Protopresbyter Daniel and Matushka Dunya Hubiak
“The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry,” wrote Robert Burns. I had planned to get back to the Chancellor’s Diary properly today but events yesterday and a too-early flight to Denver today got in the way. I arrived a little while ago and will be heading out with Archbishop Benjamin in a couple of hours for vespers and the start of the Diocese of the West Assembly at Denver’s Holy Transfiguration Cathedral.
This is a short entry, and it’s late, but I didn’t want the day to pass without speaking about yesterday’s celebration of Father Daniel and Matushka Dunya Hubiak’s sixty years of shared service in the priesthood. The event took place at Jersey City’s Saints Peter and Paul Church, where the Hubiak’s served for a number of years. Bishop Michael of New York, Father Joseph Lickwar (rector and chancellor of the diocese) and Father Daniel concelebrated the service of thanksgiving in the presence of about a hundred well-wishers. In his remarks, Bishop Michael noted that we don’t celebrate enough the good work of our priests and their wives, and here is a shining example of faithful service over many decades in many different roles. “You served and continue to serve wherever the church needed you—whether it was greeting patriarchs as Chancellor, serving in Moscow or teaching little children at summer camp. ” At a reception afterward Father Daniel Skvir was the MC and noted that Father Hubiak and his wife, “Never shied away from difficult assignments.” At the end, Father Hubiak thanked everyone and said, “It’s all the people around who make service in the church possible. I love all of you and I love the Church. I urge all of you to keep the Church at the center of your life, because there’s much to be done and we still have a long way to go.”
Thank you Father Daniel and Matushka Dunya for your years of service and your example of steadfastness and joy in the midst of it all.