About the Artist: Alexander P. Russo (1922- ), Specialist First Class, USNR
Russo studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in 1942. First assigned as a graphic artist for the Navy recruiting bureau, he documented in art North African, Sicilian, and Normandy invasion operations. While completing that work he came into contact with the Navy Combat Art Program. He later transferred to that section and completed an assignment on board U.S.S. Tranquility in the Pacific. Russo received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his combat artwork. After the war, he continued to study art and later taught at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C and Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. He exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, mainly in New York, Washington, D.C., and East Hampton, Long Island.
Heavenly Father, Whose care and guidance brought our forefathers to this great land, and led them through faith, courage and self-sacrifice to build the foundations of a great democratic nation, dedicated to Thy service and the rights of man, lead us, O God, in our day, as Thou didst lead our forefathers, and help us to be faithful stewards of the heritage which Thou hast entrusted to us.
Reverently, on this Memorial Day, in Thy holy presence, we pay our tribute of respect to the memory of those who gave their lives in the service of our country. We pray, that the souls of these, our heroic dead may have found perfect rest in Thee, and received the crown of an unfading life. O Thou, Eternal Lover of souls, cherish and bless them, we entreat Thee, and give unto us, the living, peace and hope as we think of them in this solemn hour.
Before Thee, O Lord God, we humbly acknowledge our debt to them, and beseech Thee to give us the strength, to go on towards the ideals for which they fought and died. Take, O Lord, the veil from their hearts, and join us in one communion with all Thy saints on earth, and in the life beyond.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — From Memorial Day Prayers according to the Ritual of the Polish National Catholic Church
The lnstallation of the Rt. Rev. John Mack as Eighth Bishop Ordinary of the Central Diocese and Pastor of Saint Stanislaus, Bishop & Martyr Cathedral will take place on Sunday, June 5th.
The Holy Rite of lnstallation will be celebrated during a Holy Mass scheduled for 4 pm. A celebratory reception will be held in the Cathedral Youth Center following Holy Mass.
Bishop Mack has been serving as Bishop Ordinary since February 1, 2011.
Please join in formally welcoming Bishop Mack by your presence, and if unable to attend, through your prayers.
Update from the Scranton Times Tribune: New bishop to be installed Sunday in Polish National Catholic diocese
The new bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church’s Central Diocese will be installed during a Mass at St. Stanislaus Cathedral on Sunday, four months after he assumed the post in Scranton.
The Right Rev. John Mack became bishop of the denomination’s largest diocese on Feb. 1 when he arrived in a snowstorm from his previous assignment as auxiliary bishop in the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese.
The installation ceremony will officially mark the start of a new era in the diocese under its eighth bishop.
“The work has gone on before – you were on the job already – but now it is official,” Bishop Mack said.
Bishop Mack was selected for the post after the diocese’s previous bishop, the Most Rev. Anthony Mikovsky, was elected Prime Bishop last fall. Bishop Mack is also pastor of St. Stanislaus Cathedral, the denomination’s mother church.
Sunday’s ceremony will draw parishioners and more than 30 priests from across the diocese, which stretches from New York to Maryland. Bishops and pastors from other Polish National Catholic dioceses and other denominations also are expected to attend.
“It’s a time for the diocese to come together and celebrate,” Bishop Mack said.
The Mass will begin at 4 p.m. and will be followed by a reception in the parish youth center.
We have a rather momentous occasion to take place on the last Monday of July, July 25, 2011 the Feast of St. James the Greater, Apostle.
Through the ministry of Bishop Thaddeus Peplowski (Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese), a number of churches in the Nordic countries have accepted the practice and norms of the Polish National Catholic Church and have developed into the Nordic Catholic Church, coming under the umbrella of the Union of Scranton.
At the synod held in Oslo, Norway late last year, a priest of the Church, the Rev. Roald Nikolai Flemestad, was elected as a candidate for bishop. This in one way will bolster the churches looking for stability and focus as it looks to serve its people in the future.
Father Flemstad’s consecration to the episcopal office will take place on the Feast of Saint James the Greater at Saint Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr cathedral in Scranton. What a joyous occasion it will be!
Father Flemstad addressed our Holy Synod in October 2010. He so looked forward to visiting the American church, and now will serve as the leader of the Nordic congregations.
Members of the churches in Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Italy will travel to Scranton to take part in the service. The readings and liturgy will be celebrated in both languages. The bishops of our Church will serve as co-consecrators, with, Most Rev. Anthony Mikovsky, our Prime Bishop serving a principal consecrator.
Philip went down to a city of Sama’ria, and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice; and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city.
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Sama’ria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert road. And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Can’dace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless some one guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this:
“As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth.”
And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azo’tus, and passing on he preached the gospel to all the towns till he came to Caesare’a. — Acts 8:5-8,14-17,26-40
From Wikipedia:
The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee or People of the Longhouses) who lived in New York, Ontario, and Quebec built and lived in longhouses. Longer than they were wide, these longhouses had openings at both ends that served as doors and were covered with animal skins during the winter to keep out the cold. On average a typical longhouse was about 80 by 18 by 18 ft (24 by 5.5 by 5.5 m) and was meant to house up to twenty or more families, most of which were typically matrilinearly related. Poles were set in the ground and braced by horizontal poles along the walls. The roof is made by bending a series of poles, resulting in an arc-shaped roof. The frame is covered by bark that is sewn in place and layered as shingles, and reinforced by light poles… Ventilation openings, later singly dubbed as a smoke hole, were positioned at intervals possibly totalling five to six along the roofing of the longhouse.
Tribes or ethnic groups in the northeast of North America, south and east of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie that had traditions of building longhouses are, among others, the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) including the Five Nations Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk. Also the Wyandot and Erie. Another large group that built longhouses, among others, were the Lenni Lenape, living from the lower Hudson River, along the Delaware River and on both sides of the Delaware Bay, and the Pamunkey of the maybe-related Powhatan Confederacy in Virginia.
