Beacon to the Faithful
LYNDORA — The Rev. Yurii Bobko was named pastor of SS. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 21 Evergreen St., in January, but soon found his Sunday services sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For two months, the church was shut off like everybody else,” Bobko said.
He said during the Pascha or Easter service, considered the Orthodox Church's central religious feast in its liturgical year, only himself, a cantor or singer, an altar boy and an assistant were physically present at the church.
The service played out online on the church's Facebook page, he said, but it wasn't the same.“Usually for Pascha, the churches are full,” said Bobko. “I was by myself with no people; it was very sad. The whole angelic host and Christ was with us, so there was joy.“But it is the feast of feasts. Usually, everyone is coming to consecrate their Pascha baskets,” he said.“It's really different when there are no people present. We can't do coffee hours. We can't do gatherings. There is no kissing the cross or kissing icons,” he said.This wasn't what Bobko, 25, foresaw what would happen when in 2015 he left the Volyn Orthodox Theological Seminary in the Ukraine to come to the United States at the behest of Bishop Daniel, the president of the consistory of the Ukrainian Orthodox church of the United States of America and the Rev. Basil Zaverucha, provost of the St. Sophia Seminary in South Bound Brook, N.J.Studying theology and English for the next three years, Bobko was ordained in 2019. SS. Peter and Paul is his first parish.Bobko has been able to resume in-person Sunday services with one 10 a.m. service for no more than 35 in attendance. The congregants have to be masked and maintaining social distancing. At the same time, the service is still being transmitted online through the church's Facebook page.Bobko said many of the congregation's older members feel uneasy about attending the service in person for health reasons.And health concerns are the reasons the choir can't perform, being whittled down to a single singer in the church's front pew.
Through it all, Bobko noted, attendance has been good.“They are coming back and are attending service,” he said of the church members.Still, he hopes to reinstate Sunday School next month, so children can learn church traditions and catechism.And he plans to have the church's pierogi sales restart Sept. 25.Another event he is looking forward to in the near future is the birth of his first child with his wife, Olha.She emigrated from the Ukraine in 2018 on a religious visa.Their families back in the Ukraine will be able to see the new arrival on Skype or other social media, said Bobko, who added that's how he and his wife keep in contact with their relatives.And in two years, he hopes to help SS. Peter and Paul celebrate the centennial of its founding in 1922 by Ukrainian-American immigrants.Bobko credits his predecessor, the Rev. Paisius McGrath, for helping him ease into his role as pastor.“He gave me advice and talked about what parish life is,” he said.He said coming to the United States was a bit of a culture shock.“The Ukraine is very much different, the world view, the mind set,” he said.“In the Ukraine, the majority are Orthodox. Here, 1% of the population is Orthodox. You can imagine how different that is,” he said.“It makes it that much harder to serve as an Orthodox priest, share the word of God and get people more involved in the life and the traditions of the church,” he said.It's a task he's willing to take on. The traditions and teachings of the church are close to his heart — Bobko set his sights on becoming a priest when he was 18 years old, going from school to the seminary.He said once people understand the traditions and discover the Orthodox faith for themselves, the church will grow.“The church is a living organism. It's not just a building, but a gathering of people,” he said.
