Thursday, September 17, 2009 Dear Bishop Daniel: I am very disappointed that UOC of the USA is refusing to participate in the Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Day commemoration on Sunday, September 20th, 2009. For decades all Chicagoland churches (Orthodox, Catholic and Baptist) have come TOGETHER on the 3rd Sunday in September to honor the memory of the over 10,000,000 victims of the Ukrainian Genocide (Holodomor). I understand that this year the UOC of USA will not be sending any of it's priests or Bishops to pray together at the Ukrainian Genocide Monument which is located on the grounds of St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Bloomingdale, IL for the specific reason that the parish of St. Andrew's broke away from the UOC of the USA and joined the Kyiv Patriarch and you are not Canonically unified. I feel as though I have to clarify what Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day is and what UGFF-USA's role is in it. FACT: The Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day memorial service is an ECUMENICAL one with ALL clergy encouraged and invited to participate in praying for the souls of the victims of the Ukrainian Genocide. FACT: Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day IS NOT organized by any church or parish. FACT: The Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation – USA (UGFF-USA) 501(c)3 non-profit is the sole organizer of Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day – including the ecumenical memorial service and the Memorial Luncheon. FACT: UGFF-USA is NOT affiliated with nor governed by any church or religious organization. FACT: The funds raised from selling Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day Buttons, Organizational dues from the Memorial Wreath Ribbons, and admission and donations from the "Holodnyj Obid" are used by UGFF-USA to develop and distribute educational materials to public schools, libaries and universities at no charge to the recipients. (curriculum guides, educational DVD's, books on the Ukrainan Genocide and online resources and in-class presentations) FACT: The Ukrainian Genocide is a national tragedy NOT affiliated with one specific religion. FACT: For the past 5 years UGFF-USA has rotated the location of Chicagoland Genocide Remembrance Day in order to further demonstrate that the Ukrainian Genocide affects ALL Ukrainians of all religious beliefs. FACT: The commemoration has rotated from St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church (2004); St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral (2005); St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral (2006); Sts. Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church (2007); Holy Name Roman Catholic Cathedral (2008) and now is rotating back to St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church for 2009. FACT: The decision to rotate to St. Andrew UOC was made by UGFF-USA a year ago while St. Andrew was still under the UOC of USA. Next year it will rotate to St. Joseph Ukrainian Catholic Church. Please have respect for the 10,000,000 victims of the Ukrainian Genocide and do not use this somber occasion as a vehicle to divide our Ukrainian-American community in Chicagoland. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ….is not that what we were taught in Church? That is a real shame, especially since it was only a few years ago that I, as a Board Member of UGFF-USA, was invited to be a keynote speaker at the UOC of USA’s Holodomor Dinner during the 18th Annual Sobor in South Bound Brook. I believe you and I even sat at the same table for dinner. Today, I feel that my message that evening fell on deaf ears. I stressed that that the Ukrainian Genocide is a national tragedy which effects every single one of us regardless of what oblast our family came from, what church we go to or which youth group our kids belong to. The Ukrainian Genocide is a UKRAINIAN NATIONAL TRAGEDY shared by each of us and it is our duty to take a defiant stand against all that Stalin tried to destroy in the years of 1932-1933 by always COMING TOGETHER UNITED to remember the 10,000,000 Ukrainian victims of the Holodomor. If you are boycotting an ecumenical memorial on “religious” grounds and instructing your parishes not to participate then you are straight out dividing our community and going against everything the Holodomor stands for. I, as a Board member of UGFF-USA, implore you to reconsider your decision not to participate in Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day at the Ukrainian Genocide Monument at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church this Sunday. I ask that your parishes refrain from holding their own “holodnyj obid”on Sunday. By refusing to participate in Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day you are also sending the message that the UOC of the USA does not support the work that UGFF-USA does to promote Ukrainian Genocide education in American schools. Our eductional outreach and programs to expand awareness of the Ukrainian Genocide suffer as a result. Three of our main annual fundraisers center around Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day: 1) Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day Button sales; 2) the Memorial Wreath Ribbons used during the ecumenical service wreath placing ceremony for which organizations, businesses and churches pay their annual dues of $50 for; and 3) the annual Holodnyj Obid which takes place following the memorial service and wreath laying. UOC of the USA parishes, by refusing to participate in the Button Sales, by not submitting dues this year for the Memorial Ribbons, and by planning their own ‘holodnyj obid’s are sending a strong message that they do not value the educational services that UGFF-USA provides to thousands and thousands of students each year. I want to disclose that no one asked me to write this letter and that no one dictated these words to me since I obviously share the same last name as Nicholas Mischenko (UGFF-USA President & parishioner at St. Andrew UOC). He is my father, but I guarantee you, wholeheartedly, that this letter stems from my own personal disbelief that the UOC of USA parishes in Chicagoland would purposefully boycott Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day. For most of my adult life I have worked to educate people about the Ukrainian Genocide as a lasting tribute the10, 000,000 victims whose voices were taken away from them. I am truly disappointed that the UOC of USA has decided not to support UGFF-USA in our mission to do just the same. I'm sorry to sound like a broken record, but I still am in disbelief that this is happening. I hope UOC of USA parishes and their clergy reconsider joining the rest of the Chicagoland Ukrainian-American community on Sunday as we stand UNITED in the shadow of the Ukrainian Genocide Monument which is inscribed with the beautiful words of Patriarch of Ukraine Mstyslav I: “Let us pray, brothers and sisters, that the long awaited warmth of the sun may melt away the wickedness that has covered this land of Ukraine”. I hope that the buttons which UGFF-USA distributed to your church parishes do not wind up in the garbage. Because if they do, then you are throwing all respect for the 10,000,000 dead in trash right along with them. And I also hope you realize that your problems with St. Andrew UOC have absolutely nothing to do with UGFF-USA and the Chicagoland Ukrainian-American community as a whole. Yet it is precisely UGFF-USA and the Chicagoland Ukrainian-American community that are being punished by your refusal to participate in Chicagoland Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Day this year. Buses will still be available at the Ukrainian Cultural Center at 11:30 AM on Sunday and I hope members of your parishes and your clergy will be on them. Respectfully, Katya Mischenko-Mycyk Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation – USA Board Member Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation - USA, Inc. 2249 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60612 - USA Fax: 847 813-7813 E-mail: UGFF-USA@sbcglobal.net UGFF Website: www.UkrainianGenocide.com |
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