Comments on: What Am I Doing Here?

By: adminmyr

adminmyr — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 03:24:10 +0000

In reply to Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas. Dear sister in Christ, Kathryn, for some reason your comment doesn't show up in my blog Dashboard, which is where I'm supposed to see Comments, approve them and reply. So, much belatedly, I am grateful for your post here. I had only the narrowest of glimpses while I was in Greece, over the decades, into the life of the "whole country", as you observe, that lives and breathes Orthodoxy. As I tell the story in Prodigal Daughter, I began with only whiffs of nostalgia from a Canadian childhood inside the Ukrainian Orthodox church; and was so consoled when I recognized familiarities in a Greek service. I progressed through to the whole hog, so to speak, in following St Demetrius around the country, culminating in the entire public manifestation of faith in the Feast Days of their patron saint, Demetrius. What an amazing difference from crouching inside prairie churches that most of society only ever visits for "pyrohy suppers". Christ is Baptised!

By: Bohdan Lukie

Bohdan Lukie — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 03:36:22 +0000

My beloved friend Irene Zabytko put me in touch with your blog and i am happy she did!
I had the pleasure of your company while I was a pastor at Holy Eucharist Ukr. Cath. Ch. in Toronto – you may not remember me but that’s okay….
Delighted that you are sharing your “journey of faith” which we all must experience to be true to ourselves… and yes, i do look forward to your personal sharing….
As of July 2nd, I have celebrated 50 years of priesthood and happily and at times painfully experienced our Ukie church and our Ukie community as we strove to adjust our faith to a modern world and it to our emerging changing Church.
It’s been a great journey and since i’m only 75, I am anticipating wonderful growth and positive changes in the rest of my life…
God bless you, Myrna, I have always been a secret fan of yours. Father Bohdan ‘Don’ Lukie

By: Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas

Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 16:53:30 +0000

None of us knows what path lies ahead. While in some ways our trails were different – my Ukrainian Greek Orthodox faith was always strong – in other ways they were similar: our Canadian foundations and beliefs were strengthened in Greece.
My future Greek husband and I met in Canada while staying at St. Andrew’s College, the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox seminary. (Neither of us initially studied theology there, but I did then take it for a year.) My fiance subsequently whisked me away for a life in Greece. There, like you, many of my Canadian convictions, like faith in multiculturalism, were intensified. I was blessed to be able to explore and share them in my professional life as a writer and personal life as an (often founding) member of not-for-profit groups.
There was no need to further explore Orthodoxy: the whole country lived and breathed it!
So, here’s wishing you well on your journey – and on your continued telling of it – my friend…

By: Julie Salverson

Julie Salverson — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 16:28:04 +0000

Myrna, I just stumbled upon this.I am happy you are doing this. As you know, I think, i stepped through a door into the part of my life that is Christianity in April. I have a tendonitis so can’t write much, but one thing… As a young feminist I raged against the Church (didn’t grow up in it but radical Christian and Jewish roots fed and consolidated my activism) and eventually left. Now i wonder how to be on this planet and mean what I say about encountering, challenging and having compassion for difference if I can’t share a story, family, and life with people (and actions by those people, contemporary and historical) I sometimes rage against. So I’ve decided to come back to this challenging ‘family’ table.I so look forward to following this blog!

By: Suzanna

Suzanna — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 03:47:54 +0000

I will SOOOOOO enjoy this journey wih you, Myrna. I feel your perspective is one which can ellucidate and give a voice to some of my own queries as I learn more along the road (although some might say, a little further off on the shoulder) to a greater understanding of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. I, for one, look forward to travellong thos one with you!

By: adminmyr

adminmyr — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 23:00:45 +0000

Thanks, Lynda, for the confidence you have in me – and just one post so far! It will take me some time to figure out who I’m writing for (well, maybe for myself) and who is reading me. For instance, you and I share the same attraction to “faith and liturgy” but your experience of re-entering them is wholly unlike mine (so far). My childhood experience was entirely sensual, if I can put it that way, as I did not understand the spoken and written elements of Liturgy (or very little, once I’d memorized The Lord’s Prayer and The Creed and some hymns in Ukrainian)and in coming back to the Orthodox Church I am struggling to go way past childhood and deep into Logos (you should see my bookshelves). I like Doris’s quip: it takes me right back to the source, i.e. the written Gospels, which precede the Church by a number of generations (and I will eventually say something about the “lost” gospels of the women disciples). TBC, to be sure.

By: Lynda Lange

Lynda Lange — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 15:48:44 +0000

Dear Myrna,
As always, you go (and write) where many others fear to tread. This invites us to wake up to things we have pushed aside in our lives (or tried to) and resume some engagement. I write as one who was very involved in the Anglican Church, but found myself very burned by the whole experience. But I am still the same person, and I still feel the same deep attraction to the faith and the liturgy, and this is not tied to any childhood familiarity. Why would I go back?? At the moment, the best I can do is something said by the painter Doris McCarthy (a lifelong Anglican) in her memoirs: ‘I go to church because it holds up for me the ideals that it itself sadly fails to fulfill.’
I do recognize that there is still much to learn.
Thank you Myrna for opening this discussion!

By: adminmyr

adminmyr — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 21:22:41 +0000

In reply to Anne Campbell. More to come! And we can exchange some when you come to Edmonton to read your new book of poetry September 12. (Shout out to an old writing friend in Regina.)

By: adminmyr

adminmyr — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 02:12:34 +0000

In reply to Ruth McMonagle. You shall have them, Ruth.

By: adminmyr

adminmyr — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 02:12:09 +0000

In reply to Carolynd.redl.

A lot to unpack there, Carolyn. I have to admit I’ve seldom heard a United Church person speak in those terms – ritual and scripture and music – rather than about social justice, the TRC and the necessity of carbon taxes. Sorry for the seeming levity, but I do welcome the company of a fellow writer whose feminism stays intact in spite of the patriarchy (man-made in every sense). I’ll be coming back to some of your thoughts in future blogs.