I attended a UGCC for the first time yesterday!

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I_Thirst

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Years ago, while in RCIA (and unbaptized), I stumbled into St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral in Dallas, but this will be my first visit to an Eastern Catholic Church as a Catholic.

Thanks to everyone in this earlier thread for helping me get my bearings.

stsophiaukrainian.cc/

:cool:
 
St Sophia UGCC in The Colony, TX.

I took another Latin Rite Catholic with me and we had a wonderful experience. Smells, bells, the icons, the singing, the iconostasis, the Eucharist, the Holy Oil and kissing the Crucifix. All my senses were fully engaged. I’m still a bit overwhelmed by my experience. 😃

Years ago, while still in RCIA, I had attended a DL at an Orthodox Cathedral. At the time, I didn’t really understand the order of the Mass and couldn’t make any connections with what was going on during the Liturgy. Yesterday, I could make much more sense of everything and saw the deeper connections. Mass is Mass – the external expressions of it may differ from the Latin Rite to the Byzantine Rite, but Mass is Mass. The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is remarkably beautiful.

St Sophia’s had pews, which I didn’t expect, but we did stand a lot. And it was very interesting how the Priest spoke in English and we responded in Ukrainian – I’ve got to work on my pronunciation! Hospody, pomylui!

It’s a very friendly community and much smaller than my home parish, which is one of the largest in the Dallas Diocese. It’s not as far away as I expected – only about a fifteen-minute drive on a Sunday morning. Not only did someone help us (Yuri) help us get seated and started, but afterwards someone (Christina) gave us a tour and invited us for coffee. Father Popov also took the time to welcome us and talk to us for a while.

And I bought the last bag of pierogies! 👍

I can’t wait to go back.
 
Congratulations! I would encourage you to go back often, since you have the opportunity. I lament not visiting my local Eastern Catholic (Byzantine or Ruthenian, not really sure) parish more often when I had the chance.

The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is a beautiful experience. I admit that I now find the lack of incense in any major liturgical service strange 😛
 
ThatOneGuy92 said:
Congratulations! I would encourage you to go back often, since you have the opportunity. I lament not visiting my local Eastern Catholic (Byzantine or Ruthenian, not really sure) parish more often when I had the chance.

The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is a beautiful experience. I admit that I now find the lack of incense in any major liturgical service strange 😛
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If you live anywhere near St. Louis you should get in touch with forum member Don Cointin (alias DCointin). He is a wonderful Antiochian Orthodox gentleman. I’ve been fortunate enough to chat with through CAF and over the phone. Quite a man! Perhaps you could visit his parish some time.

ICXC + NIKA,
Phillip
 
Phillip_Rolfes said:
If you live anywhere near St. Louis you should get in touch with forum member Don Cointin (alias DCointin). He is a wonderful Antiochian Orthodox gentleman. I’ve been fortunate enough to chat with through CAF and over the phone. Quite a man! Perhaps you could visit his parish some time.

ICXC + NIKA,
Phillip
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Define “close”. I live about 8-10 hours away from St. Louis 😛
 
I_Thirst said:
St Sophia UGCC in The Colony, TX.

St Sophia’s had pews, which I didn’t expect, but we did stand a lot. And it was very interesting how the Priest spoke in English and we responded in Ukrainian – I’ve got to work on my pronunciation! Hospody, pomylui!…
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If your Hospody, pomylui! was in response to the priest it sounds like there was no deacon.

(For us Russians it’s Gospodi pomilui! :))
… It’s not as far away as I expected – only about a fifteen-minute drive on a Sunday morning. …I can’t wait to go back.
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I hope you will go back soon.
Lucky you have a parish so close by. I’m grateful mine is only about 45 mins drive if there is no traffic… but then you have to find parking… :eek: And there is no way to get there on public tranist from my home because the transit doesn’t start to run early enough to go the approximately 2 hours it takes by bus, BART and MUNI. 😦 There is no way at all week day or weekend to get by public transit from the East Bay where I live to the Orthodox parish I go to in Marin County. 😦

I’m interested to see this “Generations of Faith” on their parish website: A Collaborative work of Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Eparchies of the United States. I hadn’t heard of that before. Interesting collaboration. 👍
 
5Loaves said:
If your Hospody, pomylui! was in response to the priest it sounds like there was no deacon.

(For us Russians it’s Gospodi pomilui! :))
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I’m not exactly sure who is who … but I think there was a deacon. The priest didn’t read the Gospel, but someone else (the deacon?) did. I know in the Latin Rite only the priest or the deacon can read the Gospel. Is it the same in the Byzantine Rite?

