Thoughts and opinions from a Priest in the PNCC
Polka Fest to benefit Holy Spirit Polish National Catholic Church, 1 – 5 p.m. today, Saturday, September 18th, at the East Herkimer Fish & Game Club, Pine Grove Road, East Herkimer. Featuring Bill and Ed’s Polka Band. Admission $8.
Annual Spaghetti Dinner and Basket Raffle 4-7 p.m. September 25th, Holy Cross Polish National Catholic Church, 17 Sheridan St., Heights, Wilkes-Barre. Open salad bar, dessert and beverage included. Adults pay $8; $4 for children 12 and younger at the door.
The Fraternity of the Lord of the Miracles of Perth Amboy held its annual traditional Mass and procession of the Lord of the Miracles, Christ of Pachacamilla (Señor de los Milagros, Cristo de Pachacamilla) Sunday at Saints Cyril and Methodius National Catholic Church, 600 Jacques St in Perth Amboy, NJ.
The 10:15 a.m. Mass was followed by a five-hour procession around the church which began around 12:30 p.m. Our Lord of the Miracles of New York Choir performed. During the procession dancers of Peruvian culture of the Andes performed and there were tributes by Peruvian fraternities from New York and New Jersey.
Alejandro Beoutis, Peruvian general consul for New Jersey, was invited to attend along with Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz.
From the Courier Post: Peruvian procession hits Peth Amboy’s streets
PERTH AMBOY — A centuries-old Peruvian tradition took on its own form in the center of Perth Amboy’s streets Sunday afternoon, as a crowd massed outside the Saint Cyril Church to celebrate the Lord of the Miracles procession.
In Peru, October brings this same procession to the country’s capital city, Lima, where thousands take to the streets dressed in purple and clutching flower offerings during this holy day of atonement.
A mural of Jesus Christ remains the focal point for any of these processions, each parading a rendition of this 17th century painting that is said to have been the work of a Black slave.
Shortly after its creation, the painting survived a massive earthquake that nearly wiped out the entire city and drew in the faithful and followers alike.
“This is a tradition that we want to continue,” said Maria Moran, a spectator, who attends these processions throughout the state.
While Sunday’s crowd was minuscule compared to Peru’s procession; the dedication of parishioners was immeasurable, as they stood under trees and huddled in doorways suffering through the afternoon’s downpour.
“For me it’s everything – it’s my beliefs, it’s my background,” said Katherine Miraval, who took cover under a tent at the rear of the procession. “(Jesus) does perform miracles.”
A recent endeavor for St. Cyril, the procession has brought many Peruvians throughout the community closer to the church, said Father Mario Zochowski.
Prior to flooding the streets, many of the parade-goers attended a mass, where a few additional hymns and even more new faces extended services by about half-an-hour, he said.
“It’s something you have to see for yourself,” Zochowski said, watching approximately 25 men harmoniously shuffle their feet while balancing the mural’s altar gracefully on one shoulder.
Every few yards, the mural would be passed along to a new group of men, or a Fraternity of the Lord of the Miracles, whose members spent months preparing for their role in the procession, if only to get the footwork down to a science.
Spaghetti Dinner: At Holy Name of Jesus Parish, 1040 Pearl St., Schenectady, NY from 4 – 7 pm on Saturday, September 11th.
Harvest Festival: Holy Mother of Sorrows PNC Church will hold their 34th Annual Polish Harvest “Dozynski” Festival and Giant Flea Market on the parish grounds at 212 Wyoming Ave, Dupont, PA.
A flea market will be held on Saturday, Sept.11, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with many local vendors. Refreshments will be served throughout the day.
On Sunday, Sept. 12, the Harvest Festival will begin at 10:00 a.m. and continue until dusk The blessing of the harvest wreath will be held with a procession from the grounds to the church beginning at 2:00 p.m.
Live entertainment will be provided by Joe Lastovica and the Polka Punch from 3:00 to 6:00. On the menu will be homemade Polish favorites: potato pancakes, pierogies, haluski, piggies, American foods hot dogs, hamburgers, plus much more. There will be games for all ages, theme baskets, 50/50 bingo, art and crafts a children youth stand, baked goods, a parish raffle and a country store with fruits and vegetables. All are invited. Admission is free.
Chicken Barbecue Dinner: At the Polish National Catholic Church of the Tranfiguration, 135 Hathaway St., Wallington, NJ on Saturday, September 25th from 4 to 6pm. Eat in or take out. Tickets are $8. The reservation deadline is September 22nd. Please call Ed Kotula at 973-773-4090 for tickers and reservations.
