August 27, 2006 Church Dedication

Story told by: Peter Reguin, Treasurer

Well it’s Wednesday, and things have started to settle down a bit in Colchester. This was not the case just a few short hours ago on Sunday morning August 27th. It’s been a while since I went to church at 9:30 AM for an 11:00 AM mass. The last dedication of a church in my memory was in about 1959 in Taftville.  This event does not happen that often in life so you must remember just how special the event is.  It wasn’t long after sitting in the new church on Sunday that a realization struck with a clear certainty.  If you get up from you sat to take pictures outside, you won’t have a seat when you get back. Three state police officers were attempting to control traffic. Many attempted to turn into the St Mary’s parking lot after 10:30 and that was not going to happen. By 10:35, it was standing room only in the church itself. You could look out the window only to view parishioners walking down Route 16 in the rain to attend their normal Sunday services. There was nothing normal about this day.

The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was returned to Her home and everyone who realized the miracle that happened wanted to be a part of the celebration. Bishop Paul Chomnycky, Bishop Basil Loesten, and Rev Cyril Manelov along with several other Ukrainian and Roman Catholic priests and deacons concelebrated the fist official mass in the new church.

The Ukrainian mass was beautiful and special for the event being celebrated. It was also light hearted when Bishop Chomnycky asked the magnificent choir to “shorten your responses or we are never going to get out of here”. The entire mass was celebrated in Ukrainian and portions of it, including the sermon, was repeated in English. Bishop Chomnycky remarked that today was like celebrating Christmas, New Years, Easter and all the other holidays at the same time.

The mass was followed by a fundraising dinner at St Clements Castle. Although the day had many highlights, certainly we will all remember when Bishop Chomnycky asked all the Ukrainians to remain standing and the special supporters of the Ukrainian community to remain seated. The bishop asked for a special blessing to be sung for us. We were familiar with it from the mass just a short while ago. It was a prayer of thanks.

Like I said in the beginning, it’s Wednesday. I’m sitting with Fr Cyril getting his high speed internet connection to work so he can see the new St Mary’s web site being designed for the church. Fr Cyril said. “I can’t even begin to thank the many people who made the dedication so very special but I especially want to thank the Knights of Columbus. I fear I will not have all the names so that I can send each of them special thanks. I told Fr Cyril that Brother Dan Leone coordinated the event on behalf of the Knights and I would ask him to pass along your very special Thank You. St Mary’s new website is now up and running and can be viewed at 

 http://stmarys-colchester.org.

St. Mary’s dedicates the new dome (Click to view pictures)

St. Mary’s Begins to Rebuild

Everyone will remember September 10th, 2004 as the day St Mary’s Church was destroyed in a horrific gas explosion. The K of C from many Councils and Assemblies across the state have reached out and responded with donations of time and treasure. Fr. Cyril, Chaplin of our Council and a 4th degree member of San Jose Assembly has made great progress in the rebuilding efforts of the church.

Last Spring, brother Knights got in the rectory with brand new replacements donated by our Council. We donated the proceeds of our Valentines day breakfast to the rebuilding of the church. For our history buffs, Spellman Council was founded and met at St. Mary’s back in 1968. Groundbreaking for the new church designed by Peter Argiros took place in November and as of January, 2006, the foundations have been placed. Here are a few facts about the new St. Mary’s church that will soon rise up from the ground. Handicap accessibility has been the design focus for ingress and egress to the new Church building consisting of 2,733 square foot area with an occupant load of 108 persons. The new Fellowship Hall will be a separate building placed on grade for a place of public assembly use. This 3000 SF building will have a 98 person-seating capacity. Part of the new site requirement is also adjusting the parking lot grades to lessen the slopes that run parallel with the new handicap sidewalks. Based on today's zoning codes 13 new handicap parking spaces have been added bringing the total parking count to 53 parking spaces. The interior of the new church building is 6 feet wider than the old structure on the interior due to added isle spaces at both exterior sidewalls. There are 2 new locations on either side of the church designated for handicap wheel chair seating.

Donations to St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church can be made directly to Fr. Cyril at the church rectory.