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Friday, October 04, 2002

MONROEVILLE: Eastern churches embrace

Two Eastern Christian churches that split bitterly from each other in 1938 will hold a conference on their common history and spirituality tomorrow in Monroeville.

This is the third year that representatives of the Byzantine Catholic Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the United States will come together to heal old wounds and learn what they have in common. The meetings were begun by the late Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Judson Procyk.

"We pray the same, we sing the same. It's almost scary -- we're like identical twins who for 50-plus years had not done anything together," said the Rev. Elias Rafaj, director of religious education for the Byzantine archdiocese.

The Orthodox diocese was created in a split from the Byzantine Catholic group. Eastern Catholics are loyal to the pope, but follow the liturgy and practices of Orthodoxy. In Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Eastern Catholics have always had married priests. But when Eastern Catholic priests started arriving in the United States with their wives and children, scandalized Latin Catholic bishops succeeded in getting Rome to forbid a married Eastern priesthood in America. The split was a reaction to that 1929 decree.

At the conference, "we are going to look at our history objectively. We are not going to partake any more of this passing down of disdain and separation from generation to generation. We will look at the good parts and the difficulties in our history, and see how that can help us grow from here," Rafaj said.

The conference will be held at the Radisson Hotel, with registration at 8:30 a.m., opening prayer at 9:30 a.m. and closing vespers at 3:30 p.m. Registration, which includes lunch, is $40 for adults, $15 for students and $8 for children, with discounts for siblings and groups.

BLAIRSVILLE: Ex-mayor to be tried

The former mayor of Blairsville will face trial on charges he stole guns and ammunition from the borough police department, counts that forced him from office last month.

James Brubaker, 65, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing yesterday before District Justice George Thachik of Clymer, Indiana County, on charges that he took guns and ammunition from the borough's police evidence room in July. Brubaker waived his right to a hearing, leaving Indiana County Common Pleas Court to schedule him for trial on charges topped by theft and receiving stolen property.

Brubaker, a second-term mayor who resigned his office last month, took the weapons and ammunition in July -- all weaponry seized by officers in criminal cases and domestic disputes -- saying he planned to sell it to buy the police department new guns. Investigators said Brubaker might have peddled some pellet guns at a flea market, but detectives found four handguns, 11 pellet guns and ammunition in his home.