Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church

Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church (Ukrainian: Українська Католицька Церква Св. Юра) is a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church located in East Village, Manhattan, New York City, at 7th Street and Taras Shevchenko Place.[5] The church and the adjoining St. George Academy are encircled by, but not included in, the East Village Historic District. For over 100 years, this Ukrainian parish has served as a spiritual, political and cultural epicenter for several waves of Ukrainian Americans in New York City.[6]

Not to be confused with St. George's Episcopal Church (Manhattan).
Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church
Українська Католицька Церква Св. Юра
View from East in 2016
Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church
Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church
Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church
Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church
40°43′42″N 73°59′23″W
Location6 Taras Shevchenko Place, New York City
CountryUnited States
DenominationUkrainian Greek Catholic Church
ChurchmanshipByzantine
Websitewww.stgeorgechurch.us
History
StatusParish church
Founded1905
Founder(s)Fr. Joseph Chaplinsky
ConsecratedApril 23, 1978[1] (present church)
Cult(s) presentSaint George
Events
  • 1905 — Parish founded at the formerly Baptist Colgate Chapel at 332 East 20th Street in 1905
  • 1911 — Parish moves into the former Seventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church at 22–28 East 7th Street[2]
  • 1958 — Adjoining Catholic school building is constructed for K-12 education
  • 1978 — Present church opens for services next door to "old church"
  • 1991 — Residential building housing new rectory is completed on former lot of "old church"
Architecture
Functional statusActive
Architect(s)Apollinaire Osadca[3]
Architectural typeByzantine Revival
StyleCathedral
Years built1976-2008
Groundbreaking1976[3]
Completed1978[3]
Construction cost$2,500,000[4]
Specifications
Capacity1,000
Administration
DioceseUkrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford
ProvinceUkrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia
SynodUkrainian Greek-Catholic Synod of Bishops
Clergy
ArchbishopThe Most Reverend, Stefan Soroka
Bishop(s)Paul Chomnycky, O.S.B.M.
Priest(s)Illya Bronovskyy, O.S.B.M.
Pastor(s)Emilian Dorosh, O.S.B.M.

Earlier buildings

The first Ukrainian language liturgy in the city of New York was performed only a few blocks away from today's St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church, in the basement[7] of St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church on the southeast corner of East 8th Street and Avenue B.[6] In 1905, the growing Ukrainian American community was able to purchase the Colgate Chapel from the First Swedish Baptist Church at 332 East 20th Street;[8] the former Baptist Tabernacle would be converted to accommodate a layout for Byzantine style services and was dedicated to Saint George.[9] By 1911, the congregation had grown to the extent that a larger building was needed, and the parish proceeded to purchase the Seventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as the Bowery Village Church.[10]

The Bowery Village Church was originally built in the 1840s to serve an immigrant population in Little Germany, which had rapidly declined after the General Slocum steamboat fire resulted in the tragic loss of over 1,000 German Americans in 1904. After its purchase by the Ukrainian community, it too was adapted to accommodate Byzantine-Slav services.[9] Later referred to as the "Old Church" by the new Ukrainian Catholic owners, the AIA Guide to New York City (Revised Edition 1978) described the new home of St. George parish as “a Greek Revival temple in stucco, with a mini-onion dome.” The AIA regretted the “domed symbol of the parish’s wealth and burgeoning membership: Miami Beach on 7th Street replaces the real Greek Revival thing.”[11] The AIA Guide (Fifth Edition, 2010) clarified that that church was built in 1840 and demolished in 1976 "to provide off-street parking for the congregation's new building next door."[3]

Present church
North side

The building currently inhabited by the parish of St. George was built between 1976 and 1978 to designs by architect Apollinaire Osadca.[3][12] Prior to construction, Mr. Osadca touted his designs as "based on ancient Ukrainian Byzantine style, which survived in Ukraine, despite western European trends."[13]

From 1980 until his death in 2012, Andrij Dobriansky, a principal artist with the Metropolitan Opera, was the liturgical cantor as well as the director of the Andrey Sheptytsky choir at Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church.[6] In 2016, his legacy of Ukrainian liturgical singing at the church was documented by his children on the PBS series Bare Feet in NYC.

See also

References
  1. "Turning the pages back..." The Ukrainian Weekly. 20 April 2003. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  2. Plate 18 (Map). Insurance Maps of the City of New York Borough of Manhattan. Volume Two. New York: Sanborn Map Company. 1903.
  3. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot & Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.
  4. "St. George's New Church Brightens Manhattan Lower East Side". The Ukrainian Weekly. 31 December 1977. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  5. Remigius Lafort, S.T.D., Censor, The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg Together with some Supplementary Articles on Religious Communities of Women.. (New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914), p.327.
  6. 100 Anniversary of St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in New York City. The Basilian Press. 2008. p. 20.
  7. Dlaboha, Ihor (30 April 1978). "5,000 Witness Blessing of St. George's Church" (PDF). The Ukrainian Weekly. p. 12. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  8. The Metropolitan Church and Choir Directory of New York and Brooklyn for 1889. New York: Metropolitan Printing and Publishing Co. 1888. p. 16.
  9. "History of St. George UkrainianCatholic Church". BRAMA Gateway Ukraine. Archived from the original on January 16, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
  10. "Kleindeutschland and the Lower East Side, Manhattan - Places of Worship". Tom and Maggie Blanck Family Site. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  11. Norval White and Elliot Willensky, AIA Guide to New York City, rev. ed., (New York City: Collier Books, 1978), p.101.
  12. David W. Dunlap, From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.) p. 206.
  13. "St. George's Parish Finalizes Plans for New Church in Manhattan" (PDF). The Ukrainian Weekly. 10 January 1976. p. 1. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
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