Married and Catholic priest are words many people are not used to seeing together. Army and priest are also words not usually associated with one another.
In the case of Father Ivan Nahachewsky, the new parish priest at All Saints Ukrainian Catholic Church in North Battleford, he checks all the boxes, as he is a captain in the Canadian Forces, as well as a married Ukrainian Catholic priest. He has also recently become a grandfather.
Father Ivan is the fourth of six boys born to Stella and Ostap Nahachewsky of Saskatoon. Of the six sons, two are now Ukrainian Catholic priests and one is a deacon. Saint George's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Saskatoon was only a block away from the family business and the church was a huge part of the whole family's life.
In 1985, Ivan married Debbie Pisio in Saskatoon, and they eventually raised four children, two boys and two girls. In the early years of his marriage, Ivan taught, and in 1990, he was ordained a deacon of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. That step led to an even bigger change in 1994, when Bishop Basil Filevich ordained him a priest, the first Canadian-born married man to be ordained a priest in Canada by a Canadian Bishop.
Father Ivan's ordination reflected the past practice of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine where married priests were very much a part of the tradition of the church. That tradition was interrupted by a Papal Decree of 1929 that forbade the ordination of married men in Canada. Pope John Paul II re-instituted the old traditions of the Ukrainian Catholic Church by abrograting the 1929 decree and since Father Ivan's ordination, his younger brother Bohdan, also a married man, has also been ordained a priest, as have a few other Canadian married men.
Father Ivan, while acknowledging that there is merit to both sides of the married priest debate, feels that in his case, there have been many advantages to him in terms of his ability to relate to his parishioners by being married. His marriage preparation courses for people embarking upon a life together are fueled by his own experience not just as a priest, but as a husband and father. He can speak to his parishioners about the challenges of raising children from the perspective of someone who has raised four kids.
Father Ivan has worked as a priest in Kamsack, Prince Albert and now in the North Battleford/Hafford district. He conducts two Sunday services every week, one in North Battleford and one in Hafford, or at one of Hafford's satellite churches. His more than 20 years of experience have also brought him new challenges, as the Bishop has made him the dean of the district, a consultor to the bishop and finally the co-ordinator for Vision 2020 from the Eparchy of Saskatoon. Vision 2020 is the name given to a church initiative to revitalize the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church by the year 2020.
In that last capacity, he has been obliged to travel to Europe a number of times for Vision 2020 meetings. Only weeks after his August assumption of his new role in North Battleford, he flew to Ukraine, and in November he flew to Portugal for meetings with delegates from around the world. Thus his first few months in North Battleford have been less than somnolent, as his international schedule has been busy.
In addition to his parish duties and his obligations to the bishop, Father Ivan joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 2014, following the lead of his son who joined the military after high school. Father Ivan's son pointed out the army needed padres, and after seeing the need, Father Ivan joined the Canadian Armed Forces. Father Ivan now holds the rank of Captain.
Father Ivan sees his entry into the military as a Padre the putting into practice of one of his mantras: "to be invested in your church, you must be invested outside it." His military training overlaps with what he does as a parish priest.
Addictions training in the armed forces applies equally to parish settings. After more than 20 years as a priest, his experience has allowed him to appreciate that the moments of crisis are much smaller than they might initially appear. He is prepared to call out the elephant in the room.
He looks forward to dealing with challenges, and he enjoys the prospect of making isolated Christian communities feel like they are one with the larger community.
It would appear that the North Battleford and Hafford districts have acquired an energetic priest whose background is very different from what one might expect.
