Archdiocese of Boston and Ukrainian Catholic Church to hold joint service on March 25th

The people of Ukraine are our brothers and sisters standing firm in the face of aggression and unimaginable suffering, war, death and destruction. More than one year after the Russian invasion, the Archdiocese of Boston and Ukrainian Catholic Church will join to pray and show solidarity with the people of Ukraine in a time of historic witness to the Gospel and to Humanity.

A prayer service will be held on Saturday, March 25, 2023, at 1:00pm at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Parish, 146 Forest Hills St., Jamaica Plain, MA, followed by a reception. March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation. 

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap., said, “This Lenten Service for Ukraine will give us an opportunity to pray together as a Christian family. In the Mystical Body of Christ, when one member of the body is wounded the whole body suffers. This gathering is a chance to support each other and to deepen understanding about the current suffering of Ukrainians –children and refugees in particular-- and the future rehabilitation of all affected by the devastation of the war in Ukraine.”

Archbishop Borys Gudziak reports: “Having recently returned from my sixth trip to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, I bring to you expressions of profound gratitude to the people of America and the faithful and leadership of the Boston Archdiocese for your steadfast prayer and most generous humanitarian support of the suffering in Ukraine. Prayer moves mountains and deflects bullets. Many miracles are in the making. David is standing up against Goliath. Ukrainians are giving their lives to protect the innocent. They ask us to keep praying, advocating and helping. We can do no less. Let us come together to pray and offer comfort and consolation to those in need.”

Civilians in particular, along with the brave Ukrainian military, have faced attacks against hospitals, schools, shopping centers, private residences and ongoing destruction of infrastructure.

This unjust war has seen children, women and families killed and injured. This service recognizes that Lent is a time of Solidarity with the suffering. Hope comes from faith: we believe God remembers us, we respond in faith like Mary at the Annunciation, and we experience God’s presence with us.

To RSVP for the event, visit: https://bit.ly/LentUkraine.

About The Ukrainian Catholic Church
Web site, link here.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church is the largest Eastern Catholic Church in the world, with over 4 million members. Their spiritual heritage stretches more than a thousand years in the Ukrainian culture to the Baptism of Kyivan Rus in 988 A.D. in the Dnipro River under St. Volodomyr the Great.

About The Ukrainian Catholics in America
Web site, link here.

150,000 Ukrainian Catholics live in North America. They have 3 diocese or eparchies and one archeparchy. Archbishop Borys serves as the Metropolitan for the Ukrainian Catholics in the US. After the fall of the U.S.S.R., Archbishop Gudziak helped to build the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv and serves as its president. The Ukrainian Catholic parish in Boston is in the jurisdiction of Bishop Paul Chomnycky, O.S.B.M., Ukrainian Catholic Bishop of Stamford, CT.

About The Ukrainian Catholics in Boston           
Web site, link here.

Ukrainian Catholics have been worshiping in their tradition in Boston since at least 1895. The parish of Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church today is home to a large number of recent emigres from the fall of the Soviet Union. Very Rev. Archpriest Yaroslav Nalysnyk is a medical physician, with a doctorate in ministry. He trained in the military medical academy in the former Soviet Union and was ordained in the underground Ukrainian Catholic Church enduring Soviet persecution in Lviv. Ukrainian Catholics keep close ecumenical ties with the Ukrainian Orthodox in the neighboring parish of St. Andrew led by Fr. Roman Tarnavsky.  

About Ukrainian Catholics in Boston and the War
Christ the King Parish adopted this credo at the beginning of the invasion: Faith, Truth, Action, Justice, Love, and Compassion. This helped the parish to be concrete in their response to the devastation of the war. Christ the King Parish sent to Ukraine more than $300,000 in humanitarian support. Boston’s Ukrainians wish to express sincere gratitude to all people of good will here in Boston for their moral and financial support of Ukraine during this critical time of war.

About the Archdiocese of Boston
The Diocese of Boston was founded on April 8, 1808, and was elevated to Archdiocese in 1875. Currently serving the needs of 1.8 million Catholics, the Archdiocese of Boston is an ethnically diverse and spiritually enriching faith community consisting of 249 parishes, across 144 communities, educating approximately 31,000 students in its Catholic schools and 156,000 in religious education classes each year, ministering to the needs of 180,000 individuals through its pastoral and social service outreach. Mass is celebrated in more than twenty different languages each week. For more information, please visit www.BostonCatholic.org.