Pasta Dinner: To Celebrate Jill Donovan’s Fight Against Cancer on Saturday, October 16th from 5 – 9pm at the Greenwood Hose Co. Banquet Hall, 3727-41 Birney Ave, Moosic, PA. Take-outs will be available from 4 – 6pm. For tickets or donation information call: Carol Shuminski at 570-343-0946 or Mary Ann Donovan at 570-346-3949.
Please download a copy of the registration form if you wish to participate in this event.
From the Denver Post: St. Francis church getting new statue of namesake to replace stolen piece
St. Francis, the statue, will soon rejoin his flock at St. Francis of Assisi National Catholic Church in southeast Denver, after donors pitched in the $3,500 to replace a statue stolen on July 30.
The 5-foot-tall statue had greeted the congregation in front of the small church on South Jersey Street south of Leetsdale Drive for 18 years.
The new statue will be in place the week of Sept. 19, the Rev. John Kalabokes said Sunday. A dedication is planned on Sept. 26 after the 9 a.m. Mass. St. Francis is the patron saint of animals, so a blessing of the animals will be held with the dedication, Kalabokes said.
The congregation of about 50 members, most of them on fixed incomes, appealed for help in finding the stolen statue, which has not turned up. Then donors, many of them from outside the church, stepped in to replace it.
A special prayer of thanksgiving for all who stepped up to help in replacing the statue.
From the Federal Reserve Bank, San Francisco: Fed Says Immigrants Expand Productivity; No Evidence of Harm to Native Opportunities
SAN FRANCISCO—Data show that immigrants expand the U.S. economy by stimulating investment and improving worker efficiency and income but not at U.S.-born workers’ expense, according to a report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Aug. 30.
Giovanni Peri, an associate professor at the University of California at Davis and a visiting scholar at the San Francisco bank, summarized his recent research to conclude that immigration has positive financial effects for U.S.-born workers.
Data show that, on net, “immigrants expand the U.S. economy’s productive capacity, stimulate investment, and promote specialization that in the long run boosts productivity. Consistent with previous research, there is no evidence that these effects take place at the expense of jobs for workers born in the United States,’’ Peri said.
He added that there “is no evidence that immigrants crowd out U.S.-born workers in either the short or long run. Data on U.S.-born worker employment imply small effects, with estimates never statistically different from zero. The impact on hours per worker is similar.’’
Immigration Associated With Income Rise
Over the long run, Peri wrote in the bank’s Economic Letter, per worker income rises 0.6 percent to 0.9 percent for each inflow of immigrants that equals 1 percent of employment.
“This implies that total immigration to the United States from 1990 to 2007 was associated with a 6.6 percent to 9.9 percent increase in real income per worker. That equals an increase of about $5,100 in the yearly income of the average U.S. worker in constant 2005 dollars,’’ Peri said.
Such a gain equals 20 percent to 25 percent of the total real increase in average yearly income per worker registered in the United States between 1990 and 2007, Peri said.
A third result is that in the short run, physical capital per unit of output is decreased by net immigration, but in the medium to long run, businesses expand their equipment and physical plant proportionally to their increase in production, Peri said.
Peri was traveling out of the country Aug. 30 and was unavailable for comment on his report.
Immigrants Tend to Take Different Occupations
Already well documented is that U.S.-born workers and immigrants tend to take different occupations, Peri said. Among less-educated workers, those born in the United States tend to have jobs in manufacturing or mining, while immigrants tend to have jobs in personal services and agriculture. Among more-educated workers, U.S.-born workers tend to work as managers, teachers, and nurses while immigrants tend to work as engineers, scientists, and doctors, he said.
Because those born in the United States have relatively better English language skills, they tend to specialize in communication tasks, Peri said. “Immigrants tend to specialize in other tasks, such as manual labor,’’ he wrote.
“The share of immigrants among the less educated is strongly correlated with the extent of U.S.-born worker specialization in communication tasks,’’ Peri wrote in the report titled “The Effect of Immigrants on U.S. Employment and Productivity.’’
“In states with a heavy concentration of less-educated immigrants, U.S.-born workers have migrated toward more communication-intensive occupations. Those jobs pay higher wages than manual jobs, so such a mechanism has stimulated the productivity of workers born in the United States and generated new employment opportunities,’’ Peri said.
This “typically pushes U.S.-born workers toward better-paying jobs, enhances the efficiency of production, and creates jobs,’’ Peri said. Task specialization, however, may involve adopting different techniques or managerial procedures and renovating or replacing capital equipment. “Hence, it takes some years to be fully realized,’’ he said.
As we celebrate this Labor Day, let us thank all workers, and do each justice, whatever their background, origin, or line of work. May our Lord bless all our labor.
