www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall An Interesting Bit of History ...

The First Ruthenian Presbyterian Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was organized in June 1909, at 49/51 Beacon St, Newark, NJ. The pastor at the time was Rev. Waldimir Pyndykowski. (Rev. Pyndykowski left in 1912 and went to Fort William, Canada, where he founded St Stephen's Ruthenian Presbyterian Church.)

In 1915, the pastor in Newark was Rev. Basil Kusiw; by 1920, he had been replaced by Rev. John Kocan. In 1925, Rev. Kocan was still pastoring it, but it was then known as the First Ukrainian Presbyterian Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Rev. Kusiw is again the pastor by 1930 and remained as such through at least 1935.

Rev. Kusiw went on to become professor and chairperson of the Dept of Ukrainian Literature & Language in the Bloomfield NJ Theological Seminary and died in 1958.

While it is isn't uncommon to find Protestant churches that denote their congregation as Slovak or otherwise Slavic, you don't as commonly find ones denoted as Ruthenian.

Some photos:
Church Service [virtualnewarknj.com]
Female Group [virtualnewarknj.com]
Female Group 2 [virtualnewarknj.com]
Male Group [virtualnewarknj.com]
"We Are Ruthenian Cossacks" [virtualnewarknj.com]
At Industrial School [virtualnewarknj.com]
Gym Class [virtualnewarknj.com]
Sale [virtualnewarknj.com]
The Church [oldnewark.com]

The exterior photo of the church itself is quite impressive. Note the 3-barred crosses on the domes. I'd like to have seen an interior that displayed the altar, to see how much of the heritage was carried over to it, if any.

The 1917 NewAdvent Catholic Encyclopedia notes

Many years,

Neil

What odd, contradictory and astonishing juxtapositions.

People seek God and hunger for His Word. What's significant is, the God we all seek is seeking us even more diligently. He reaches people in sometimes the most unexpected and unlikely places and situations. Nothing can restrain His love for us.

Maybe we ought to ask ourselves periodically if WE love Him. Oh yeah - I almost forgot: that's part of what Filipivka is about...

When the Catholic Encyclopedia says the Ruthenians were subject to all sorts of proselytism, it's interesting to note the most ruthless and effective proselytism of all is simply not mentioned.

It appears that, from what names one sees in the pics, that these are "Ruthenians" from Halych, and not Zakarpatia. I have pretty good knowledge of Newark, having been born in nearby Jersey City, and having obtained a degree from the Newark campus of Rutgers University.Newrak, to this day, has a significant UGCC parish, run by Redemptorists from their Lviv Province. At Rutgers, we had a very large Ukrainian student organization. Most of these students were the children of WWII immigrants who had spent time in "D.P." camps before coming to the U.S. There is also a Rusyn Greek Catholic parish, but it was always smaller than the UGCC parish. The former is in a predominantly Portuguese neighborhood (Ironbound section).
About 11-12 years ago, I worked with a guy from the Newark area who said he was from an Orthodox family in Yugoslavia. But, they had turned Methodist on coming to NJ, because that is who welcomed them to their church! There is also a fairly significant Ukrainian Baptist church in Philadelphia. When I lived in the NJ shore area, we used to get their radio broadcast. Sometimes they would sing Kol Sloven Nas', and, at other times, "Rock of Ages" in Ukrainian. Only in America.

Dn. Robert

Actually, I think this kind of thing is pretty common among Protestants even today. It is not unusual to see pictures of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Baptist churches in the Hispanic parts of San Antonio. An exsister-in-law of mine who is a Presbyterian minister told me once that the greatest tool they have for converting Mexican women is to argue that the reason their husbands are alcoholics is that they are Catholic and if they join the Presbyterians and get their husbands to join they will stop drinking because Protestants don't drink.

Kind of belies the old saw about Presbyterians "Where ever three or four are gathered together there is a fifth."

