With bells, banners, sweet incense, and a sacred procession that wound three times around St. Michael the Archangel Church on George Street at Waverly, members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church celebrated Easter morning with both solemnity and also the friendly greeting of “Christos Voskra!” or Christ is risen.
The traditional response of the some 75 congregants, who gathered for the early morning service in bright sunshine, was “Indeed he is.”
These greetings have been exchanged in New Haven from at least 1909, when the first St. Michael’s was built on Park Street. At its height the church had some 400 to 500 families. It’s about half that size now, or, to use the phrase of church trustee Steve Ciekenda (pictured at bottom of story), “We’re holding our own.”
While there were plenty of crops of white hair and not a few canes tapping along in the holy procession, there were also young people in evidence as well. Ciekenda said at the second service of this Easter morning, at around 10:30 the pews would be filled with families. Christ might be risen, but for teenagers of all religious persuasions it takes a little longer.
The parishioners processed with golden crosses held high. A number of other officials along with Ciekenda, who grew up in this church’s sense of family, played basketball in the gym that is now the parish hall, and was called back to involvement in church life after his father died. They were all busy in the culmination of preparations, which he explained:
“On Good Friday, we took the shroud that we have and placed it on the tomb at the front of the church. All the doors and windows were closed, the church darkened to mark the crucifixion. This morning, at the end of the procession, the windows will be thrown open and the door flung wide to mark the moment of resurrection.”
During the second circumambulation, one parishioner explained to a reporter that they process three times, not one or seven times, for example, because in the Eastern church “the number three is everywhere, for the Trinity.”
Another parishioner added, “Three is the lucky charm. After that we get to go in from the morning cold.”
At the third circumambulation, processors halted in front of the closed church door, just as Ciekenda indicated they would. There Father Yuri Godenciuc led them in prayers as a red-haired altar boy shook shiny brass holders, one in each of his hands, from which some four or five bells each rang out. The Byzantine rite which is practiced at St. Michaels (not to be confused with the Orthodox) utilizes all the senses to involve, they teach, the full body and mind in worship.
As they finished chanting “Christ is risen,” with the small red crucifix he was carrying Father Godenciuc rapped on the church door.
Inside, Steven Ciekenda opened it, along with all the other doors, and parishioners poured into the nave. There, before its screen of icons now glittering in the sunlight in front of the altar, they completed the service.
St. Michael’s gathers its parishioners from a wide area ranging from Orange to Killingworth. There are also Ukrainian Catholic churches in Ansonia, Hartford, and Willimantic. On April 26, the church’s traditional Easter parish breakfast, called, in Ukrainian, “sviachene,” will be held. For those interested in this or other events at the church, the contact is Maria Antonyshyn at 795‑6959
