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St. John Chrystostom provides Catholic worship with an Eastern flavor
By Tim Puet
Catholic Times
For members of St. John Chrysostom Church, smaller is better.
Tom Marco lives in Circleville and travels to the Byzantine Catholic church on Columbus’ north side two or three times a week to serve as cantor at weekday and Sunday Divine Liturgies. He grew up in a Byzantine family, but said it’s more than just his heritage that keeps him making the 85-mile round trip.
“There’s a warmth I find here that I don’t think you could find in a larger church – at least I couldn’t,” he said. “With a congregation this size (about 70 families, with a total of about 175 people), you really get to know people, not just as objects in the pews, but as part of a church family.
“With a close-knit group such as this, you really become interested in their lives and how their faith connects with their daily activities. I’ll bet I know something about just about every family here,” he said at the weekly breakfast in the church’s social hall following its 9:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy on Aug. 24.
Marco was born in Warren, Ohio, became a cantor in the mid-1980s while living in Amherst, N.Y., and has continued in that position since moving to Columbus 16 years ago. His job leading chants is an important one in the Byzantine Church because its services, including Scripture passages, are almost entirely sung.
“I don’t consider the trip from Circleville a long one because I do it for God,” he said.
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“You can’t help but be involved,” said Dave Zaroka, an usher and a cantor who has been a member since 1987. “The fellowship is great, and you feel important every time you come.”
Father Terrence Farmer, pastor of the church, said the size of the congregation is typical for the Byzantine Catholic Church in America, which has about 40,000 members nationwide. He said if its membership grew much larger, the congregation would have to split.
“We keep our parishes small on purpose because we feel it’s important,” he said. “I know everyone in the parish by name, how old they are, how their health is, what kind of work they do, what their jobs are, and they know the same about me and about each other.
“We know we can rely on one another when help is needed, whether it’s in praying for each other or when there’s a material need,” Father Terrence said. “Knowing each other in this way is important, because God says ‘I know you by name.’ That’s why in our church, all the Mysteries (the Byzantine term for what in the Roman Catholic Church are known as the Sacraments) are given by name.”
This means that when a Roman Catholic or someone unfamiliar to the congregation attends a Byzantine liturgy, he or she is asked his first name before receiving the Eucharist. It’s also why Byzantine clergy prefer being identified by their first names rather than surnames.
Food plays an important role for Byzantine Catholics. One of the first things a visitor sees upon entering St. John Chrysostom for liturgies on Sundays and important feasts (daily liturgies take place in a chapel in the rectory) is a table just inside the doors. As they enter, many people place vegetables they have grown and baked goods or other food items they have made on the table.
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“These are our first fruits, and we offer them to God as did the Israelites in the Old Testament,” Father Terrence said.
Food also gives the Byzantines perhaps their best-known identity in the larger community.
From 4 to 7 p.m. on the first Friday of each month, they sell halupki (stuffed cabbage), halushki (noodles and cabbage) and pirohis (dumplings stuffed with sweet cheese, potatoes and cheese, sauerkraut, and sometimes prunes), plus baked goods and occasionally nut rolls.
Just before Holy Week, there is a sale of special bread flavored with sweet butter or cheese for Pascha, the Easter season, and nut rolls. In addition, there is a Christmas cookie sale, with pirohis and nut rolls also available, that draws people from all over the city. This year’s sale is scheduled for Dec. 13.
“The day of the sale is something to see,” said parishioner Paula Oshinski. “We have thousands of cookies available in the morning, and they’re all gone in three hours. The parking lot is full, and there’s always a long line out the door of the church hall,” where the sale takes place.
The hall also served as the church’s worship area from shortly after the time the congregation was founded in 1961 until 1980, when the current church was built. The church’s gold dome makes it a familiar landmark just north of the intersection of Cleveland Avenue and State Route 161, a corner with one of the highest volumes of traffic in Columbus.
The church has close ties with Holy Resurrection Melkite Catholic Church, which is the other Eastern Catholic church in Columbus with its own building, and with nearby Eastern Orthodox churches.
Father Terrence and Father Ignatius Harrington, pastor of the Melkite church, serve as each other’s weekend replacement on occasion, since the liturgies of both churches are very similar. St. John Chrysostom also is used as the worship site of St. Barnabas Antiochian Orthodox Mission in Delaware.
Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches have the same roots and much the same forms of worship, which go back to the establishment of Constantinople (formerly known as Byzantium) as the capital of the Roman Empire in the Middle Ages. Their chief theological difference is that Catholic churches consider the pope to be St. Peter’s successor as leader of the universal church, and Orthodox churches do not.
“They’re Christians just like us, and we need to support each other,” Father Terrence said at the close of the Aug. 24 liturgy in urging his congregation to attend a festival at a Coptic Orthodox church in Columbus. “I’ll be there,” he added. “The food’s good and I don’t have to cook.”
Besides making ethnic food, the congregation at St. John Chrysostom keeps alive a number of Byzantine traditions such as Easter basket blessing, egg decorating, Christmas candle making, and blessings of vehicles, homes, flowers and fruit, candles, and water on special holy days.
It was founded by Ukrainian and Ruthenian Catholics familiar with those traditions. Its membership today is multicultural and ethnically diverse, including a number of Slovak and Hungarian families and several people who grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition.
One of those is Paula Oshinski’s husband, John. “What’s distinctive about this church is that its liturgy involves all the senses much more than the Roman liturgy,” he said. “The icons, the incense, flowers, the more active participation through chanting, all draw you into the worship experience.”
Assisting Father Terrence at worship services is Deacon Jeffrey Martin, who works during the week as a geologist for the state Environmental Protection Agency. Another parishioner, Michael Melnick, is in his second of four years of studying for the diaconate and works as an accountant.
“I was always an involved layman, and one day, someone just asked me if I had signed up to study for the diaconate,” he said. “I’d really never thought about it, but I prayed and couldn’t think of a reason not to be a deacon.”
Both of the parish’s ordained clergy grew up in non-Eastern church backgrounds. Deacon Jeffrey was a Methodist and Father Terrence was a Roman Catholic.
“My wife was a Roman Catholic and I was married in her church, but didn
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