church and tell its story.

Bohdan Kramarchula related that his parents set off to America out of pure survival instinct.

"The communists would have killed us or sent us to Siberia," he said, noting that the Soviets forbade Ukrainian Catholics from practicing their religion.

Like many Ukrainians, his parents settled in the Passaic neighborhood mostly because of the church.

"The church played a big role in all of our lives," Kramarchula said. "We have been able to keep up with our Ukrainian traditions for all these years. And now, my grandchildren speak Ukrainian, too."

Hardship has been typical of the Ukrainian experience. In 1946, Soviets banned the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the Ukraine and arrested most of the church's priest and bishops. Their buildings were confiscated and their artifacts were destroyed. Nevertheless, Ukrainian immigrants throughout the world — including those in Passaic — held tight to their traditions.

In his address to the congregation, Metropolitan Archbishop Stefan Soroka, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in America, who came from Philadelphia for the event, reflected on the suffering the community endured and conquered.

"You persevered in the face of hardship, and that's a testament to your faith," he said.

He likened the interior of the church, recently restored with colorful iconography adorning the walls and ceiling, to "the heavenly kingdom. It should serve as a living Bible which teaches people about our faith."

The Ukrainian Catholic Church is deeply rooted in tradition. It differs from other branches of Catholicism because the liturgy is mostly performed in Ukrainian, its priests may marry, no musical instruments are played at services, the liturgy is longer than that of the Roman Catholic church, baptism and confirmation is done simultaneously and the communion is performed with wine and bread, instead of wafer.

Formed in 1910, the church celebrated its first liturgy in a Clifton storefront rented on Lakeview Avenue because it lacked a facility. Seven people showed up to the service and they collected $1.31 in collections that paid for the cantor. Later that year, the tiny congregation bought property on Van Buren for $12,000 and built a building there. But the parish grew by leaps and bounds and the congregation outgrew its quarters. In 1969, the current facility was built on President Street. The elementary school, founded in 1922, is across the street and serves roughly 105 students.

Meanwhile, other Ukrainian institutions cropped up in the area, including the church's elementary school; a Ukrainian Center or "Uke Center" as it is popularly known, is a social organization on Hope Street that recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Federal Credit Union, a Ukrainian financial institution, also opened nearby.

Many of the post-World War II Ukrainian immigrants who first settled in rented apartments around Passaic, bought houses and spread out to Clifton, Garfield, Saddle Brook and Hawthorne. But they always came back to the church, which continues to grow because of a wave of immigrants in the past 20 years, since the Ukraine became independent from the Soviet Union.

Like many members, Michael Celuch of North Haledon can tie his life milestones to Saint Nicholas. His parents were sponsored by the church when they came to America in 1947, he was baptized at the church, attended the church school, was married at the church and saw his children baptized there. Now, he is an active member who attends Sunday services with his wife, Lydia.

Deena YELLIN

25 October 2010, North Jersey