You two were telling them something like there was snow all summer and yes, that all Canadians lived in igloos all year round. I was very glad to have been exposed to classical music before peer pressure brought me to rock. Though as you’ll recall, at least Edmonton radio was eclectic, playing Dean Martin, the Beatles, Roger Miller, etc all on one station. And of course there was the excellent CKUA. As I age, a lot of rock sounds full of obvious hooks and to be clumsily cobbled together, whereas classical is harmonous and can be listened to repeatedly. I ws entering your mother’s name for favourite teacher and thought I would google her name. I know of your books of course. I am interested in your trips to Istanbul. I ws lucky enough to visit it when on holiday from working in a Gulf state. It was a joy to get to a semi-organized country, not to mention the architecture and history and hos it seemed to be a fourth city of the ancient world (after Cairo, Athens, and Rome). I quite liked the music and many of the people. I’m still mad at the Doge of Venice for redirecting the Crusaders to sack and weaken Constantinople.
V

Hello Grant, what a wonderful “memento” to receive of my late mother. When she passed away, my sister and I were deeply moved by the number of heart-felt condolences we received, many of them from former students who remembered her in much the same way as you: that mum’s extra-curricular lessons about classical music, famous paintings, beloved English poems and even the virtues of whole wheat bread (the only kind we ate at home) were unforgettable. (But I’ve not heard about the stuffed pheasant before.) I wonder which deceptions my sister and I played on the innocent Americans? I don’t remember but perhaps something about igloos and giant beavers…I’m curious: what brought you to my blog? And do you still listen to the Moonlight Sonata? Best wishes, Myrna

Thank you, Irene. Yours is a very illuminating observation. Yes, the woman in question did speak, if not in reverance certainly with utter seriousness. And now that you have made the point that she was actually making a gift to me of her “guileless respect,” I finally understand that piece of Scripture that I quoted, about “the humble shall be exalted.” I’ve always been uncomfortable about what I assume the word “exalted” to mean in this context, ” to raise in rank, power, or character.” But now that I’ve Googled “exalt in the Bible”, I see this: “to elevate by praise or in estimation.” That is what that church sister was doing, and I can now think of our little conversation as a genuine exchange of her esteem for my cleaning-up.

Nora, this is a very moving reminiscence especially since it makes the link with other kinds of “service” that may be rendered within our respective communities, public and private. I assume you include your work with Alberta writers as public: to paraphrase Marshall McLuhen, writing and publishing are a self-invasion of privacy. We do it as virtual volunteers!

Thank you, Fr Ihor. We two now belong to a Mutual Admiration Society as I am so often grateful for your homilies on the wesbite of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada. Fr Kutash’s articles here

Dear Fr Bohdan, alas, I have no recollection of my visit to your church. I wonder when and why I would have been there…not even the wonderful Photo Gallery on the church website provokes a memory. (But the photos are an exemplary collection of men and women at work on all the small and larger tasks that have to be done to keep the place ship shape and the wolves away from the door.)

As for “adjusting our faith to a modern world,” whew, that’s the big one. I subscribe to a blog, Public Orthodoxy, which airs current issues from an Orthodox perspective, understood broadly. (So broadly that the writers incur the wrath of the Orthodox alt-right, e.g. christianforums.com: “totally evil blog. They are one of the biggest open supporters of Homosexual marriage and biggest critics of so called alleged ‘Orthodox Fundamentalism’.” Happily, I am also a reader of the recently-published English-language translation of the Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, “Christ, Our Pascha.” Inclusive language throughout! Praise of “distributive justice”! However, I’m not crazy about “the sin of artifical contraception.” …Thank you for your blessing. I turn 73 next week and I will be grateful for your continued companionship on this particular journey.

They wouldn’t scoff at you, Andrew. You don’t need vestments to enhance your je ne sais quoi in the kitchen. (Actually, we do have a male parishioner who bakes traditional Ukrainian breads, so it is not unheard-of.) After all, if the Order of Canada Savella Stechishin can be rightly acknowledged as a pioneering feminist in the Canadian West, she also said this about her famous cookbook: “Young men who enlisted in the army and married English brides wanted to have their borsch, their kasha, their pyrohy. After the second world war, there were no cookbooks and everyone was too busy cleaning up in Ukraine, so I read as many Ukrainian magazines I could get my hands on.” When possible, friends in Ukraine sent her recipes.

By the way, what’s your secret ingredient for borshch? Mine is dill pickle juice – so, not a secret anymore. You’re welcome.

Thank you, Leona, for this very kind message and also for the brief account of the contributions of the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada. I’m sure this is the group my mother spoke of whenever she announced she was off to a meeting of the “Tovarystvo” [society, association, club]; I have a group photograph of the members of the Zhinoche [Women’s] Tovarystvo, Edmonton, on their 20th anniversary in 1946. Not a word of English, all women identified in Cyrillic letters and none by her own first name. Thus: M. Kostash, I. Faryna, K. Miskiw…I recently heard the story from (the artist) Larissa Sembaliuk-Cheladyn of the redoubtable Savella Stechishin – described on Wikipedia as “an ethnocultural social maternal feminist” and an original member of the UWAC – who, some time in the 1920s rounded up a group of women friends in Saskatoon, got her hands on a jalopy and drove all the way to New York to join a suffragist rally. Well, I never! Do you know this story?… Wiki: “Shechishin’s most prominent book is the English-language Traditional Ukrainian Cookery (1957), which saw its eighteenth reprinting in 1995 and has sold 80,000 copies.” My mother gave every one of her nieces, and her two daughters, a copy of the book back in 1972. Just today I pulled it off the shelf to consult her recipe for Bukovynian Nachynka.