Dcn Michael Bishop’s Journey to Orthodoxy

by Deacon Michael Bishop

“Joseph, what are you doing in my neighborhood?”

“This is my church!”

“That’s a Catholic church?”

“Yes, Ukrainian Catholic!”

I was in the sixth grade and living on Illinois Avenue. From Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church one could look into U.S. Soldiers’ Home, the place where Abraham Lincoln lived when he was president of the United States.

This is the first time that I have ever heard of Ukrainian and of the Byzantine Rite. The priest, Rev. Theodore Danusiar, was really supportive and he was one of my many mentors. He

“was one of the three clergymen to lead the funeral procession of President John F. Kennedy”

(Wikipedia, http://ukrarcheparchy.us/national-shrine-of-the-holy-family, I also remember his telling me this).

At the time I was living on the same block on Illinois Avenue. The church was on Fourth Street NW at Randolph Street. At the time it was in a house and the priest lived upstairs. I used to go there for Liturgy and he would feed me breakfast and I would help around the church.

Although I did not know it at the time, this was probably my first step toward becoming Orthodox. I started attending Liturgy there on a regular basis. A few months later I showed up for Divine Liturgy and learned that there was a wedding that day also. I clearly was not dressed for a wedding, but that was OK. When the priest crowned the husband and wife with crowns, that made an impression on me who was only twelve at the time.

During the year or so that I attended, everything was in Church Slavonic. But that was no big deal since everything in the Western Catholic Church was in Latin and at this time I did not know either language. His mother lived with him and she did the responses. Most of the time, the Liturgy was recited and rarely sung.

Our family moved from Illinois Avenue to 1206 North Capitol Street, just twelve blocks north of the U.S. Capitol building. After I moved there, Fr. Ted called me to ask me to help with the construction of their new location on Blagden Avenue. I was in high school then.

While in high school, Fr. Ray Musulich celebrated a Divine Liturgy at Archbishop John Carroll High School. I was a senior and after the Liturgy in religion class, Fr. Joseph Keffer OSA and we discussed the Liturgy and he commented that he was surprised that

“even the Consecration was in English.”

This was before Vatican II.

After I graduated I attended the Summer School of Catholic Action and then the Summer School of Christian Apostolate. We had a Divine Liturgy celebrated by a Russian Catholic priest. I do not remember who the priest was.

I decided to go to Merrimack College since it was ran by the same order of priests who ran Archbishop Carroll High School. The high school guidance counselor correctly informed me that I could not afford that college and asked me if he could recommend a college for me. I agreed. He came up with Lincoln University in Philadelphia. I looked at the catalog and quickly realized that this was not the place for me. They did not have a major that interested me and it was a black university. Later when I told Professor Paul Shea about this at Merrimack, he replied, “You do not need to go to a black college” and today I completely understand what he said and today I firmly advise black students not to go to black universities.

After I went to college, I came home and lived one summer within walking distance of Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church and would go to Liturgy there every day. This was after my first year of college. I did not find a summer job that year.

One day I changed my route home and was pleasantly surprised to see a sign announcing Saint Gregory of Nyssa Byzantine Catholic Church with Liturgy in English. I went there one Sunday before returning to college.

I decided to go to Merrimack College since it was ran by the same order of priests who ran Archbishop Carroll High School. The high school guidance counselor correctly informed me that I could not afford that college and asked me if he could recommend a college for me. I agreed. He came up with Lincoln University in Philadelphia. I looked at the catalog and quickly realized that this was not the place for me. They did not have a major that interested me and it was a black university. Later when I told Professor Paul Shea about this at Merrimack, he replied, “You do not need to go to a black college” and today I completely understand what he said and today I firmly advise black students not to go to black universities.

A few years later the Holy Family Church moved to Blagden Avenue near Carter Baron Amphitheater. Eventually I also moved within walking distance of the church and would attend Liturgy there frequently. One day I changed my route home and was pleasantly surprised to see a sign announcing Saint Gregory of Nyssa Byzantine Catholic Church with Liturgy in English. I went there one Sunday before returning to college.

;

During my first three years at Merrimack College I was the only black male student in two of those years. I was never made to feel different or “out of place.” When I returned, we had several black students and the start of racial tension. There was no racial tension in my first three years because we few black students were a part of the community and the community welcomed us with open arms. Even in town we were well received. I can’t stop praising the Andover Bookstore. But in my senior year, the black students had their own Black Student Union and their own Winter Weekend. They wanted me to join, but I refused because I did not believe in segregation.

At the end of my first year I wanted to be on the Orientation Committee but I did not qualify because I could not attend the meeting in August. Right after the meeting I received a letter, “Welcome to the Orientation Committee.”

