The anniversary of 125 years of Romanian presence
in the Boian of Canada
July 28, 29 and 30 were busy with preparation, work, celebration, and service. The community of Boian, Alberta prepared to celebrate the 125 years of Romanian presence in Canadian soil.
The pastoral visit of His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian began with his arrival in Edmonton where he was welcomed by Rev. Gheorghe Petrovan, parish priest, and by the president of the Parish Council, David Bezovie. At the invitation of the community, the Romanian hierarch decided to spend the whole weekend in Boian among the members of the community to get to know them personally more closely and to get to know their occupations and way of living. The hierarch was hosted by one of the veterans of the community, Lilian Bezovie (91 years old).
Friday evening in an atmosphere of joy Fr. Gheorghe Petrovan and Preoteasa Domnica together with the guests who came from further including Fr. Călin Mărincaș (Saskatoon) and Preoteasa Simona Ana and HG Bishop Ioan Casian were hosted for dinner in the David Bezovie family.
The next day, in the morning, the day started with a tour of the region around Boian and the visitation of some historical Romanian and Ukrainian churches and getting to know some of the farms of Romanian pioneers from the end of 19th century. and early 20th which are still owned and worked by their descendants. Those who became historical guides of these places were three ladies born and raised here - Lilian, Georgina and Silvia - actively present in the life of the Boian community. What stood out from this tour was the feeling of nobility of this local people who feel and know that are part of the history of this Canadian land, who continued the mission of the Romanian pioneers and transformed it through hard work and effort to give today those endless areas of wheat, barley, canola to look so good or those herds of animals so well bred. What one begins to understand after an outing in those lands and the explanations given by the locals, is that if everything looks so orderly, beautiful and rich it is because behind these realities there is much, much, much work; but a work not done with the meaning of an obligation or burden, but with the feeling of joy of fulfilling a vocation and a mission, as one of the farmers present at the event, a member of the community, said.
On Saturday evening, the service of the Anointing of Sick was performed. Together with HG Bishop Ioan Casian participated Fr. George Bâzgan vicar-administrative (Edmonton), Fr. Mircea Panciuk – dean (Montreal), Fr. Gheorghe Petrovan parish-priest (Boian), Fr. Corneliu Iulian Dragomir (Vancouver/Surrey), Fr. Timotei Hrapko (Edmonton), Fr. Călin Dorin Mărincaș (Saskatoon), Fr. Ciprian Pavel Roman (Kelowna) and Fr. Florin Porumb (Edmonton).
The next day the Divine Liturgy was celebrated outdoors on the historic altar near the site of the former church and the cemetery.
The hierarch was greeted with bread and salt. On behalf of the Romanian officials, Mr. Ovidiu Grecea, Consul-General and his wife (Vancouver) attended the celebration.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the icon of the Mother of God donated by a family from Montreal was consecrated. A memorial service for Patriarchs Iustin and Teoctist and the founders of the church in Boian was also performed.
In the homily delivered at the end of the service, the hierarch of Canada spoke about the pericope of the day and its meaning: "Today's text tells us about a miracle performed by Christ before the crowds. It is about the multiplication of loaves. Already the pericope shows us that Christ had begun to become known because the number of those present was large, 5000 men not counting women and children. This also shows us the thirst for God's word of those present and the spiritual power of the Savior's words. Man is a creation of God and if he wants to be complete from this point of view, he needs both the spiritual part and the material part. His vocation as image and likeness of God is fulfilled only by considering and growing in both dimensions - the spiritual and the material."
Speaking about the reason why God sent his Son to heal man and His connection with the human life, the hierarch said: "Because of the suffering of those present, Christ the Savior had mercy and healed the sick. The mercy of Christ is the expression of God's mercy towards all humanity. Because of the sin of unbelief of the first people they moved away from God and the consequences of sin penetrated in humans. In His mercy God seeing this sent His Only Begotten Son to incarnate and assume our human nature and heal and redeem it. That is why we as people need this feeling of mercy, of compassion, for those around us in suffering and in need. By manifesting the two we resemble to God in what we do."
Further, the Savior against appearances will perform the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fishes through which He will truly discover His divine identity. "Towards the end of the day, the disciples become worried about the situation of the people and asked the Savior to free the people to look for food - said the hierarch. To their surprise, He invites the disciples to feed those present. At that moment, the disciples refer with some modesty, perhaps even skepticism, to the means they have, that is, to the five loaves and the two fish that one of those present had there. To the disciples' even greater surprise, the Savior tells them to urge the people to sit down and He takes the five loaves and the two fish and looking at the heaven, blesses them, breaks them and gives them to the disciples and they give to the crowds. To the even greater surprise of those present, not only did the crowds get fed up with the apparent little, but they also collected twelve baskets full of fragments remained. This miracle will once again manifest the identity of the Savior Christ as the Son of God."
