Services at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Church have been held for more than 100 years, when the textile mills of Fall River still provided jobs for the many Ukrainians who prayed here.
The wooden church’s onion dome and windows of yellow and blue glass remain intact. But on Sunday, the pews were empty except for a lone parishioner. Together, he and Father Mykhaylo Dosyak recited a liturgy rewritten to include references to Ukrainian soldiers and “Putin’s devil forces.”
The service lasted an hour before Father Dosyak prepared to leave for Woonsocket, where he leads a larger congregation at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church. Dosyak said he was running on an hour’s sleep, having spent the night glued to his phone watching videos of the war and calling his relatives in a village outside Lviv.
“My mom, my sister, my brother-in-law, my nieces, all of them are in Ukraine,” the priest said. “They tell me they can see the Russian jets. They can see the missiles going in the sky. They are scared.”
As sparse as attendance can be in Fall River, where the Ukrainian businesses and social clubs that once dotted the neighborhood around St. John the Baptist have long since changed hands, Father Dosyak said the church has helped Americans find local Ukrainians and support them.
“Right now, a lot of Americans come in to pray with us to show support,” Dosyak said, “and I always ask people, if you have a connection to the senators and congressmen in Washington, D.C., call them, text them, e-mail them.”
As a priest, Father Dosyak said it is his duty to focus the prayers of anyone who walks through his doors toward the conflict in Ukraine.
He said all are welcome at St. John the Baptist next Sunday. Services begin at 8:15 in the morning.
Ben Berke can be reached at bberke@thepublicsradio.org. Follow him on Twitter @BenBerke6.
