Welcome to The Chasing Domes Project

Hi there. Welcome to The Chasing Domes Project.

This open-ended Project will explore the people and Ukrainian sacred places in North America. To tell their stories and to reunite them to the collective memory.

The hope is to rediscover and highlight the communities where Ukrainians settled in the United States and beyond. Special emphasis will be given to smaller communities, individuals, and sacred places west of the Mississippi. The Project will feature a collection of original stories, essays, recorded audio, maps, interviews, and photos.

Why Chasing Domes?

Most often churches were (and are) the center of each community. And the domes rose (and rise) above the settlement as some piece of the Old World and perhaps some peace for the heart. And with churches there are plenty of records. Or are there?

We will look at and for places perhaps no longer on the map. All that could be left is just a cemetery on the wide open prairie or one slowly disappearing into an ancient forest. Down dirt roads and miles away from any town are all but forgotten churches with golden domes that have withstood harsh winters and decades of silence. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, under a tropical sun and gentle tradewinds, resting forever are people who toiled far from their native Ukraine. Did they establish a church? We will find out.

Montana, California, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and yes, even Hawaii. And many more, too.

In these communities, once thriving, were people who each had a story. Each journeyed by foot then train then boat to a far away land with a different language and a different culture, thousands of miles za okeanom. Many left hoping to return after a few years; most didn't. Many left their families and homeland forever. Such was the case of my baba (grandmother) who, even in her old age, would tearfully and painfully recall the final embrace and parting words of her parents at the age of 22. A profound sadness which is still felt across the veil of time.

It is these people who worked in deep mines, farmed the harsh prairie, and toiled on the sugar cane plantations under a relentless sun. And wherever they settled a community was formed, creating a piece of the Old in the New.

Some still exist and are active to this day– and these communities will be featured in the Project, as well.

Others are all but lost to history, leaving small traces, digital and physical, for us to piece together. Domes for us to chase.

Dedication

The Chasing Domes Project is dedicated to those who left Ukraine seeking a better life in a foreign land. It’s dedicated to those orphaned and widowed by coal mine accidents. It's dedicated to those who died of exposure and starvation on the wild prairies. It’s dedicated to the priests and nuns who crossed the ocean to serve a scattered people. It’s dedicated to those who never saw Ukraine again.

And most of all, this Prioject is dedicated to our kinsmen repelling the invasion of a godless horde that has waged terror, horrors, and genocide on our ancestral homeland-- once again.