I pray for the employed, that they may work as unto Thee and not unto men. I pray for the unemployed, that they may find work and be saved from despondency. Be Thou their strength in adversity. — an excerpt from A General Intercession from A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” — Revelation 7:9-10
A whole series of pictures from CONVO 2010 can be found at the Transfiguration website. Here is a picture of all the attendees visiting Ellis Island. They gathered there for a prayer service before the plaque honoring Bishop Hodur’s arrival in the United States, and to learn more about the history of immigration to the United States.
Chicken Barbecue at St. Mary’s PNCC, Duryea, PA: One of the most enjoyable things about the summer is barbeques. Whether you enjoy them on your patio with your family or at one of the many local festivals, this summer favorite can’t be beat. Well, if you have room for just one more, and I know that you do, why not take a break from the kitchen next weekend and attend St. Mary’s Polish National Catholic Church’s annual chicken barbeque dinner in Duryea, PA? The parish committee of St. Mary’s Polish National Catholic Church will hold its chicken barbeque dinner Saturday, August 28th, from 2-6 p.m. at the church, 200 Stephenson St., Duryea, PA. The menu includes a half chicken, a baked potato, green beans, a roll and butter. Beverages and desserts are extra. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased in advance by calling the rectory office at 570-457-2291. Takeouts will be available as well.
Parish and Community Picnic at Holy Trinity and St. Joseph in Linden, NJ: The annual parish and community picnic will be held on the Holy Trinity and St. Joseph PNCC church grounds, 407 Ziegler Avenue, Linden, NJ, Sunday, September 12th. The picnic is preceded by High Holy Mass in Polish at 11am, Rev. Jan Kość principal celebrant. The menu includes a featured a chicken dinner, as well as a full selection of Polish favorites like homemade pierogi, gołąbki (stuffed cabbage), and kielbasa. Other picnic favorites will be featured as well as fun and games. All are welcome.
PNCC Webinar: The Western Diocese of the PNCC is hosting a Webinar on the history and organization of the PNCC. All that is required to attend is a computer with Internet access. The Webinar is scheduled for Saturday, September 18th beginning at 9:30am Central Time (10:30am Eastern Time). The main presentation will be about one hour and there will be a half-hour available for questions and discussion after the main presentation. Registration detail are not yet available. I will provide updated information as it becomes available.
Fall Social and Dinner at Our Savior, Lawrenceville, NJ: Our Savior PNCC, 2300 Princeton Pike, Lawrenceville, NJ is planning for its first ever Fall Social and Roast Beef dinner scheduled for Sunday, September 19th. Call 609-882-7880 for more information.
Ethnic Food and Bake Sale, hosted by Good Shepherd Polish National Catholic Church, during the Plymouth Alive Kielbasa Fest, August 27th and 28th, in front of Sport-Jes, 30 East Main Street, Plymouth, PA. Homemade pierogies, haluski and baked goods on the menu.
St. John the Baptist Polish National Catholic Church, 414 West Oak Street, Frackville, PA will hold a bleenie sale beginning at 11 a.m., Friday, August 20th at the church. The church stages bleenie sales every other week throughout the summer.
Resurrection PNC Church will hold a Polish Crepe (Naleśniki) Dinner, 5 to 7 p.m., on Thursday, August 19th at 1835 West Temperance Rd., Temperance, MI. Carry out is available. Cost: $10. For more information please call 734-847-5052.
I read with interest an article by the Fr. J. Guy Winfrey (PadreTex – thanks to the Young Fogey for the link) under the title Romophobia in the WRV. The article makes several valid points, and closely follows what I have experienced as both a member and clergyman of the PNCC. The line that stood out for me was:
…but of those who are serving in our Western Rite parishes… [h]ow many of them checked their assumptions at the door as they came into Orthodoxy, rather than becoming simply “propositional Orthodox” (they just change conclusive propositions from their former way of life and don’t let go of their primary assumptions)?
People who leave their original tradition, be it Roman Catholic or Anglican/Episcopal carry a lot of baggage with them. The process of becoming PNCC or Western Rite Orthodox (or anything else) somewhat follows the five stages model. As you may recall, Elisabeth Kí¼bler-Ross in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying identified the five stages of grief, a process by which people deal with grief and tragedy, especially when diagnosed with a terminal illness or when facing a catastrophic loss. The common progression of states is: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. A change in something as deeply experienced as one’s faith tradition can put you through a series of changes that might mimic this progression. While not exactly parallel, the Kí¼bler-Ross model of conversion might follow these stages:
For other takes on the conversion process see: