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On Wednesday, it was a white Christmas for those who celebrated the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ at St Michael the Archangel Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church in Saint Clair PA. The snow that fell on Christmas Eve provided a beautiful scene for the actual holy day. Families and individuals came to the church in the morning with the temperature at about 15 degrees and snow blowing from roofs and along streets. About 70 people who attended the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom on Orthodox Christmas; they wouldn’t have missed it for cold weather or snow to be part of celebrating the birthday of Jesus. Whilst Christmas is 25 December according to the Gregorian calendar, St Michael parish, which follows the Julian calendar, celebrates the holy day on 7 January. The church is part of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA.
One could hear “Merry Christmas” from time to time, but many people gave the traditional Orthodox greeting of “Christ is born!” or “Christos Razhdayetsya!”, with a joyful response of “Glorify Him!” or “Slavite Yego!” Members of the St Michael Choir led by dirigent Barbara Verbitsky sang hymns in English and Rusin before the Divine Liturgy. The choir also chanted many of the responses throughout the liturgy, which they sung “a cappella”, without musical instruments. Fr Jeff L Zias, pastor, celebrated the Divine Liturgy. At the start of the liturgy, Zias incensed the ikonostas, or icon screen, then, walked down the centre aisle, incensing the congregation. At the back of the nave, he incensed the icons of Christ Pankrator, Mary the Godbearer, and St Michael the Archangel, the patron of the parish.
According to Orthodox teaching, the birth of Jesus is of tremendous importance to eternal salvation, because through his birth, God gave us the food of life eternal, which is his body and blood under the forms of bread and wine in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. They give very little importance to the exchange of gifts or to any commercial thought. Orthodox Christians rejoice on Christmas Day because Christ is in their midst, a newborn child with outstretched arms begs for his love, and he returns this love in his God, his neighbour, his family, and to his country.
After the Epistle reading from the Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians 4.4-7 and the Gospel reading from Matthew 2.1-12, Fr Jeff gave a sermon, which was the Archpastoral Letter for the Nativity by Bishop Gregory of Nyssa, Primate of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ was incarnated from the Virgin Mary for us humans and for our salvation. This salvation is boundless and is offered to us on a daily basis. As we continue to face difficult times and circumstances in the whole world and in our personal lives, let us embrace with our whole hearts the happiness that the Lord offers us at this special Nativity season. Let us love Him as our Saviour and let us love our neighbours as our brothers and sisters. With Jesus Christ in our hearts, the difficulties and troubles, no matter how great, do not have the power to disappoint us because He fills us overwhelming with joy. When we are tested by temptations and encounter sadness in our lives, let us remember that these trials merely make us stronger and more faithful. Let us always remember that God never abandons us. Today, God is revealed to us as a small child in the manger. This child may look weak and fragile, but it has enough love to cure each and every one of us of all our ills. Let us invite this child into our lives in order to transform our entire existence. May all of us, priests, panis, deacons, subdeacons, readers, parish officers, parishioners, friends and supporters of the God-protected American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, experience the joy and wonders of the shepherds and the awe and respect of the three wise men at the arrival of the Messiah, our new born King. Christ is Born! Glorify Him!”
8 January 2915
John E Usalis
Pottsville (PA) Republican Herald
http://republicanherald.com/news/orthodox-christians-celebrate-christmas-1.1814119
Voices from Russia 
8 January 2015. “Anti-Maidan” Channel Pulled by YouTube… Sources Tell Me Uniates Behind this Tragedy
Tags: civil unrest, Novorossiya, political commentary, politics, Ukraine, Ukrainian Civil War, war and conflict, YouTube
THIS is how the present junta in the Ukraine came to power… through an anti-constitutional coup (President Yanukovich didn’t resign in a proper and legal fashion… the neofascist junta took power without an election or referendum). Fancy that they scream about “the rule of law”, when they didn’t follow it in the least! “Winning is the only thing”…
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One of the best “go-to” YouTube channels documenting Uniate war crimes in Novorossiya is no more. Sources tell me that Uniates ganged up and accused them of “hate speech”. There are ways of avoiding this. Firstly, don’t EVER succumb to provocations from Uniate cybertrolls. Their intent is to accuse you of “hate speech”. My advice is to not answer ANY Uniate comment in any forum directly. DO NOT DO THIS. They WILL accuse you of “hate speech”. What you can do is to make reasoned comments, however, you must understand that a standard Uniate tactic is to pile on any comment that they find “anti-Ukrainian”, make personal accusations about the poster, hoping that’ll provoke them to anger. Then, the Uniates go crying to the site administrator, claiming that you’re “offending” them and demanding YOUR removal.
Firstly, always make it clear that you’re not making comments on any individual or group of individuals… that is, don’t fall into the “hate trap”. Yes… they don’t “fight fair”… live with it. They believe in “winning is the only thing”, just like their Anglo masters do. You must NEVER reach into the gutter, even though this-or-that interlocutor may do so. Stick to facts… S A Bandera WAS a felon… he was in a Polish prison for murder. The Galizien Division WAS in the SS, and it did participate in war crimes. The OUN DID murder thousands of Poles in Volyn… the monuments to the dead exist. Galician Uniates were NOT part of the so-called “Famine”… they were in Poland, and didn’t suffer at all. Both the PACE and the UN rejected the fairy tale of the “Famine”… however, a famine in conjunction with Collectivisation DID take place, but it wasn’t genocide, as it didn’t target a nationality, nor was it a planned action. Actually, most of the famine occurred because peasants destroyed livestock and crops rather than turn them over to the Kolkhoz… that is, sadly, a good deal of it was self-imposed (I realise that this WILL open me up to all sort of accusations, but one MUST speak the truth). You do NOT destroy your basis of livelihood! What happened is that the communists requisitioned grain for the cities (for the workers DID support the Reds) and since the peasants destroyed their surplus, it meant that they had nothing to live on. The areas worst-hit were in Kazakhstan and the Upper Volga, not the Ukrainian SSR!
Also, bear in mind that not all Uniates are the same. Most of the feral sorts identify as “Ukrainian Catholic”. I’d say that virtually ALL “Byzantine Catholics” are guiltless and aren’t part of the fascist “amen corner”. That’s because most of these people arrived before 1920, and, furthermore, most of them came from Podkarpatskaya, not Galicia (the former was under Hungary, the latter under Austria, and that DID mean something in the pre-World War I Dual Monarchy). In fact, I have Byzantine Catholics who’re part of my Cabinet… the murderous enormities of the Galician Uniates sicken them to no end. As for “Ukrainian Catholics”, there are two groups. One group is much like the Byzantine Catholics, they came from Austria-Hungary prior to 1920. I’ve found that most of these people are sane and that most reject the war crimes of the present Kiev junta. However, they must keep silence due to pressure from post-World War II DPs (and their families)… many of whom were Nazi collaborationists. Some have told me that a group of neofascists took over the “Ukrainian Catholics” after World War II. In fact, in many such parishes, there are two liturgies… one for the sane people, the other for the “gun runners” (that’s what one disgusted person calls them). These nutters even oppose the use of Staroslav! They insist that everything has to be in modern Ukrainian… they don’t even like their own traditions!
Be careful… as you can see, there are guilty parties and guiltless parties. Don’t ever mix them up. Yet, if a Uniate cybertroll crosses your path, LET THEM BE! What is best is to avoid the venues where they congregate. It’s not worth the trouble to refute them. They’re well-organised in the diaspora… we Russian Orthodox aren’t… our disunity and lack of a common purpose hobble us. That is, our problem is more intramural than external… we need to “get our shit together”… our enemies do take advantage of it, and our voice isn’t heard, in consequence.
Keep it focused! DO NOT HATE! Remember that these loud SOBs aren’t the whole group. Oppose them… counter lies with truth… but, please, do keep it straight. We’re the voice of our compatriots and coreligionists in the West… let’s do it right. Keep the faith…
BMD