Tar5as Shevchenko Concert at St. Stephen Parish

 

The Ukrainian community came together on March 19, 2006 to celebrate and honor the memory of Taras Shevchenko. A wonderful program of song, recitation, and remarks was followed by a brunch reception was sponsored by the Ukrainian-American Club in the church hall. The outpouring of love and respect would have touched our native son and poet laureate. The program master of ceremony Ihor Dworjan delivered the following remarks:

It is almost a century and a half since Taras Schevchenko departed this earth. He is remembered to this day with great reverence and held in high esteem. He is a singular Ukrainian treasure who continues to speak to us through his articulate and moving writing.

Yet, Taras Shevchenko’s work is more than words laid down on paper. For underlying, all of his works is his messages to his fellow man, fellow Ukrainians and to the world about social injustices, human weaknesses, and sin. His words are rich, eloquent, and vibrant. His sadder and more melancholy words pull on our heart like great classical music played by a virtuoso violinist. His words both inspire us and make us wistful. They have that special ability to reach into our souls with their message of love and hope.

 

I think of his writings as a special piece of glass. We can look into it to see stories of our past - our rich Cossack history that Shevchenko was so very proud of. We can then put backing on that glass and it becomes a mirror. A mirror we can look into and measure our own hearts and souls against the standard Shevchenko sets for us.

 

Shevchenko was a man of high moral integrity and principal. There were those individuals who advised Taras Shevchenko that if he desired fame and

 

 money, he should write not about ragged, illiterate people, but on subjects dealing with high society (such as were then treated in Russian literature), and furthermore that he should write in the Russian language. Taras Shevchenko replied categorically, saying: “The sheepskin coat is warm, but not made to my measure.”

He wrote about not only the abusiveness and oppression by the Russians, Poles, Turks and others on Ukrainians, but he also wrote about the abusiveness and oppressions by Ukrainians themselves on their fellow man. He wrote about Ukrainian aristocrats, intellectuals, and leaders of the day who “talked the talk”, but did not “walk the walk”.

Shevchenko has been regarded as one of the most prayerful poets. Throughout his humble and difficult life, his faith in God remained unshaken. He was an enemy of all human oppression, having been a victim of Russian oppression when imprisoned. Many of his poems began with a quotation from the Bible.

He was strong in spirit and stood up for his beliefs - his faith in God, his embrace of his heritage, his compassion for the underprivileged and his love for humanity. He did not sway to popular opinion to make his poetry financially successful or more popular with the majority or to placate anyone. These were not his concerns.

Taras Shevchenko was well respected by many people around the world. The great English novelist and humanist Charles Dickens, admired and respected Shevchenko, and was grieved to hear of Shevchenko’s death. Shevchenko’s obituary in London included Dicken’s comments on the passing of his respected contemporary.


It is written that Shevchenko’s casket being carried to Kiev, from St. Petersburg, in an oxen drawn carriage, attracted memorial services and valedictories from many throngs of people along the way. Only in Kiev, all orations were forbidden. However, one gesture of a woman surpassed all eulogies when she placed a wreath of thorns on his casket.

The Ukrainian soul is deeper than wearing embroidered shirts, dancing, and singing Ukrainian folk songs. The Ukrainian soul as Shevchenko saw it, consists of liberty, equality, fraternity, and the Ukrainian soul reaches to God with an endearing faith and with humility, with respect for, and fear of God, with respect for humankind and the looking out for one’s neighbor, without expectation of anything in return. Shevchenko and his poetry should be, and must be, celebrated in a contemplative manner. We would do well to reflect on his message to his people and to all nations.

Taras Shevchenko was more than a poet, by some definitions even perhaps a genius. However, even more importantly he was a God loving and God-fearing man whose poetry advocated and suffered for liberty, equality, and fraternity of the Ukrainian people and for all oppressed people in the world. Shevchenko was, and his poetry is, a quite special gift to the whole world.

May God rest his immortal soul!!

Slava Bohu
Slava Shevchenkovu
Slava Ukraini