Holy Cross in Placentia, CA

Monday's Map: We're traveling with the angels! 

Today we're flying over to Placentia, California, USA where you'll find the Melkite Greek-Catholic  parish of Holy Cross.

New Church Buildings

Current Exterior

Current Iconostasis

Holy Cross parish serves all of Orange County and also draws from Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties with its full liturgical cycle, Eastern Christian Formation program, and active parish organizations. They are planning the construction of a new temple, office facilities, and a meeting center with classrooms to serve the parish's growing needs. Their youth group is active and their Lady's Society is the largest of its kind in any church in the United States. 

Their priest, Fr. James Babcock, works with the Society of St. John Chrysostom and was recently interviewed on The Illumined Heart. The host, Kevin Allen, is an Orthodox Christian whose program airs on Ancient Faith Radio, an Internet-based Orthodox radio station. They discussed "the similarities and differences between Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church." You can listen to their interview here, then you can visit Holy Cross on the web and in person.

Liturgy schedule: 

• Great Vespers is celebrated each Saturday at 6 p.m. 
• Orthros (Matins & Lauds) is celebrated each Sunday at 10 a.m. 
• The Holy and Divine Liturgy is celebrated each Sunday at 11 a.m. 
• Holy Days and Weekdays as announced 
• Eastern Christian Formation Program (Grades 1-8) Sunday after Liturgy

The parish is currently served by the following:

• The Rt. Rev. Archimandrite James Babcock, Pastor
• The Reverend Deacon Edward Faulk, Pastoral Associate
• The Reverend Deacon Elias Kashou

Monday's Map highlights Eastern and Oriental Catholic institutions as well as those who run and serve them.

St. Joseph the Betrothed UGCC of Chicago, Illinois

I will post more information tonight on the parish, but I want to get this out there right now. St. Joseph the Betrothed UGCC is live streaming Vespers for the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple right... about... now.

(It was live streaming and had not yet started a couple minutes ago, but at the moment of posting it was saying the channel had gone offline. Hopefully it comes back quickly.)

Go see it here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/st-joseph-the-betrothed

Then come back tonight to read more about their parish!

Holy Ghost in McKees Rocks, PA

Monday's Map: We're traveling with the angels! 

Today we're flying over to McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, USA where you'll find the Byzantine Catholic (Ruthenian) parish of Holy Ghost.

 

The parish has Eastern Christian formation (religious education) classes every week, is surrounded with beautiful iconography and stained glass, and maintains a mission location in northern Pittsburgh. Their Sunday Liturgy is broadcast on WEDO and streamed online from 9-10 AM EST. They also maintain a presence on Facebook, which you can find here.

Their website has a wealth of information including numerous articles for those unfamiliar with the Byzantine Church or making a first visit. Check it out! http://www.holyghost-byzantinecatholic.org/

Liturgy schedule:

• Saturdays until April 2011 4:00 PM (Anticipated Divine Liturgy--typically 6:00 PM)
• Sundays 9:00 AM (Divine Liturgy)
• Sundays 9:00 AM (Divine Liturgy broadcast on 810 AM WEDO)
• Sundays 10:30-11:15 AM (Eastern Christian formation classes)
• Sundays 11:00 AM (Divine Liturgy at mission location)
• Weekdays 8:00 AM (Divine Liturgy)
• Holy Days 9:00 AM (Divine Liturgy)

The parish is currently served by the following:

• Fr. Frank A. Firko
• An extremely proficient crew of altar servers, so I hear.

Monday's Map gives updates on the Universal Map project and highlights Eastern and Oriental Catholic institutions as well as those who run and serve them.

Our Lady of Wisdom Italo-Greek Byzantine Catholic Parish

Monday's Map: We're traveling with the angels! 

Today we're flying over to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA where you'll find the Italo-Greek Byzantine Catholic parish of Our Lady of Wisdom.

The Italo-Greco-Albanian Catholic faithful primarily consist of the descendants of 15th and 16th Century Albanians who moved to the areas of Calabria and Sicily in Southern Italy. Our Lady of Wisdom is one of two Italo-Greek Catholic parishes in the United States. Since they have so few faithful in the US,  they are placed under the pastoral care of a local bishop, in this case His Grace, Bishop Gerald Nicholas Dino of the Ruthenian Eparchy of Phoenix. They therefore use Ruthenian liturgical books with some of their own retained customs such as touching their foreheads to the Gospels and chalice.

The parish is a dynamic mix of people from diverse backgrounds. Their activities include religious education, small groups based on age and/or interests, an Irish folk music night, festivals, a prayer tree, regular liturgical services, a traveling icon for vocations, weekly devotionals, a mission location, and much more.

