CHAPTER 2 YESTERYEAR: The Landmarks

A COMMUNITY HISTORY IN FOUR BUILDINGS.

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St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church: The Heart of the Diaspora

ADDRESS: 30 East 7th Street • COMPLETED: 1978

For almost as long as there has been a Ukrainian community in New York, St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church on East 7th Street has been its heart. It’s where hundreds gathered for a special prayer service in 1986 after news of the Chernobyl disaster reached the United States. And since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s where crowds of parish ioners have been flocking—some of them old-timers from the neighborhood, others suburban expats, all looking for a little solace. “The church has always been strong,” says the Reverend Peter Shyshka, a lifelong East Villager and now St. George’s senior priest. “Our job is to preach hope.”

The roots of the church go back a lot further than the ornate, domed structure just off Cooper Triangle. St. George’s denomination, Ukrainian Greek Catholicism, was formalized in the 16th century when much of modern Ukraine was under the sovereignty of Catholic Poland. The Church began as a bid to herd Orthodox Christians back into the papal fold: In full communion with Rome but preserving the Eastern Rite and the Ukrainian language, the Church’s peculiar Ukrainianness has made it a frequent target for suppression. In the Soviet era, authorities shuttered Greek Catholic parishes all over Ukraine, driving the faith underground. The number of adherents immigrating to the United States swelled as a result. In 1990, as many as 158,000 churchgoing Ukrainian Greek Catholics lived in the U.S.