An evening of Praise and Fellowship at St. Elias Church

From the desk of Archpriest Roman Galadza, pastor of St. Elias Church in Brampton, ON:

Several months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Pastor Kwang Lee, of Toronto Good News Church, whose congregation worships in English, Korean, Ukrainian and Russian. He subsequently introduced me to several other pastors who informed me that that there are as many as 500,000(!) immigrants from the former Soviet Union now living in the Greater Toronto Area – many of them from Ukraine and most of them at least nominally, Christian.

There is obviously a great pastoral need here – a challenge, especially for our Greek Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal and Evangelical faith communities. To address this, we were moved to do something most unusual: We actually organized an evening of Praise and Fellowship which took place here last Sunday, Septemebr 16, involving the following five congregations and their pastors:

“Blagaya Vyest” - Toronto Good News Church - Rev. Kwang Lee

Church of the Eternal Word - Pastor Emmanuel Mukendi

“Свет Миру” - Light of the World (Mississauga)- Pastor Lisa Pak

Ukrainian Full Gospel Church - Pastor Aleksey Maksimishin
St. Elias Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church - Archpriest Roman Galadza

Psalms from Matins and Vespers

The first portion of the program took place in the nave of the church with St. Elias singers singing four psalm selections from Vespers and Matins in Ukrainian and English. Then, all went downstairs to the parish hall where the combined choirs from the other congregations led everyone in the singing of four hymns, in English, Ukrainian and Russian with the words shown on a screen overhead.

"Amazing Grace"

After each hymn, prayers were said…. The spontaneous character of those in the Pentecostal tradition was a revelation to some! The singing of "Amazing Grace" by Archpriest Roman, Pastors Kwang and Emmanuel concluded the worship portion of the program. Afterwards, all went outside for the fellowship, enjoying the barbecue, conversation and Gospel sing-along. The evening was concluded with the singing of "De Zhoda v Rodyni" and a promise to gather again soon!
PS:  It is said that when +Patriarch Josyf, of blessed memory, was imprisoned in Siberia, the Christians of various denominations had no difficulty in uniting with him in common prayer. The Ukrainian proverb "Bida navchyt" comes to mind. We are not imprisoned in Siberia, thanks be to God, but we are surrounded by all sorts of dangers that threaten us spiritually. By focusing on the person of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Who unites us as Christians, we can support one another and many others, on the Way….

By the way, an evening of Christmas Kolyady (Carols) and hymns is already being planned for January!

 Photos by Yuliana Akzamova