A Journey through NYC religions

Ukrainian Catholic Holy Ghost Church is at 160 North Fifth Street, half a block east of Bedford Avenue. (718) 782-9592. Services are in English on Sat, 5 pm and in Ukrainian on Sun, 10 am.

From The Tablet by Bill Miller: “Father Ivan Tyhovych is the pastor of Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church. He estimated there are at least 100,000 people in Brooklyn and Queens who belong to several parishes of this Eastern rite religion. 

“We have a very large Ukrainian Catholic community In Brooklyn,” said Father Tyhovych, also born in Ukraine. “They’re very much located in Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and Manhattan Beach.”

Many Ukrainian Catholics live in Queens as well, and some “commute” to his church from neighborhoods like Ridgewood and Middle Village.

“Some Ukrainians in the community are second and third generations,” Father Tyhovych said. “Many of them were born here, so English is their first language.”

Father Sergiy Emanuel, the administrator of Guardian Angel Parish in Brighton Beach, estimated there are about 400 Ukrainians in the Diocese of Brooklyn who are Roman Catholic. He is the coordinator of the ministry to Russian and Ukrainian immigrants for the diocese.

Father Emanuel was born of Polish heritage in the Czech Republic, but he grew up in Ukraine, where his mother and brother still live.

“They are really worried about what could be happening,” he said of Ukrainians. “They compare Mr. Putin to a mentally sick person. For example, if you see a man in the street with a knife or a gun, you worry because you never know what these people will do.”

Father Tyhovych has also seen how war uproots people. He served in Iraq as a U.S. Army chaplain and witnessed combat in cities like Fallujah and Ramadi.

“People are concerned about instability because it’s a war,” he said. “It’s going to affect everybody — young and old. My mom — she’s an older person. She shared with me, ‘What if I have to relocate, where are we going to go?’

Johnny Korduba suggested Putin also wants to gain a springboard to retake other nations that gained independence in 1991 when the USSR dissolved.

Korduba, whose parents were Ukrainian, came to the U.S. 65 years ago at age 2, and has belonged to the parish ever since.

“It’s a tragedy for the whole world when a bully country like Russia can just decide to invade its neighbor,” he said. “As a democracy-loving person, I think this is a step backward in history. I mean, it’s surreal. It’s a crime on a grand scale like it used to happen hundreds of years ago. Now, it seems to be happening again, and it’s just wrong.”

Father Tyhovych said that while people in Ukraine worry about the future, they’re not lacking in the courage to face Russian forces, including civilians who eagerly drill for combat to help their army.

Meanwhile, their family and friends in Brooklyn fervently seek divine intervention in the crisis.

“We do what Pope Francis is telling us to do,” Father Emanuel said. “We are praying — praying and fasting. There are special prayers or rosaries. And we pray chaplet to Divine Mercy. We also have some adorations, like the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.”

The Sunday, Feb. 13 Mass at Holy Ghost was filled with prayer for Ukraine, Father Tyhovych said. A few hours earlier, Pope Francis said at the Sunday Angelus in St. Peter’s Square that the crisis in Ukraine was “very worrying.” He renewed prayers for peace, and Father Tyhovych shared the message at Mass.”

Anne Cohen is a contributor to A Journey through NYC religions. She is also a Masters of Science magazine concentrator at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Though born in Boston, she grew up in Montreal, Canada, where she graduated from McGill University in 2011 with a degree in history and political science. In the summer of 2010, she spent five weeks in Kosovo studying post-conflict transitions and got a first-hand look at the effects of religious strife (learning five words of Albanian in the process).

Neha Prakash is a contributor to A Journey through NYC religions. She is also pursuing a Masters of Science degree in print journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She previously received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism, with a minor in political science, from Penn State University in 2010. After college, she interned at AOL/Huffington Post Health as an editorial and web intern, managing websites and social media. Neha was born in southern India but was raised in Bel Air, Md. She hopes to cover economics or religion in the future.

Follow Neha on Twitter: @nehapk

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