Interview with Father Mircea Panciuk – The Lumina newspaper- June 19, 2017
The first Romanians who came to Canada at the end of the 19th Century founded a village taking the name of the village they left from, Boian, Bucovina. The parish priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church here since 1969 is Father Mircea Panciuk. At the age of 77 years, Father is the Dean of the Western Canadian Deanery and has many memories of Patriarch Justinian Marina from his years of studies in Romanian and of his first years as parish priest on the North American continent.
Father Dean, to start with, tell us a bit about yourself.
I was born in Canada in 1940 to Romanian parents. My father came from Tereblecea, Bucovina, now in Ukraine. I have four brothers and we grew up in Montreal in the shadow of the church as it were. Our grandfather was the president of the church council and was well respected within the Romanian community of Montreal.
The orthodox faith began to be recognized quite late in the history of Canada. By the time Romanians came to Canada, the Anglican and Roman Catholic faiths were well rooted in Canadian society.
In 1886, the Minister of the Interior of the time was sent by the Prime Minister, John A MacDonald, to Eastern Europe to encourage healthy and strong people to come to open the land in western Canada. This was how the Bucovinians came to be in Alberta. At that time Alberta was not a province but a territory called the Northwest Territory and only in 1905 did this territory become a province.
The first Romanians to come were Vasile Ravliuc and Ichim Iurcu from Boian in Bucovina near Cernauti. Slowly and as time passed other Romanians came in waves, 1924 and then before WWII. Fewer Romanians came after WWII because the communist regime did not allow migration. Following 1989 a strong wave of immigrants came from the Carpatians area. These were the well educated younger people who wanted to work and create a new life in Canada. A number of these came to North America to prearranged positions.
Say something about the beginnings of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Canada.
The first priests came from Bucovina and Transylvania. This took place at the beginning of the last century. Two Romania churches were built, one St. Nicholas in Regina Saskatchewan consecrated in 1903, and the other St. Mary’s in Boian, Alberta consecrated in 1905. At that time Regina was a small city while some of those Romanians living in Boian Alberta were still living in sod huts. As more immigrants came more parishes were formed in other Canadian cities, like Montreal, Timmins, and Hamilton. In the Timmins area the gold mines attracted the people. Hamilton was a steel city with much work. In Windsor, just across from Detroit were the Canadian car manufacturing giants of Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors.
The Province of Alberta, where I live saw the first discovery of oil which gave the explosion of development. Alberta also had the beginnings of a cattle industry and the world known quality Alberta Beef.
How did you come to study theology in Romania?
I am the son of a farmer, not born in the city but on the farm. I liked school, even though it took 1 ½ hours to get to school and another 1 ½ hours to get home. We would get up early in the morning, go and do farm chores and milk the cows and then wash, eat, and off to school. It was a nice life.
In 1963 a delegation of the Romanian Patriarchate arrived in USA for the funeral of Bishop Andrei Moldovan. The delegation was headed by His Eminence Metropolitan Justin Moisescu, and the Dean of the Institute of Theology in Bucuresti, Father Nicolae Nicolaescu. The Romanian priest of Detroit, who knew my parents very well called them, knowing I had finished my studies and was still deciding on my future and said to my mother, “Rachel, we need a driver here at the Diocese to drive the Romanian delegation “. Mother always dreamt that at least one of her sons would be a priest. I was probably fertile ground for her thoughts.
The Romanian Patriarchate offered me a scholarship and in October 1963 I registered in the first year at The Institute of Theology in Bucuresti. I remained in Romanian for four years without returning home to Canada.
My first desire was to meet the Patriarch. I was received by Patriarch Justinian and one of his first words to me were, “You have left home and parents. Here in Romania I will become your parent, your father”.
How did life in Romania differ from Canada ?
At first, I didn’t realise people in Romania were being watched, but after a while someone was always following me, was with me were ever I went to see what I did, with whom I spoke …. On my birthday strange figures would appear and wish me Happy Birthday and at times even offer me gifts. Probably, they were agents trying to convince me about the “good” things of communism. It was for these instances that I wanted to talk to His Beatitude the Patriarch so many times. I got to know that the Patriarch would go for his afternoon walk at a certain time in the Patriarchal gardens. There was a small gate at the back of the Patriarchal residence where one could go through and if luck was on your side, you could meet the Patriarch. There were too many people who also knew about the gate and that created a problem. The Patriarch then ordered the gate locked. One day when I really needed to talk to the Patriarch, I found the gate locked. What to do? There was only one thing to do. Climb over the gate and go in the gardens. The Patriarch was walking and was as usual alone. He heard my foot steps behind him and turned to see who it was. He asked me directly, “Hey Mircea, I thought I ordered the gate locked. Wasn’t it locked as I had ordered”? I remember my reply as it was now. “Your Beatitude, the gate was locked but one can jump the gate and I did just that”. He laughed and then said “OK, if you needed me you knew what you had to do”.
But see how God works. In the summer of 1964 I met a girl, the niece of one of the nuns working at the Patriarchal residence, her name was Sister Sofronia. My first year of study ended, it was summer and as a student I had nowhere to take my meals. After some discussions and with His Beatitude’s blessing, I was allowed to take my meals in the residence. Most times I ate alone. It was not fun…From time to time I would join elderly retired hierarchs staying in the residence. What could I say to an elderly retired hierarch, what did I have in common with him, I thought. So I requested to take my meals with the residence staff who were all nuns. It was in this context I met my future wife Ileana. Ileana’s mother had passed away and Ileana would come to visit her aunt Sister Sofronia. All thing unfolded naturally and today Ileana is my wife, mother of three children and grandmother of five grandchildren.
