Honoring Christ the King Parish: 75 Years of Community, 60 Years of Sacred Space

A new beginning for the parish in Nicetown came with the arrival of Fr. Vasyl Holovinsky in the United States on October 1, 1949. The first liturgy of Christ the King Parish took place on November 27 in a hall above an auto repair garage at 4549 Germantown Ave. The community prayed there until April 1951, when they were able to purchase a house half a mile away at 1621 West Cayuga St. Fourteen years later, a new church was built on that site, designed by architect Julian Yastremsky. This beautiful church was blessed by Metropolitan Ambrose Senyshyn on May 30, 1965.

The newly built church was the fruit determined communal labor and love. Step by step, the community continued to contribute to its adornment: an iconostasis by Dmytro Kohutych with icons painted by Julian Volynsky; sanctuary icons by Sviatoslav Hordynsky; nave paintings by Mykola Holodnyk and Ihor Mikula; and stained glass in the dome created by Borys Makarenko.

In the 1950s, through the efforts of Fr. Vasyl—who had been a parish priest in the village of Zarvanytsia in Ukraine—artist Petro Andrusiv painted copies of the miraculous icons of Our Lady of Zarvanytsia and the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. These icons were granted a plenary indulgence by the Vatican, and in 1973 Patriarch Josyf Slipyj crowned the copy of the Zarvanytsia Mother of God. After the underground Church emerged, the original miraculous icon of the Mother of God was found in the home of a village resident, but the icon of the Crucifixion was never recovered. Therefore, in 2012, thanks to the efforts of Fr. Roman Mirchuk, artist Andriy Kharyna (grandson of Petro Kholodnyi Jr) recreated a copy of the Crucifixion icon in Philadelphia, which was then brought to Zarvanytsia. Thus, the preservation and restoration of the miraculous Zarvanytsia icons at Christ the King Church helped one of them return home to the parish church in Zarvanytsia.

Over the 75 years of Christ the King Parish in Philadelphia, the following priests have served as pastors:

• 1946–1947 – Fr. Bohdan Oles
• 1949–1976 – Fr. Vasyl Holovinsky (27 years)
• 1976–1979 – Fr. Martin Canavan (3 years)
• 1979–1998 – Fr. Ivan Bilanich (19 years)
• 1998–2024 – Fr. Yaroslav Kurpel (26 years)
• 2024–present – Fr. Volodymyr Kozak

Additionally, from 1955 to 1976, the parish was assisted by the following associate priests:

• 1955–1962 – Fr. Pavlo Szymanski
• 1962–1963 – Fr. Ivan Vysochansky
• 1963 – Fr. Augustyn Molodovets
• 1963–1964 – Fr. Myron Kozmovsky
• 1964–1965 – Fr. Myroslav Lopatsiy
• 1965–1966 – Fr. Ivan Bekech
• 1966–1972 – Fr. Alexander Burak
• 1972–1976 – Fr. Martin Canavan