I just know that throughout the Divine Liturgy we said Hospody pomiluy! It was in the booklet … so does that mean no deacon? :confused:
5Loaves said:
I hope you will go back soon.
Lucky you have a parish so close by. I’m grateful mine is only about 45 mins drive if there is no traffic… but then you have to find parking… :eek: …]

I’m interested to see this “Generations of Faith” on their parish website: A Collaborative work of Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Eparchies of the United States. I hadn’t heard of that before. Interesting collaboration. 👍
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Parking was easy. Very small church.

The website just received a new design today! GOF does look interesting.
ThatOneGuy92 said:
Yes. But the Longhorns live there. I cannot enter into their territory lightly; my people (those who husk corn) are mightily hated by them. 😛
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😃 Longhorns are south of us. This is Dallas Cowboys territory.
As a musician, I absolutely loved singing of the Divine Liturgy. I ran a schola cantorum (“singing school” for Gregorian chant) in my parish, but my parish wouldn’t touch chant with a ten-foot pole during any of its many Masses.

This link appears to have all the music for the Divine Liturgy.
%between%
I recognized the Our Father and the Creed, and I’d guess that the rest is what I can expect to hear (though, as I mentioned, some of this was in Ukrainian)?
 
I_Thirst said:
I’m not exactly sure who is who … but I think there was a deacon. The priest didn’t read the Gospel, but someone else (the deacon?) did. I know in the Latin Rite only the priest or the deacon can read the Gospel. Is it the same in the Byzantine Rite?

I just know that throughout the Divine Liturgy we said Hospody pomiluy! It was in the booklet … so does that mean no deacon? :confused:
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When there is a deacon he stands outside the iconostasis with his orarion held up in his right hand and he leads the litanies- the prayer petitions- and we reply Lord have mercy!/Hospody pomiluy! If no deacon is there then the priest behind the iconostasis prays these petitions, and we respond after each one, Lord have mercy! 🙂

When the deacon is present he chants the gospel. If no deacon, a priest will.
Their vestments are different and distinguish priest and deacon. The main feature you will see with the deacon is his orarion.
 
5Loaves said:
When there is a deacon he stands outside the iconostasis with his orarion held up in his right hand and he leads the litanies- the prayer petitions- and we reply Lord have mercy!/Hospody pomiluy! If no deacon is there then the priest behind the iconostasis prays these petitions, and we respond after each one, Lord have mercy! 🙂

When the deacon is present he chants the gospel. If no deacon, a priest will.
Their vestments are different and distinguish priest and deacon. The main feature you will see with the deacon is his orarion.
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Thanks!

There was definitely a deacon there. I recall him holding his orarion in his right hand.
 
I_Thirst said:
The website just received a new design today! GOF does look interesting.
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My husband and I redesigned the site and it went live last week. We still have a lot to do, but it is looking and working well right now. We plan to add a parish history with picture tour, a meet the clergy page and a few more lists of web links. Is there anything else we should include?
 
CDB1718 said:
My husband and I redesigned the site and it went live last week. We still have a lot to do, but it is looking and working well right now. We plan to add a parish history with picture tour, a meet the clergy page and a few more lists of web links.
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It’s looking great!
CDB1718 said:
Is there anything else we should include?
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Peirogi home delivery?
 
CDB1718 said:
My husband and I redesigned the site and it went live last week. We still have a lot to do, but it is looking and working well right now. We plan to add a parish history with picture tour, a meet the clergy page and a few more lists of web links. Is there anything else we should include?
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Wonderful website!

Two borken links at page 1 - that on Announcements and that on Driving Directions - both are to subpages that no longer exist on the parish’s old site.

A parish history would be an ideal addition (St Sophia’s is the successor to St Pius X, I believe), as well as an exterior and some interior photos.

You want to send a link to the website to the webmaster of the online directory that’s hosted on ByzCath. They’re in process of adding the UGCC parishes in the US to that directory.
 
Diakonia said:
Wonderful website!

Two borken links at page 1 - that on Announcements and that on Driving Directions - both are to subpages that no longer exist on the parish’s old site.

A parish history would be an ideal addition (St Sophia’s is the successor to St Pius X, I believe), as well as an exterior and some interior photos.

You want to send a link to the website to the webmaster of the online directory that’s hosted on ByzCath. They’re in process of adding the UGCC parishes in the US to that directory.
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Thank you. I fixed the links.

What do you mean on being a successor to St. Pius X? I’m going to add pictures of inside and outside in a church tour. I need to send the outside pictures to the diocesan and eparchial webmasters once I get them up, so I’ll send them to ByzCath at the same time. Thank you for the suggestion.
 
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