For Ileana, a Romanian citizen, to marry me, a foreigner, she had to request permission from the President of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu. It took nine months for permission to arrive. On October 9, 1966 we were married in the Romanian Theological Institute church, “Saint Catherine”. I remember, sometime before the wedding going to the Patriarch and asking, “When I first came to Romania Your Beatitude, You said that in Romania Your Beatitude was my father. Please serve this Sacrament of Marriage”. He answerd,” It is true I said this, but protocal does not allow me to do this. But I promise that your marriage will be served by a Bishop”. And true to his word, His Grace Bishop Antim Nica was the bishop who presided over our Sacrament. On the day of the feast of St Dimitrie, the Well Spring of Myrh, I was ordained deacon by none other than His Beatitude the patriarch.
Different Person, but same sacrament.
Where did you first serve as a priest?
In 1967 we returned to Canada and in November of that year I was ordained priest by His Grace Bishop Victorin the city of Hamilton, Ontario for the Cathedral Of St George in Windsor, Ontario. I stayed in Windsor for two years. The Dean of the Cathedral was The Rev. Arhimandrite Bartholomew Anania. We served together. I would prepare the Matins service and he would come for the Divine Liturgy. In 1969, I was appointed to Edmonton, Alberta some 4000 kms. away. The parish was formed but without a church. The parishioners here were the children of the Boian pioneers who had settled some 50 years before when the first wave of immigrants from Bucovina came. These young people left the farms and migrated to Edmonton. They formed a parish Sts. Constantine and Elena. I came to Edmonton to serve both the Edmonton and Boian community, a distance of 125 kms. from each other.
How were orthodox Christians perceived by Canadians?
Generally orthodox were considered Greeks. I western Canada, there was a different experience. Generally people had heard that Russians and Ukranians were orthodox. Orthodoxy appeared in western Canada through the Russian Orthodox Church by way of the American state of Alaska. At the time Romanians appeared on Canadian soil the other ethnic groups began to realize the Romanians are also orthodox. Only the people and language was different, worship was the same. Today the Orthodox Church is well respected and more and more people are coming.
Why is orthodoxy respected?
Because is supports the people. I for example at Boian, have service mostly in English. Why? Because there are many conversions and mixed marriages where one of the spouses does not understand Romanian. At one tim the Ukranian Othodox Church had services only in their ethnic language. Now there is more and more English used.
What does it mean for you to be a priest in Canada?
It is difficult for a Romanian priest in Canada to be serving only in the church. A married priest with family needs to have a second income. This is what I needed to do. I went back to school and got a Masters in Library Science degree and worked as Library Director. With this second income I was able raise a family and put them through university. My wife also has an advanced degree and taught at the university.
In 1989 when more and more immigrants began coming to Edmonton, I was no longer able to serve at two churches. I remained the priest at Boian and another priest was called to serve in Edmonton.
There is another spirit at Boian. That is the place where the first Romanians settled. There was a town named Boian till about 1930’s. The pioneers who came lived in sod huts for a time and on a hill nearby built their house of worship. Adjacent to the church is the cemetery for the burial of those fallen asleep. At the bottom of the hill there was a school, a store and post office. When the railway came through some 8 kms. away, the pioneers literally picked up their houses and business and moved to the railway where there was commerce and light industry. These towns were call Hairy Hill and Willingdon. The name Hairy Hill came from the buffalo that came to shed their winter coats in spring on the south facing hill.
Edmonton was and is much larger than Boian and has everything for all. It is after all the capital of the Province.
Boian is a parish in decline. There are no more farmers made. The numbers of farmers is in decline. The size of farms is increasing. A farmer can work 5 or 6 thousand acres. In spite of all of these difficulties, Romanians still come to Boian because the Romanians of Edmonton see the Boian church in the mirror of their village church back in Romania. It is here that the pioneers are buried. Midnight service on the Boian hill is impressive! The faithful go the grave sites and remember their parents and grandparents buried back in Romania. It for this reason I have chosen to serve at Boian. It is true that I live in Edmonton but Boian is in my heart. This same sentiment is in the hearts of all from this area. Young couples come to be married at Boian, and to baptise their children here. Between Easter and Ascension there is a Memorial Service to remember those fallen asleep and buried at Boian. Many who live far away for example New Jersey, Montreal, Vancouver etc. plan their holiday to be at Boian for the blessing. When the weather is warm and sunny, services are held outside and the people bring their food for fellowship each one at the grave site of their loved ones. Today there is also one common table where all partake together.
I forgot to ask about the Deanery you are Dean of?
The western Canadian Deanery covers half the territory of Canada that is from Winnipeg, Manitoba to the Pacific coast covering approximately 40 times the size of Romania. We have seven parishes that are part of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada. There are another seven or so parishes that are part of the Orthodox Church in America. The formation of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada was the desire of many Romanians of Canada for many years so that we could have a church identity in Canada. We no longer need to reply to the question, “Where is your Administrative centre? In the “USA”? Now we can say “in Canada, in Montreal”. It is a national pride.
