Ukrainian bilingual schools celebrate Divine Liturgy

Service dedicated to memory of first bishop in Canada

- photo supplied The Divine Liturgy for Ukrainian Catholic bilingual education was celebrated at St. Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral.

Special to the WCR
Edmonton

More than 800 students, teachers, parents and guests from the Ukrainian Catholic bilingual program packed St. Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral Sept. 21 for the year-opening Divine Liturgy.

The Divine Liturgy, celebrated by Bishop David Motiuk, united students from St. Matthew, St. Martin, St. Kevin, Austin O'Brien, Father Kenneth Kearns, Jean Vanier and Archbishop Jordan schools. It was co-organized by Edmonton Catholic and Elk Island Catholic School districts.

This year's liturgy was dedicated to the memory of Blessed Bishop Martyr Nykyta Budka, the first bishop of the Ukrainian Catholics in Canada. Budka was appointed the bishop for Canada in 1912.

Coast to coast

He faced a monumental task as his diocese stretched from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans and encompassed roughly 150,000 Ukrainians and about 80 churches and chapels.

Because of poor health, Budka later returned to Ukraine and was imprisoned with all the other Ukrainian Catholic bishops in 1945. He died in a Soviet concentration camp in 1949 and was beatified as a martyr in 2001.

At the Divine Liturgy, students donated more than $1,500 to the Bishop Budka Charitable Society. This organization provides financial assistance to various Ukrainian communities throughout the world. Current projects include the establishment of youth facilities in Ukraine, youth religious programs in Bosnia and agricultural projects amongst the Ukrainian community in Parana, Brazil.

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