Interesting post. As my parents were from that part of New Jersey, Bayonne and Elizabeth, and my dad was quite knowledgeable about the "Rusini" Rusyn peoples and their many divisions in that part of the country, I do not remember him ever mentioning the folks from Newark. We have a Slovak Evangelical Lutheran church a block from our church in Binghamton and my dad was a friend of several of the pastors whose roots were from Eastern Slovakia and he and I would discuss Protestantism among Slovaks. The Slovak Lutherans were very Catholic in their externals. (There also is a John Hus Presbyterian Church in the neighborhood founded by Moravian Czechs with a sprinkle or two of Slovaks as well.) But the three-bar cross in the picture really caused me a disconnect.
Thanks for the post!

In the 1980's, my wife and I lived in the Trenton, NJ area (she is from there). In Trenton, there is a Slovak Lutheran parish. In the late 1980's, they had a woman pastor who came directly from Slovakia. A few years later, we moved to the NJ shore area. We got involved in the Greek Catholic parish in Toms River (where I was ultimately ordained to diaconate). We had a group of young married couples who had just arrived from the area of Bardejev, Slovakia. I had a conversation with one of the women. I had mentioned the woman Lutheran minister in Trenton, and I asked how the ordination of women had been accepted amongst Slovak Lutherans in Slovakia. She gave me a one-word answer: "Not".

Dn. Robert

The Presbyterian Church made an aggressive effort convert Orthodox and Greek Catholic Galicians in Western Canada in the early 1900s, allowing to retain--for a time-- their "popish" customs.

John,

You're correct. I didn't address that last night because I was running out of steam, but in the course of looking for further info about the Newark church, I came across several references to a Ukrainian Presbyterian church in Manitoba - St Stephen's as I recollect, including some correspondence from the Presbyterian synod in Canada indicating that it had no records of the church being formally a part of the Canadian Presbyterian synod.

Many years,

Neil

David and Deacon Robert,

Yes, Slovak Lutheran churches were not uncommon and one can find Ukrainian Baptist churches as well. However, the Presbyterian connection appears to have been pretty well limited to the NJ area and to the efforts that John describes in Canada.

Rev. Basil was fairly prominent. He is reported in one, undated, article to have collected funds to relieve the famine in Ukraine and other articles show tht he made efforts to seek US recognition of Ukraine as a sovereign nation. Rev. Kociw was also mentioned in conjunction with some of these undertakings.

As you mentioned, David, the three-barred cross caused me a bit of a double-take as well. The church, btw, apparently moved on at some point to Irvington, NJ, as I saw a 2001 obit for an elderly woman who was described as a member of the First Ukrainian Presbyterian Church of Irvington. I wasn't able to find any info on when that move occurred or when it ceased to have a Slav identity.

Many years,

Neil

The Presbyterian efforts directed against Ukrainian Orthodox in Canada are well documented in "The Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church in Canada," by Odarka Trosky (1968). I've seen no evidence of a similar campaign here in Western Pennsylvania, which is seemingly the Presbyterian capital of the US.

The Slovak Zion Synod [slovakzionsynod.org] is the only non-geographic Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

There are twelve congregations listed on the Synod's page linking to parish web sites.

Neil, the evidence for similar proselytization among Ruthenians in the USA can be found in Pittsburgh. There's a church on Carson Street between 12th and 13th, with a prominent 3 bar cross (and an onion dome if my memory doesn't fail) that has always been a protestant congregation and was built to attract the many Catholic/Orthodox Slavs on Pittsburgh's south side. I think its cornerstone says 1913, but my memory may be off here. Meanwhile, the rare book room of the Byzantine Seminary Library in Pittsburgh holds a copy of what amounts to a "How to Proselytize Slavs" manual published by a Presbyterian missionary agency at the turn of the century. It makes for interesting reading.
Beir bua agus beannacht!
Fr. Jack

I think this church on Carson Street (whose interior includes some painted over wall frescoes) is an earlier home of the St. Volodymyr's Ukrainian Orthodox Church (now Cathedral), which separated from St. John's Ukrainian GC Church in the 1920s.

Bless, Father Jack,

Thanks for the interesting info. I'm certain that the manual is indeed an interesting read.

Many years,

Neil