What Was the Eastern Churches like back in the 30's,40's,50's and 60's

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Hi, since im a relativly new convert to the Eastern rite I was just wondering what the church was like back in the 30’s,40’s,50’s and 60’s? How was the atmosphere? Any different practices that are no longer used? How about any ethnic traditions, is it different than whats their today? All eastern catholics please answer im interested in hearing about this!! Glory be to Jesus Christ
 
Ill go first back than the Eastern Church was mainly located in what was called the East End -Their was like 7 churches in that little section of town itself. The catholics back than hosted a joint event called the corpus christi procession. What would happen is catholics from the various churches Slovak, Italian, Ukranian etc… would go to each others churches and pray at the eucharist.Some churches that werent big enough set up outdoor shrines. People would banners and holy cards from their windows those unable to go. The Ukranian church had their own band back than that played at various events. Also, the litergys were said only in Ukranian and they had a proper icon screen. Also, people regularly went to confession in fact you would not see anyone receiving that had not done so before hand. Lastly, the congregation was just over flowing with young people at every Sunday Divine Litergy. We also used to have the sisters of St. Josephs helping out at our church regularly.Ah the good old days
 
Ukrforever said:
Hi, since im a relativly new convert to the Eastern rite I was just wondering what the church was like back in the 30’s,40’s,50’s and 60’s? How was the atmosphere? Any different practices that are no longer used? How about any ethnic traditions, is it different than whats their today? All eastern catholics please answer im interested in hearing about this!! Glory be to Jesus Christ
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I can tell you that where I lived, there was a Byzantine Catholic Mission, which became a parish in 1960 (USA Exarch Nicholas Kocisco), that met at the Carmelite Monastery, and that Fr. William Levkulic would make a 250 mile round trip to hold the Divine Liturgy there. It is so long ago that my memory is unclear yet I still remember receiving the Holy Eucharist (both species via spoon, of course). A church was built eventually, in the Byzantine style, with dedication in 1979 (blessing by Parma Exarch Emil Mihalik).
 
The Ukrainian Churches have a history in Canada. I believe they have been here for over 100 years. Although I do not know if there are online resources about the history, but you can try googling for those.
 
ConstantineTG said:
The Ukrainian Churches have a history in Canada. I believe they have been here for over 100 years. Although I do not know if there are online resources about the history, but you can try googling for those.
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I don’t know the details, but I understand that there was a big schism in the early 20th century in the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada, leading to today’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada in communion with Constantinople rather than Rome.
 
The old timers who immigrated from Europe were still all around until the 1960s, and not just the Eastern churches but also a lot of Latin rite Poles, Lithuanians, etc.

They were all born and catechized on the other side, their offspring were all largely assimilated into American culture and of course they are all deceased now.
 
Yesterday, the parish that my grandparents helped to start celebrated it’s 100th anniversary. Part of the reception was the playing of a DVD that contained 800 photos from the 100 years of the church.

Among the photos were pictures showing the interior of the church with it’s wax candle chandelier, men sitting on the right side of the church, women and children on the left side of the church, processional banners along attached to the pews, gorgeous scroll work and floral decoration on the walls that has since been painted over and many other awesome pics.

Things of note, an English service and English sermon were not introduced until 1955. There are numerous photos of the old “lotus bulb” dome with it’s 3 straight bars, much different than the onion dome with it’s slanted bar cross that is there today.

It’s also interesting that the church did not have an ikonostas until the late 1990’s when a very simple one using garden latice woodwork. This was up until the 2002 or so when a wooden ikonostas was installed.

All in all, an amazing event!
 
Patchunky said:
Yesterday, the parish that my grandparents helped to start celebrated it’s 100th anniversary. Part of the reception was the playing of a DVD that contained 800 photos from the 100 years of the church.

Among the photos were pictures showing the interior of the church with it’s wax candle chandelier, men sitting on the right side of the church, women and children on the left side of the church, processional banners along attached to the pews, gorgeous scroll work and floral decoration on the walls that has since been painted over and many other awesome pics.

Things of note, an English service and English sermon were not introduced until 1955. There are numerous photos of the old “lotus bulb” dome with it’s 3 straight bars, much different than the onion dome with it’s slanted bar cross that is there today.

It’s also interesting that the church did not have an ikonostas until the late 1990’s when a very simple one using garden latice woodwork. This was up until the 2002 or so when a wooden ikonostas was installed.

All in all, an amazing event!
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Christos posredi nas. Congratulations. Is that DVD available?

English services already in 1955 - for better or worse, way ahead of that curve. But I am most intrigued by the lack of an iconostas in all of those decades before Bishop Elko, who gets blamed for all of these things. Any story on this?

djs

ps Just curious: at what year do pictures show men and women together? when did we largely lose the banners? pews or not in 1911?

pps nice signature; back at you:
youtube.com/watch?index=15&feature=PlayList&v=vTTrW3I4Y_s&list=PLF3E108BC2ACF1A64
 
dvdjs said:
Christos posredi nas. Congratulations. Is that DVD available?

English services already in 1955 - for better or worse, way ahead of that curve. But I am most intrigued by the lack of an iconostas in all of those decades before Bishop Elko, who gets blamed for all of these things. Any story on this?

djs

ps Just curious: at what year do pictures show men and women together? when did we largely lose the banners? pews or not in 1911?

pps nice signature; back at you:
youtube.com/watch?index=15&feature=PlayList&v=vTTrW3I4Y_s&list=PLF3E108BC2ACF1A64
Click to expand...
Yes, always had pews even when the church was built. 👍

Mens side and womens side until the mid 1950’s.:eek:

Lost the banners in 1960 after the fire and the MAJOR renovations.😃

Never had an ikonostas; some said not enough finances, some said wanted it to look “Catholic” 😃

Don’t know if the DVD will be available for sale or not. I’ll check and let you know.
 
It should be noted that Bp. Elko ordered extant ones removed, so that people could see the actions of the clergy at the Holy Table…

Not all priests obeyed. Others replaced solid Iconostasi with lattice or grillwork. One even put in a new one (Rev. Fr. Michael Artim, of eternal memory) following the directive.
 
Aramis, did you know that Archbishop Bishop Elko (Pittsburgh) became the Latin rite auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Cincinnati Ohio after he was recalled to Rome?
 
Vico said:
Aramis, did you know that Archbishop Bishop Elko (Pittsburgh) became the Latin rite auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Cincinnati Ohio after he was recalled to Rome?
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Yep. And was apparently quite happy.
 
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