The International Old Catholic Bishops’ Conference (IBC) of the Union of Utrecht announced that it is ending its mission with Old Catholic parishes in Italy effective July 1, 2011. Several parishes affiliated with with the IBC or The Episcopal Church (TEC) in Europe, especially in Italy, have recognized a consistency in faith and Tradition with the PNCC, and have sought recognition and oversight from the PNCC.
A Synod and convocation of the Nordic Catholic Church will be held from Friday, August 5th through Sunday, August 7th.
The Synod will take place at St. John the Baptist Church, Oslo, on Friday, August 5th beginning at 10am. Holy Mass will be held in St. John’s Church beginning at 4:30pm with its principal celebrant the Rt. Rev. Thaddeus Peplowski of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese of the PNCC. A cultural evening will follow at Lovisenberg Guesthouse beginning at 7pm.
On Saturday, August 6th the day will begin with Lauds in St. John’s Church at 9am. From 10am to 12pm there will be a presentations in the chapel of the Catinka Guldberg Centre. Bishop Peplowski will speak on: “My vision for Norway, then and now.” Bishop Flemestad will present: “Faith and Hope – The Road Ahead.” A children’s program will also be held simultaneous to the presentations. Lunch at Catinka Guldberg Centre will begin at 12pm. At 4:30pm Bishop Roald Nikolai Flemestad will be officially installed as Bishop of the Nordic Catholic Church by Bishop Thaddeus Peplowski during Holy Mass at St. John the Baptist Church. Bishop Flemestad will be the principal celebrant. There will be a reception immediately following at the Lovisenberg Guesthouse.
On Sunday, August 7th Holy Mass will be held at St. John the Baptist Church at 11am. A reception will follow at the Cathinka Guldberg Centre.
Bishop Jerzy Szotmiller of the Polish Catholic Church reposed in the Lord this afternoon, July 31, 2011, in Częstochowa, Poland. May Your servant and bishop Jerzy rest in peace O Lord!
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and may the perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace. Amen.
Wieczne odpoczynek racz mu dać Panie, a światłość wiekuista niechaj mu świeci.
Niech odpoczywa w pokoju, Amen.
Ś.P. Bishop Jerzy was born in Warsaw, Poland on February 20, 1933. He was ordained to the Holy Priesthood in the Polish Catholic Church by Bishop Maksymilian Rode on February 24, 1961. From October 1975 to November 1976 he served the Polish National Catholic Church in Brazil. On July 29, 1979 he was consecrated Bishop of the Polish Catholic Church in Holy Ghost Cathedral, Warsaw, Poland by the Prime Bishop of the Polish Catholic Church, Most Rev. Dr. Tadeusz Ryszard Majewski with co-consecrators Most Rev. Francis Rowiński (PNCC), Rt. Rev. Joseph Niemiński (PNCC), and Most Rev. Emeritus Maksymilian Rode.
From 1979 to 1986 he served as Suffragan Bishop for the Warsaw Diocese while also serving the Cathedral Parish of Our Lady Queen of Apostles in Częstochowa. He was appointed Bishop Ordinary of the Kraków-Częstochowa Diocese as of June 9, 1986, and held that position until his death. He was predeceased by his wife Regina.
Ś.P. Bishop Jerzy was actively involved in the ecumenical movement, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and ecumenical meetings in the Silesian region of Poland.
A Requiem Holy Mass will be celebrated on August 5, 2011 at 12 noon in the Cathedral Parish of Our Lady Queen of Apostles in Częstochowa.
When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a lonely place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. — Matthew 14:15-21
From the Star Courier: Renovation under way at Holy Trinity Church
It was 1928 when the local paper published news that Polish immigrants would build a new church in Kewanee. The church was completed during that year and the first Mass was celebrated as the Christmas Eve Shepherds Mass in 1928.
For over 83 years, the Holy Trinity Church steeple has contributed to Kewanee’s landscape. But like any old building, this one also needs constant maintenance and care. The wooden cross on the top of the steeple, once heavy and strong, had lost its good appearance. The roof and the walls started deteriorating.
A few years ago the heating and cooling system were upgraded. There is now air-conditioning in the church and downstairs in the church hall. With the updated heating system, there was no longer a need for the chimney on the east side of the church building.
The Parish Committee, pastor and all members of the congregation decided to give the church back its beautiful look. The renovation will be expensive and will last all summer, but the final result will be great.
Parish Committee Chairman David Draminski said, “Our plan is to make the church up-to-date and more inviting, but to keep it traditional.” Holy Trinity Parish members understand that it is worth every effort to keep the church in good condition.
Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church is a big part of Kewanee history and close to the hearts of many Kewaneeans. Not only members, but many of our friends like to come and taste our delicious Polish food — Polish sausage, pierogies, sauerkraut — at our St. Joseph’s Supper in March, Easter Brunch, The More on 34 Polish food sale, our Fourth of July food stand at Francis Park, and our Polish Sausage Supper in October and the Polish food sale in December.