Their website has a wealth of information including answers to many frequent questions. Check it out! http://ourladyofwisdom.net/

Liturgy schedule:

• Saturday 5:00 PM (Vesper Liturgy)
• Sunday 10:00 AM (Third Hour)
• Sunday 10:30 AM (Divine Liturgy)
• Wednesday 7:00 PM (Akathist and Anointing of the Sick)

The parish is currently served by the following:

• Rt. Rev. Archimandrite Francis Vivona, S.T.M., J.C.L, Pastor
• Rev. Deacon Stephen E. Casmus, M.A.
• Ms. Rose Watkins, Christodoula
• Mr. Joseph Cusumano, Permanent Counselor
• Mr. William Griffith (Reigning Patriarch) and Ms. Kehaulani Harker (Reigning Matriarch)
• Mrs. Toni Ritchey (Secretary) and Ms. Claire Lynott (Finance Officer)

And in cartography news, here's what's happening with the Universal Map:

• Jack Liu added a number of parishes to the map, primarily in Canada and California. Thank you!
• This link explains how to view all map pages on one page, how to easily reorder the listings to group them by location, and other similar how-tos. If there are any problems figuring it out, let me know. I'm going to try the re-ordering this week.
• If you have a google associated ID that you'd like me to "invite" as a "collaborator" to the map, it might make editing easier. The map is set to allow anyone to edit it, but I'm not clear if it functions differently for those specifically listed. Let me know if you'd like me to add you. 

Monday's Map gives updates on the Universal Map project and highlights Eastern and Oriental Catholic institutions as well as those who run and serve them.

Ss. Peter and Paul UGCC Cathedral in Melbourne, AU

Monday's Map: We're traveling with the angels!

Today we're flying over to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia where you'll find the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic cathedral of Ss. Peter and Paul.

The cathedral was featured in the 2007 book Windows to Heaven: the Icons of the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Melbourne which was written in both English and Ukrainian.

Their eparchial website has a wealth of information including an Ask the Priest column and videos of services. Check it out! http://www.catholicukes.org.au/

Liturgy schedule:

• Sunday 8:00 AM (Recited Liturgy)
• Sunday 9:30 AM (Ukrainian Divine Liturgy)
• Sunday 11:30 AM (English Divine Liturgy)
• Weekdays 9:00 AM (Divine Liturgy)

The cathedral is currently served by the following clergy:

• Most Rev. Peter Stasiuk C.Ss.R. (Bishop)
• Rt. Rev. Mitrat Olexander Kenez (Chancellor/Protosynce), Fr. Felix Figureк (Administrator), Rt. Rev. Mitrat Zenon Chorkawyj, Very Rev. Fr. Peter Struk, Fr. Robert Stickland, Fr. Brian Kelty
• Rev. Deacon Edward Kostraby

And in cartography news, here's what's happening with the Universal Map:

• I updated several UGCC parishes in Australia, mostly changing the title from "Ukrainian Catholic Church" to the parish's full name.
• I added several Australian UGCC parishes that weren't previously on the universal map.
• I created place markers for five UGCC parishes that were not previously marked in Google Maps as businesses/churches.
• I sent emails to the administrators of the 5 newly-added parishes to let them know that a postcard will arrive in the mail in 2-3 weeks with a pin number that I must enter in order for the church to be labeled on Google Maps. (If your priest receives one, please let him know it is legit.)

Monday's Map gives updates on the Universal Map project and highlights Eastern and Oriental Catholic institutions as well as those who run and serve them.

St. Mary's Coptic Catholic Church in Los Angeles

If you're near LA, check out St. Mary's Coptic Catholic Church.
2701 Newell St.
Los Angeles, California 90039
And if you aren't close by, check them out online: http://stmaryccc.com/




Video transcript as translated by Free Translation and modified slightly by Catherine Alexander.


The Coptic Catholic Church
The biblical sources (Actions and Letters) do not speak of the evangelization of Egypt. Tradition attributes the foundation of this Church to the Evangelist Mark. But the Coptic Church has also the merit of having given life, in the 4th Century, to the monastic tradition. An impressive phenomenon that spread itself from Egypt first to the East (Palestine, Syria, Cappadocia) and then to all of the west. The statistics relating to the Copts in Egypt say that from a population of about 75 million residents, the Coptic number of Christians changes to second if to supply the is the Muslim government or the church. The Coptic Orthodox are estimated to be between 6 and 9 million. The faithful Coptic Catholic are about 250,000, subdivided in seven diocese in Egypt and 13 parishes in foreign countries. They are served from nine bishops, beneficiaries from 200 priests and Franciscan monks, in 174 parishes in Egypt, but also in Europe, North America, Australia and the Middle East. Since the 7th Century, the Coptic tongue was often replaced by the Arabic tongue, and today the liturgical books present a bilingual text, Coptic and Arabic, mixed here and there with Greek formulas, restive of the original tongue. The Catholic formation of a Coptic community in Egypt derives from the work carried out of preaching first from the Franciscan, that in 1630 were based on a mission to the Cairo, and later on, post 1675, also from the Jesuits. "The Church of Egypt is passed across periods a lot more difficult and harder. You make sentences of true persecution". To affirm the S. B Mons. Antonio Naguib, Coptic Patriarch Catholic - that continues: "But it is gone out of it stronger and more dynamic. As for the future, once again, we put ourselves between the hands of God, with much trust and hope."