Virgin Mary, our most gracious Queen and our hope; shelter of orphans, and protector of travelers, joy of the grieving, interceder for the abused! See our distress; see our affliction. Assist us, for we are helpless; direct us, for we are strangers. You know our offense, — ease it as You will. For we have no other help but Yours; no other intercessor, nor gracious consoler but You. O Virgin Mary. Protect us and shelter us for all time. Amen.
Troparion: It is truly meet to bless Thee, O Theotokos, the ever blessed and most immaculate, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim. Thee, who without defilement gavest birth to God the Word, the true Mother of God, we magnify Thee.
HISTORY OF THE PARISH
We, as parish, are eternally grateful to the Almighty for His boundless goodness and grace. The Lord has allowed us, the members of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God parish, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary,which fittingy coincides with the Jubilee Year of Our Lord. This offers as a special apportunity to reflect on the past and direct our thoughts to the future.
Although our parish was founded in 1950, the previous generations of the founding families from an earlier immigration has established rudimentary roots of worship. The common thread - pre-1950 - that remains concurrent is that the parish had formed civic organizations and facilitated social responsiveness in many activities that were both cultural and educational. But worship has been the central theme behind every element in the church.
There are two events of historical significance that affected our church deeply. One occured about midwayinto our existence and the other is more recent and related to Ukraine's independence in 1991.
The first was the release from Soviet gulags of the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church Metropolitan, and later Patriarch Josyf Slipyj through the intervention of Pope John XXIII and President John F. Kennedy. Patriarch Josyf not only united the scattered church over all continents, but also turned around the Ukrainian Catholic Church from heavy latinization of its Byzantine and Kyivan heritage.
The second war was the fall of the Soviet Union. That led to the coming out into the open of he Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church after more than half a century of underground existence, to re-establishing of that Church's center in Ukraine, to Ukraine's independence, and finally the possibility of renewal of the church worldwide. An example of the immidiate result is the replenishment of clergy in parishes outside Ukraine, as our own parish is current beneficiary of that development, will grow in significance as spiritually enriched and well educated leadership among clergy, monastics, and laity will take place.
2008 Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church, Bridgeport, CT
OUR PASTOR
Very Rev. Archpriest Ivan Kaszczak, Ph.D.
Rev. Ivan Kaszczak is a priest of the Stamford Eparchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. He was educated in Philosophy at St. Basil College in Stamford, CT. He received a Masters of Arts degree in Theology from Oblate College in 1985. The same year he was ordained a priest on May 4, 1985. His pastoral assignments included such cities: Troy, NY; Spring Valley, NY; Syracuse, NY; Rochester, NY; Woonsocket, RI and Fall River, MA. He also served in Hempstead, NY until taking a sabbatical at LaSalle University in 1996-1997. It was there that he received a Master's in Education. Following that he served for several years as Vice Rector of the Minor Seminary in Stamford, CT and as pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Syracuse, NY. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Religious Education from Fordham University in 2005. He is the author of several books and has served as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force for over eighteen years.