The work will be completed by Summy Construction, 703 N Main St, Kewanee, IL. Telephone: 309-853-9966. The renovation is not expected to disrupt worship services held on Sundays at 9 a.m. Neighbors are asked to forgive any inconvenience related to the construction.
To follow up the progress of renovation drive by the church at 716 N. Tremont St., Kewanee or visit the Parish website and photo gallery.
Poland has recovered a treasured painting, stolen by Germany during World War II. I had posted Gierymski’s similar painting as my Art-for-the-Day on March 22nd.
From the Guardian: Polish painting returned to Warsaw after 67 years on missing list: Aleksander Gierymski’s Jewish Woman Selling Oranges retrieved after turning up at Hamburg auction house
A valuable 19th century Polish painting missing since the second world war has been returned to Poland after being removed from auction in Germany.
Aleksander Gierymski’s Jewish Woman Selling Oranges was unveiled in Poland on Wednesday by culture minister Bogdan Zdrojewski, who said the return came after many months of negotiations with lawyers representing a German who had possessed it for more than 30 years.
“During those long months, my main thought was to have this picture returned to Poland,” Zdrojewski said.
The work – sometimes referred to as the Orange Vendor – dates from 1880-1881 and is one of several Gierymski works showing Jewish life in poor parts of Warsaw.
The oil on canvas shows an old woman in a cap and with a thick shawl over her shoulders knitting as she holds two baskets, one filled with oranges. She has shrunken cheeks that give her an impoverished look, and is set against a foggy Warsaw skyline.
It has been returned to its original home in the National Museum in Warsaw, where it will undergo many months of renovation.
Museum director Agnieszka Morawinska described it as a “priceless masterpiece” that pleased the painter, rarely content with his own work.
Its return is a “very special day and a true gift for the museum”, she said.
The picture went missing from the museum in 1944, five years into Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland.
It was among a huge numbers of cultural artefacts stolen by German and Soviet forces during their joint wartime occupation of Poland. The country’s government is making efforts to find and bring the works of art back.
The painting resurfaced last November among items offered for sale at a small auction house near Hamburg.
Poland’s chief insurer, PZU SA, paid an undisclosed sum in compensation to the German who had acquired the painting.
Of note, Gierymski painted two similar works: “Żydówka z cytrynami” and “Żydówka z pomarańczami” literally “Jewess with Lemons” and “Jewess with Oranges.”
Gazetta Wyborcza notes in Pomarańczarka w areszcie from November 2010, that Gierymski’s “Jewish woman with oranges” was looted from the National Museum in Warsaw during the war. His other, similar work, “Jewess with Lemons” is on display at the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom. Both paintings have different details, but express the same emotions and situations: toil, the bitterness of existence, persistence in spite of lost illusions, a lonely, tragic, damaged figure pushed down but not broken, and ultimately beautiful.
An example of oranges and lemons together in today’s painting: “Pomarańcze i cytryny,” “Oranges and Lemons” by Edward Okuń.
From KICKSTARTER: Wisia’s Story, A Documentary project in Warsaw, Poland by Karina Wielgosz & Paul Barry
In 1944, twenty-three year-old Jadwiga (known affectionately to her family as ‘Wisia’) had been living in her native Poland under the yoke of German-occupation for almost five years. Unbeknownst to the invaders, an underground force was mobilizing with the aim of reclaiming at least part of its homeland. The ‘Armia Krajowa’ (‘Home Army’) operated in secret, received its orders from the exiled Polish government and employed the skills of many young people like Wisia to aid them in the uprising.
A select group of youth, including Wisia and her brother, had been secretly selected and trained in running messages and administering medical aid. This group of young civilians supported and sometimes even fought alongside the Armia Krajowa. Their jobs were extremely dangerous but they carried out their missions with remarkable bravery. Our documentary will explore not only the historical details of Wisia’s experience but just as importantly, the composition of her courage, to be able to survive – and ultimately escape – when so many were imprisoned or perished at the hands of these violent intruders.
On the 1st of August 1944, led by the Armia Krajowa, the proud people of Poland united in an attempt to repel the invaders from the city of Warsaw. Through a series of operations and concerted attacks, the civilian-supported Armia Krajowa devastated the German occupiers in the short-term and formed the backbone of what history remembers as The Warsaw Uprising. The uprising’s subsequent failure, eventual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers and citizens and Hitler’s vindictive destruction of 90% of the city, does nothing to bury the bravery of all who fought during this period for the basic privilege of a peaceful life.
Countless other stories of bravery by soldiers and civilians alike also remain untold, but the selfless actions of one particular twenty-three year-old woman remain a timeless demonstration of heroism in the face of tremendous adversity. This young woman, Wisia, is now a great-grandmother approaching her 90th birthday with a spring in her step and glint in her eye. She is our grandmother and we can no longer allow her sacrifices to remain simply a page on an historical website. For decades her full story has remained untold, but with your backing we will travel back in time with Wisia. She will acquaint us with the locations, walk us through salient events and introduce us to the survivors of such an unforgettable time in her life, in Warsaw, Poland…
Lend your support to the project. They are 65% of the way there. You can help tell this story before it is too late.