Christ the King Parish in Philadelphia Celebrates 75th Anniversary and 60th Anniversary of Church Consecration

May 26, 2025

On May 25, the parish community of Christ the King in Philadelphia celebrated the 75th anniversary of its founding and the 60th anniversary of the consecration of its church. To mark the occasion, a festive Divine Liturgy was celebrated, presided over by Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, Archbishop of Philadelphia. Concelebrating with him were parish pastor Fr. Volodymyr Kozak, former pastor Fr. Yaroslav Kurpel, and the Protosyncellus of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia, Very Rev. Mitred Archpriest Peter Waslo. Deacon Ihor Demydas assisted during the Liturgy.

“As we celebrate 75 years of this community and 60 years since the consecration of this church, we give thanks to God, who is our light, and for this church, for the community, and for all the priests and faithful who have served and prayed here,” Metropolitan Borys said in his homily. He also noted that the church houses copies of the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Zarvanytsia and the Crucifixion of Christ, highlighting their spiritual significance for the faithful.

Metropolitan Borys further emphasized that Christ the King Parish has given the Church four priestly vocations: Fr. Andriy Onuferko, Fr. Mykhailo Loza, Fr. Ihor Midzak, and Fr. Roman Mirchuk, who recently passed away.

Since the celebration coincided with the Sunday of the Healing of the Man Born Blind, Metropolitan Borys focused his homily on the theme of spiritual vision. “What are we grateful for? We are grateful that for so many years, people here have seen something. They saw the source of our life and its goal; they saw what heals a person. And so they built a church, they developed a community, they wanted to be in a place where they are shown what needs to be seen, where what they are seeing is explained, where their vision is corrected and sharpened so they can see the Mother of God and the sacrifice of Christ for you and me. This sacrifice and God’s victory, which we celebrate in this Paschal season, is what heals us,” the Archbishop emphasized.

At the conclusion of his homily, Metropolitan Borys called on those present to be apostles and to invite others to the church: “I ask you to bring someone by the hand, so they can look, so they can see where the source of their life is, where the goal of their life is, where the grace is that heals the wounds of the soul, where God, who loves them, gave His life for them.”

The Divine Liturgy concluded with the anointing with holy oil, the blessing of water, and a blessing of those present. The celebration continued with a festive dinner and a concert, where parishioners and guests shared in the joy of the occasion.