Thank you for visiting the Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church website! We have been serving Catholic believers and our local community for over 125 years. We belong to the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. And yes, we are in full communion with the Holy See. We strive to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our daily lives at home, at school and at work.
Easter Pastoral Letter
The myrrh-bearing women at the break of dawn
drew near to the tomb of the Lifegiver.
There they found an angel sitting upon the stone,
he greeted them with these words:
Why do you seek the living among the dead?
Why do you mourn the incorrupt amid corruption?
Go: proclaim the glad tidings to His disciples.
Paschal Stikherion
Christ is Risen!
Dear Sisters and Brothers!
Great Lent—marked by the inexpressible pain of invasion, war crimes, murder, and lies about our people and our Church on the part of the aggressor—has passed. Now we see the Resurrection. Our Ukrainian people live, unite all people of goodwill, and give new meaning to Europe and the global community. In a sacramental way, we witness a paschal passage from death to life.
Today, we repeat the lofty, joyous Easter troparion: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and to those in the tombs giving life.” The crux of our faith and our victory is found in this concise chant. The entire Gospel is a preface preparing the reader for the central story of Pascha. For “…if Christ did not rise” – thus radically writes the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians -- “then what we preach is vain, and vain is our faith” (I Cor. 15:14). Without the Resurrection, what we preach becomes a set of rules and obligations. Participation in church life sinks to the conservation of traditions and rituals, empty and lacking substance.
But the Lord is risen indeed, that we might live with Him forever!
For this reason, in his Easter sermon St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, author of the Divine Liturgy, which we pray each Sunday, affirms that all are to enter into the joy of the Resurrection – the rich and poor, the continent and careless, those who fasted and those who did not. The feast is so great that this is not the time to get lost in details but to focus on the main thing — Christ is Risen!
In His love for humanity, the immortal and eternal God entered fully into our lives and took on our trials and sufferings – ultimately death. Yet this is not the end of the story.
Drawing near to the tomb with the myrrh-bearing women, we discover that Christ is alive. He has come alive not like a superhero in a film or a computer game, but as the Creator and the Christ – the source of life, who taking on our death, has risen from the dead and given life to all humanity.
Life reigns, and death is vanquished. Defeating death, Christ has made us victors too. Can you believe it? In Christ we are all conquerors of death!
It is crucial to grasp this truth. Our loved ones, whose passing we mourn, are among those to whom Christ has given new life. Among those who live in Christ are the murdered inhabitants of Bucha, Borodianka, Hostomel, Mariupol, and Kramatorsk. Among the living, over whom death has no power, are the fallen soldiers who gave their lives in testimony to the greatest love. The sufferings of the brutal aggressors’ innocent victims – executed, trampled, suffocated – have ended. Death, and the fear of death, rule over them no more. With the Apostle Paul they mock death: “Where, O death, is thy sting? Where, O Hades, is thy victory?” (I Cor. 15:55). They have seen death, and in Christ, its ultimate defeat.
Do we believe? Do we realize that the Lord has vanquished death, sin, and the devil, and that our sufferings—however great and painful—are temporary, for death no longer has power over us? Are we ready to announce the good news of God’s triumph?
We appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to look at the event of the Resurrection not only through the prism of our beautiful and profound rituals and traditions, but to focus on the essence of the Easter message for each of us who face death: Christ is risen from the dead, with His humble death on the cross He has overcome death, and with His sacrifice, He has given life to each of us.
Let us proclaim Christ’s Resurrection and our own!
+ Borys Gudziak
Metropolitan Archbishop of Philadelphia
of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the USA
+ Paul Chomnycky
Bishop of the Eparchy of Stamford
+ Benedict Aleksiychuk
Bishop of Saint Nicholas Eparchy of Chicago
+ Bohdan Danylo
Bishop of Saint Josaphat Eparchy of Parma
+ Andriy Rabiy
Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia
Metropolia Invites Donations to the Humanitarian Aid Fund for Ukraine
Our Metropolia invites you to make donations to the Humanitarian Aid Fund for Ukraine. This can be done as follows:
- Write a check to the “Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia” and send it to the office at 810 North Franklin Street, Philadelphia PA 19123. Please write on the check “Humanitarian Aid Fund for Ukraine”;
- When the pastor announces the collection in the parish, leave your donation in the parish basket, which will then be transferred to the Philadelphia office along with other donations;
- You can donate on the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s website www.ukrarcheparchy.us, and click on Donate through PAYPAL and select “WAR VICTIMS AND HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN UKRAINE“; Encourage local financial and other institutions to make contributions.
There are no small or large donations. But your donation can change someone’s life for the better. The Lord God will repay the happy donor a hundredfold. Pray for the people of the war victims! May the Lord bless you and our brothers and sisters in Ukraine!
Most Rev. Borys Gudziak
Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainians
Most Rev. Andriy Rabiy
Auxiliary Bishop for the Archeparchy of Philadelphia
Guidelines for the Resumption of Public Liturgical Services
Divine Liturgy (Mass) Times
Saturday: 4:00 pm
Sunday: 10:00 am
Weekday Divine Liturgies
Monday - Friday: 9:00 am
Holy Day Liturgies: 9:00 am
Confessions: Saturdays at 2:00 pm
Office Hours
Staff
- Father Nestor Iwasiw, Pastor
- Mr. Patrick Marcinko III, Cantor, Choir Director
- Mrs. Sandra Berta, Director of Religious Education
St. Cyril's Church
St. Cyril's Cemetery
Archieparchial Holy Thursday Services at Holy Myrhh-Bearers Ukrainian Catholic Church in Swarthmore, PA
On Thursday, March 29, 2018, the Archieparchial Holy Thursday Services were held in Holy Myrrh-Bearers Ukrainian Catholic Church in Swarthmore, PA. The YouTube video of these services can be found by clicking here.
Churches of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia
Why I Come To Church
"Why I Come to Church" was produced by the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. This video may be viewed on YouTube by clicking this link.
Food Truck Festival
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Prayer for Peace
Memorial Services at the Cemetery
Visit from St. Nicholas
Holy Year of Mercy Pilgrimage
Metropolitan Archbishop Stefan Soroka of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and Ukrainians in the USA attended the Divine Liturgy at 4:00 p.m on October 15, 2016 in Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church, Olyphant, Pa. Metropolitan Soroka was greeted at the Church doors by the youth of the Parish who were dressed in the traditional Ukrainian clothing.