Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Father Ihor Chabursky: +Memory Eternal!

Dr. Alexander Roman alex.roman@unicorne.org

It is often the case that when clerical celibacy appears in news articles or popular journals that the “married priesthood” is introduced somewhere in the discussion as a panacea for any and all perceived problems involving unmarried priests.

Marriage for priests would solve everything, we are told, introducing smooth sailing where there are choppy waters otherwise. In fact, this is a gross oversimplification of the many challenges a married priest in North America faces, along with his wife and family.

December 22, 2008 marked the third anniversary of the repose of my sister-in-law, Renata’s, father, the Reverend Ihor Chabursky. A reflection on his life can serve to highlight those challenges.

Born into a Ukrainian Catholic priestly family, Ihor grew up in the inspiring shadow of his dad, Father Stepan Chabursky, who was, by all estimates, a great role-model who reflected the ideal of the community-spirited servant of the people that is the Ukrainian priest.

Father Stepan fought, and was wounded, in the Ukrainian wars of liberation as a member of the “Sich Riflemen” or “Sichovy Striltsy.” He was a priest under Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky and later emigrated to western Canada with his family where he served in a number of parishes. Always interested in academic theology, he found time to write a book entitled “The Epiclesis” that is remarkable for its encyclopaedic depth and review of many numerous liturgical traditions.

Father Stepan was known for his dedicated visits to our people in hospitals where he was always warmly welcomed by them. It was he who visited my own father when he was in hospital one Ukrainian Christmas day. I will never forget the gift my father received from him – a prayer card with pressed dried flowers that were laid on the site of Christ’s Birth at Bethlehem and which I still cherish.

Father Ihor worked as a civil servant as he raised his family with his wife, Roma. It was Roma who supported his decision to begin studies that would lead him to the Diaconate and then to the Priesthood. The successful, ongoing formation of any married priest is only made possible by the willing cooperation and support of his Presbytera!

A lover of classical music, Fr. Ihor had a sonorous voice that added to the beauty of the liturgical celebrations he served. There were always aspects of his priestly work that were familiar to him because of his upbringing in a priestly family and the example of his father. But that didn’t prevent him from bringing his own multi-faceted personality into his ministry.

A tireless organizer who knew how to effectively lift a parish mortgage, Fr. Ihor knew and understood the youth of his parishes who were naturally drawn by his own youthful vigour.

Fr. Ihor greatly venerated the Most Holy Mother of God and we all remember his insistence on singing entire Theotokia/Marian hymns from memory as part of his table blessings at family functions. In fact, it was his devotion to the Theotokos that inspired his priestly vocation as it deepened his relationship with Her Son, Jesus Christ, the Word of God Incarnate.

Judging from his broad smile, one would never even suspect the many challenges he had to overcome in his life before arriving at the Altar of the Lord. Those struggles only intensified and were inevitable when one tries valiantly to become, to quote St Paul, “All things to all people.” But the smile remained, just the same. Throughout it all, Fr. Ihor was always very “Ukrainian.” He loved and was entirely at home in his Ukrainian identity with its colourful material culture, music and emotive spirituality.

He was descended from the aristocratic Ukrainian family of the Drohomoretsky whose ancestors included many priests and bishops. The Drohomoretsky House Icon was the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, formerly of Kyiv-Belz, which his ancestors enshrined in a special chapel that is among the six such chapels that are still extant at Czestochowa.

Father Ihor shared in the priestly joy of being able to give of himself to his wider family that was comprised of his parishioners. His family joined him in that endeavour and his daughter, Renata, with her husband (and my brother) Eugene and his son, Orest, integrated that public service ideal into their lives. In priestly families, only the father who is the priest is formally ordained, of course – but his priestly vocation is always one that is shared by his Presbytera and his children.

When Father Ihor reposed in the Lord three years ago, it was his infectious smile and happy, sonorous singing voice before the Iconostasis that we remembered most about him. Their absence from our lives is what deepened our sense of loss.

The vocation of a married priest is always a fulfilling one, if the life is truly desired and shared in with one’s entire family. A married priest is ever aware of how dependent he is on the love and understanding of his Presbytera and children to best fulfill his vocation. Married priesthood is an ongoing exercise in humility and self-understanding as no other way of life can be. That is perhaps why married priests make such excellent, supportive guides for their parishioners. That is why our married priests are such an integral part of our ecclesial and national history as well. + Memory Eternal

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