RT. REV. FR. DR. HRYHORY UDOD

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RT. REV. FR. DR. HRYHORY UDOD With unwavering faith in Our Resurrected Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the +Rt. Rev. Fr. Dr. Hryhory Udod fell asleep in the Lord Wednesday morning, May 31, 2000 at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, SK. +Hryhory was born on the Feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs, January 30, 1925, in the Kharhiv region of eastern Ukraine. He was born into the pious and God-loving family of +Ivan and +Vera (Pisarewska) Udod. Young +Hryhory witnessed the accidental death of his father at the tender age of two years. Due to difficult circumstances in his immediate family his early childhood was largely spent with his paternal grandparents, +Trokhym and +Olena Udod. He considered it a miracle to have survived the horrific and terrifying artificially created Famine in Ukraine in 1932 to 1933. This Famine, artificially created by the Soviet regime under Stalin claimed the lives of his grandparents, numerous other relatives, over half his classmates and an estimated ten million people in Ukraine. Despite the continuing familial challenges of his adolescent years in the mid and late 1930s, he was nonetheless able to acquire his elementary education. It was at this time that he was deeply influenced to develop a passionate and lifelong interest in the life and writings of +Taras Shevchenko. +Taras Shevchenko, Ukraines great poet, artist, writer and Ukrainian national prophet of the 19th century, was to have a lifelong influence on the life of Hryhory, probably because their lives were in many ways very similar. His education was interrupted as he was to witness yet another horrific event of his young life, the outbreak of the Second World War. He was conscripted into the Soviet Army Reserves. Due to the ambiguous circumstances of the war, he, along with thousands of other young conscripts found themselves in Allied occupied Germany at the end of the war. +Hryhory considered it another miracle to have successfully avoided the forced repatriation back to Soviet occupied Ukraine. It was widely believed that the outcome of this forced repatriation was a sure death or deportation to concentration camps in Siberia. Following the war, he took advantage of the opportunity to complete his "gymnasia" - secondary school education in the Displaced Persons Camp at Mittenwald in Bavaria, Germany. For some three years, he worked in the coal mines near Leige, Belgium, where he actively participated in the Ukrainian cultural and church community. In the fall of 1951, +Hryhory emigrated from Belgium to Canada, an event that he gave thanks to God for the rest of his life. In due course, he was very proud to become a Canadian citizen. Soon after his arrival in Canada he secured employment on the assembly line at the General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ontario. During these years he continued to take an active part in the spiritual and cultural life of the Ukrainian community in Oshawa. He particularly enjoyed his involvement as a director/actor in Ukrainian amateur theater. In 1954, he was moved to respond to the challenge of Our Lords call to priestly ministry and service. In direct response to a visit by +Fr. Semen Sawchuk, administrator of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada, to Oshawa in the spring of 1954, +Hryhory enrolled in the Theological Faculty of St. Andrews College in Winnipeg that fall. +Hryhory found a certain sense of direction in the mentorship of the great +Metropolitan Ilarion, Professor and Dean of St. Andrews College, and Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada. At St. Andrews College he met and developed lifelong friendships with fellow like-minded future priests. In 1956, through the efforts of +Egnat Levchenko of Cando, SK and his distant relatives in Winnipeg, +Hryhory met the young schoolteacher, +Egnats daughter Alice (Lesia). In 1957, +Hryhory and Alice were married in the newly built Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist in North Battleford, SK. That fall, +Hryhory was ordained to the Holy Diaconate. On the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross, March 16, 1958, +Metropolitan Ilarion ordained +Fr. Deacon Hryhory to the Holy Priesthood at the partially completed Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Winnipeg. Upon graduation, +Fr. Hryhory and now Dobrodiyka (title for a priests wife) Lesia set out on their lifelong commitment and mission of serving their God and His Holy Church. +Fr. Hryhory cherished the opportunity that the Orthodox Church has always provided, to potential priests to remain celibate or to marry prior to ordination. As a result of their marriage, Dobrodiyka Lesias outgoing nature and her love of God and His Holy Church provided a perfect support for +Fr. Hryhorys 38 years of active ministry. Their initial assignment was to the lower British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island district. This was followed by assignment to Westlock, AB where their first born son, Taras, was born. This was followed by service in Manitoba and Ontario. In 1963, the family moved to Sheho, SK where their second son, Greg, was born. Following a brief stint in Kamsack, SK, +Fr. Hryhory was assigned to Holy Trinity Cathedral in Saskatoon in December, 1966. This is where the family set down roots and +Fr. Hryhory always reflected upon the years in Saskatoon as some of his most rewarding years in pastoral service. With is lifelong commitment to learning and education, +Fr. Hryhory completed his Bachelor of Arts in 1970 and was particularly proud to receive his Master of Arts degree in 1974 from the then chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan, the late John G. Diefenbaker, former prime minister of Canada. In 1975, he completed a Ph.D. at the Ukrainian University in Munich, Germany. That summer at the U.G.O. Church of Canadas General Council, he was elected to the National Board of the Church. For 16 years, beginning in the U.G.O. Church of Canadas Golden Jubilee Year of 1968, +Fr. Hryhory produced a weekly radio program entitled the "Voice of Ukrainian Orthodoxy". This weekly program aired on Sunday evenings on CFQC 600 and was heard and supported throughout Saskatchewan. Later this was expanded to include other major centres across Canada and was heard around the world on short wave radio. +Fr. Hryhory was moved by the letters he would receive from then-Soviet Ukraine where the writers would speak of the tremendous moral and spiritual support these radio programs provided during a time when religious activity was officially discouraged by the government of the Soviet Union. +Fr. Hryhory always sought new and innovative means to spread the Word of God. He developed and produced a series of slide tape presentations in preparation for the 1,000 year anniversary of Christianitys advent to Ukraine. In 1980, +Fr. Hryhory was elected to the churchs highest administrative office, Presidium Chairman of the Consistory (National Chancellor, Administrator). This necessitated a move to Winnipeg, home of the churchs National Office. He served in this position with humility, always striving to exalt the message of the Word of God to the best of his abilities. He was particularly dedicated to promoting as great an awareness as possible of the 1,000-year anniversary of Ukraines baptism. He served as the initial coordinator of the Jubilee Committee. (continued next column)

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jun 03, 2000