The hierarch further showed the spiritual understanding of this event, the relation with the Divine Liturgy and the spiritual life of the Church.
"The miracle shows us again the fact that man needs the spiritual food of spiritual meanings and the material food to help him grow from a bodily and a material point of view.
This is what happens every time in the central mystery of our Church - the Divine Liturgy. The first part of it up to the singing of the Cherubim’s Hymn we call the Liturgy of the word in which we culminate with the reading of the words of the Apostle and the Gospel. There were also readings from the Old Testament in the earlier period. All these were teachings and reflections on the word of God that nourish our spiritual life with spiritual meanings that spring from them. The second part of the Divine Liturgy is called the Eucharistic Liturgy in which the gifts of the faithful and the result of their work brought to the church are transformed, following the prayers of the clergy and of the assembly, that is, of the Church in its entirety, in the Body and Blood of the dead and risen Christ and received in the form of the Holy Communion in which all - clergy and faithful -participate for healing and getting the eternal life. This is how the Church confesses Christ and follows Him. To be a Church, to be a Christian does not only mean to proclaim this by word but also to practically follow the path shown by Christ. The Christian is not only a confessor with the word but also a doer with the deed. In this way the Church, the Christian community, manifests its full identity. In this way it becomes the image and likeness of God through each of its members.”
The bread and fish were given to the disciples, and they offered to the multitudes: “This is the image of the mysteries entrusted by Christ to the people, to the Church. Through the hands of the clergy as followers of the Savior's disciples, the gifts resulting from the work of God's grace are given. The Eucharist is offered through the hands of ministers like the loaves and fishes. Priesthood or the Church ministry is the continuation of offering God's gifts to people through the Church. That is why the Church is and must remain faithful to the work of Christ. That is why she cannot depart from what Christ accomplished and left us because otherwise she can no longer be called the Church."
The hierarch spoke about the reason why the world, the man, the community needs the Church:
"Today's world needs this example. Most of the time, the contemporary world only cares about the material things, forgetting the spiritual dimension. The Church is there to remind the world, the people, of the two dimensions – spiritual and material and of the symbiosis and harmony in which God put them together in the beginning in man. And in his authentic vocation man must remain anchored in this way of living. Following this path the world and man testify together to the existence of God.
We learn from the experience of those in Boian that if we want to last as a community, we must continue to have a church because it is the pillar and foundation of a community's life, identity and survival. This is what the community of Boian also needs in this difficult moment it has gone through in which the historical monument church was consumed by fire."
Next, the hierarch spoke about the message sent by His Beatitude Daniel, the Patriarch of Romania on this occasion for strengthening and blessing the community. Fr. George Bâzgan and Fr. Mircea Panciuk read the two versions - Romanian and English.
Exhortations to courageously continue the Romanian mission in these lands were also addressed to those present by Mr. Ovidiu Grecea, Consul-General.
Next, the Patriarchal Cross for the Lay People was awarded to Mrs. Janet Bezovie and Darline Iftody Shelemey in recognition of all the work carried out in the service of the community so far.
Later, the hierach together with the clergy and the believers present, made a procession with the newly consecrated icon of the Mother of God, protector of the parish, around the site of the former parish church.
The day continued with a festive country agape attended by more than three hundred people. The presentations of the different speakers were made by Fr. Mircea Panciuk, the parish priest of this parish for a long time. On this occasion, Ms. Maria Șerban, Honorary Consul Emeritus (Calgary) transmitted greetings. From the Canadian authorities Ms. Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk (Alberta Provincial Parliament), Mr. Don Gulayee and Sebastin Dutrisac for the regional authorities addressed greetings to the participants.
The afternoon program was beatified by traditional Romanian dances performed by the folk dance group Balada.
In the closing words, the hierarch of Canada thanked the community of Boian and all those present at the celebration. He invited those present to show generosity in the help they will give for the reconstruction of the parish church in Boian and announced a donation of 20,000 dollars from the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada and another personal donation from him of 2,000 dollars for the church reconstruction fund. Several other important donations were also announced – $6,000 from St. Nicholas and St. Elijah Parish of Surrey/Vancouver (Fr. Corneliu Iulian Dragomir) and another private one of $10,000. The younger ones also joined to the fund-raising effort raising more than $600 by selling bracelets.
At the end of the day, the hierarch, Fr. Gheorghe Petrovan and Fr. Mircea Panciuk together with the faithful from Boian participated in the consecration of the local museum.
The pastoral visit of the Canadian hierarch ended on Monday morning when he left for Toronto to attend the annual youth camp in Mono, Ontario.