When I came home from college in May 1966, we were living within walking distance of the church and Sunday morning I went there for Liturgy. After Liturgy at St. Gregory the future Carol Parker and a gentleman invited me to join them for coffee and donuts and I did. They also told me about a parish dinner that Tuesday and invited me to attend. When I arrived and asked how much, they told me that I was their guest. After that they could not get rid of me, even if they wanted to do so.

During all the years that I was attending Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches and Orthodox Churches, it never occurred to me that I might had been the only black person in the congregation. I never felt out of place. Generally I was very warmly received. The first or second time that I went to a Maronite Rite church I was invited to read the Epistle.

The Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church also exposed me to the Orthodox Church. I learned that they both have a common history and in time the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church split from each other. I met a Greek man in the main Post Office in Washington DC and commented, “You broke away from us,” and he corrected me on this and said that we broke away from them. Like the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church goes back to the time of Christ. For the first one thousand years, the two were one Church.

One evening I received a telephone call from Fr. John Kurutz, the priest at Holy Resurrection Capatho-Russian Orthodox Church, which was down the street from my own church. He needed a photographer and my pastor, Fr. John Danilak, recommended me.

While a member of St. Gregory, I met Ruth Witzel through the Catholic Club of Capitol Hill and the Catholic Club of Forest Glenn, and we were married at the church. Fr. John Kurutz was asked by Ruth and me to serve at our wedding, but we had to write to the bishop for permission and our request was denied after we had put together the service book. However, he could not attend because he was kicked by a horse shortly before the wedding. On the day of the wedding both Ruth and I were surprised to see Fr. Armand Jacobin, a Melkite Catholic priest, show up. He was supposed to have been out of town. We had a full church for the wedding, both black and white.

A few months later we went to Pennsylvania for the First Liturgy of a friend, Fr. Paul. I think that it was near Pittsburgh. The people there wanted us to stay for the banquet, but we had a long ride back home, but we did stay and had a great time.

In 1969 Ruth and I moved up to Derry NH so that I could finish my college education at Merrimack College. I rarely saw another black person in New Hampshire, but I was completely a part of the community. My selection of Derry NH as a place to live is really another success story. I was close enough to Boston to get there when needed.

One day I went to Town Hall to take care of voting. I was listening to one of the candidates when suddenly Joseph DeMaria turned to me and said,

“Have you ever thought about joining the Jaycees?”

I told him that I don’t own a business. He replied,

“That doesn’t matter.”

I then said,

“I don’t even have a job.”

He again reply,

“That doesn’t matter.”

The next Tuesday he picked me up at my home and a month later I was elected secretary. My college graduation party was a big success because of the Jaycees.

After we visited her parents in Buffalo NY, Ruth left me the day after Christmas. I think that her parents were very much a part of the reason. Most people were fully supportive of us. She could not articulate what I did to make her to leave. One priest who knew her said, “I’m very surprised at Ruth.”

Eventually I went to work for Leather’s Best in Derry NH. Often I would walk to work and would constantly return waves from motorists going in the opposite direction. I left them for a job that did not exist and when I found myself without a job, I enlisted in the United States Air Force and it was at this point that I decided Orthodox. As a divorce, I could remarry in the Orthodox Church but I could not in the Catholic Church, and there are more Orthodox churches than Byzantine Catholic churches and I did not want to return to the Western Rite, especially after Vatican II.

During Basic Training I finally managed to get away and go to the Orthodox Liturgy instead of the Catholic or Protestant services. When I got to the chapel, I told Fr. Gregory Pelesh, chaplain, captain, USAF, my situation and on or around Pentecost Sunday he received me into the Church.

In high school, college, the Byzantine Rite, and the Orthodox Church, race was never an issue with me. I rarely felt as if I were different in any way. The only time that I ran into problems was when I was with other blacks. Some black people would ask me, for example, “how could you pick a college with no blacks?”

Through out my life, the only people holding me back were other black people. Generally white people have been very supportive of me and as a result, today I hold a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Merrimack College and a Master of Divinity Degree at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. In 2019 I made a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands in Israel with the support of my church.

Black people generally fall into two groups. One group loves the experiences which I share with them. They love the fact that I can speak some Russian and belong to a Russian church. They are delighted to hear that I was the first black male to attend Merrimack College.

The other group sees me as a traitor. At Comcast when I worked in the warehouse, some of my co-workers were constantly trying to start fights with me because mentally they were still on the Plantation and trying to pull me back to it.

Thank God for the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church. Not only did it lead me to the Orthodox Church, but it also kept me on the right path towards God instead of away from Him.