More than 100 community members gathered in St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church of New Haven on Saturday, Feb. 24 to commemorate the second anniversary of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Families gathered to remember and pray for those who suffered due to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Over its century-long history, and especially since 2014, St. Michael’s has become not only a spiritual center but a hub for local Ukrainian activists.
“I ask you to pray every day,” Father Iurii Godenciuc said during the memorial service.
But Godenciuc added that just praying is not enough and asked attendees to actively support Ukraine through their “deeds.”
The service was also attended by New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and U.S. Representative Joe Courtney, who spoke in support of Ukraine.
St. Michael’s century-long history
In the late 19th century, the first wave of Ukrainian migrants arrived in New Haven. To navigate their social lives, newly-arrived immigrants formed their own societies. Among these is St. Michael’s Catholic Ukrainian Society, which — according to St. Michael’s book about its history — was established on Oct. 4, 1908 by Mary Burbela Hazzey, a late member of New Haven’s Ukrainian American community.
“Appreciation of the beauty and solemnity of the Ukrainian rite unites the members of the parish, and the ceremonies and traditions give structure to their spiritual lives,” Hazzey wrote.
In 1909, St. Michael’s Brotherhood bought the land on the corner of Mill and Chapel Streets and started the Church. With the expanded immigration quotas and more Ukrainians arriving, the group quickly outgrew the small building on Mill Street, and in 1911, the church moved to a larger location on Park Street.
When the second church building was again filled to capacity, the community decided to build a new church, with an auditorium and classrooms, at 563 George St.
Christine Melnyk, a Ukrainian who arrived in New Haven in 1949 as a child, said that the church community was able to build its new building thanks to its cooperation with the former New Haven Mayor Richard Lee.
According to Melnyk, New Haven became the first city in the United States to fly the yellow and blue Ukrainian flag next to the American one over City Hall on Jan. 22, 1955. She said this was in commemoration of Ukraine’s brief independence from 1918 to 1921. Lee then also issued a proclamation declaring Jan. 22 as Ukrainian Independence Day in the city.
More than six decades later, after looking for resources to support Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion, Mayor Elicker connected with the church community. He said he also connected with the church community to “make sense of what was going on.”
Religious and community space
Since its inception, the Church has remained a focal point for Ukrainian Americans in New Haven.
Historically, many Ukrainian organizations in New Haven were built around the church community, including local chapters of the scouting organization Plast, the Ukrainian National Women’s League of North America and the local Ukrainian School.
“The church is the common place where people can gather,” Myron Melnyk, Christine Melnyk’s husband, said. It has facilities, he said, that are often used for concerts, dances and other social gatherings, even for people who do not attend Sunday mass.
Right next to the church, the community built the Ukrainian Heritage Center after the celebration of St. Michael’s 75th anniversary in 1984. Today, it has three exhibition rooms filled with Ukrainian art and literature.
Ukrainian School now meets once a week in one of the church buildings. For decades, it helped the children of Ukrainian immigrants to learn about their heritage. Now, more than a dozen students from New Haven and across the state learn the Ukrainian language, history and culture at the Ukrainian School.
The school also organizes regular cultural celebrations for children, mainly around religious holidays, according to Halia Lodynsky, its director.
“The students really take honor in being Ukrainian. It’s about love for your country, for your heritage,” Lodynsky said. “For me, it’s passing on all the traditions I know to these students. Hopefully, when they get to be my age, they can pass on their traditions to their children.”
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a new wave of Ukrainian refugees arrived, church member Nadia Ivantsiv said, increasing the number of students in the school. To accommodate the increase, they now use one of the exhibition rooms as an additional classroom.
Supporting Ukraine from New Haven
Despite being far away from Ukraine, the church community members were active in advocating for the country even before it became independent. In 1986, the church responded to the Chernobyl nuclear accident by urging the United Nations to prod the Soviet authorities to disclose the circumstances of the nuclear explosion and for the Red Cross International to arrange the delivery of food, clothing, medical supplies and aid, Christine Melnyk said.
Christine Melnyk also traveled to Ukraine, first to deliver medical supplies to children and then to advocate for Ukraine’s independence in 1991.
When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014, the community stepped up again.
According to Myron Melnyk, Ukrainians in the community, especially those organized with the Ukrainian American Veterans of New Haven, regularly talk with Connecticut’s Congressional representatives and advocate for aid to Ukraine. Since 2014, the group has been particularly focused on lobbying Congress to bring Ukrainian veterans for medical treatment in the US.
Carl Harvey, a Navy veteran and a church member, is not Ukrainian but was introduced to the community through his late Ukrainian American wife. In the church, he said he found a lot of support and thus became actively involved in it. Now, together with Myron Melnyk, he works on delivering aid to Ukraine. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion two years ago, the group has already sent 12 containers of medical supplies and equipment.
Church members raise money among their friends and partners, organize concerts and meet monthly to cook and sell Ukrainian dumplings — called varenyky — to collect funds for their charitable activities. The group also partners with a priest on the ground in Ukraine, who delivers this aid to hospitals, soldiers and veterans in need, according to Melnyk.
Originally, the group used church buildings as their warehouse, but as they have collected and sent more aid, they have begun relying on a warehouse in New Haven, which they are allowed to use for free.
“The humanitarian aid continues,” Myron Melnyk said. “We are becoming more specialized.”
The two projects they are focusing on at the moment are buying 3D printers for the prosthetics lab in Ukraine and raising money for antibiotics for the Ukrainian hospitals, according to Melnyk.
The group also recently formed a non-profit called New Haven CT Ukrainian American Humanitarian Aid Fund to officialize their activity.
Contact Yurii Stasiuk at yurii.stasiuk@yale.edu and Roma Mykhailevych at roma.mykhailevych@yale.edu.