Published: June 15, 2009 11:29 am      

OSU club visits Russian church in Hartshorne

On April 19, ten members of the Oklahoma State University Russian club came to Hartshorne to attend the Divine Liturgy on Orthodox Easter Sunday at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Church in Hartshorne. The service was conducted by Reverend Joseph Nelson. Club members included Tabitha Manners, president of the OSU Russian club; Mark Nelson, vice-president of the Russian club; Jesse Cruce, treasure of the Russian club; James Miller, secretary of the Russian club; Chase Woodley; Justin Cannon; Dr. Galina Shleikina, Fulbright fellow and Instructor of English at Petrozavodsk State University in Russia; her husband Dr. Anton Khein, of Petrozavodsk, Russia and Dr. Keith Tribble, professor of Russian and advisor to the OSU Russian Club.

After the Divine Liturgy the group from OSU joined parishioners from Sts. Cyril and Methodius for a Easter Sunday buffet dinner in the church hall. The dinner was organized and prepared by Tanya O’Nesky and other members of the Orthodox community in Hartshorne.

OSU Russian club members brought Syrnaia Paskha, a traditional Russian dish of sweetened farmers’ cheese decorated with Russian crosses and “Christ is Risen” in Cyrillic letters, using candied fruit for decoration. They also brought “herring in a fur coat,” which is herring topped with beets, carrots, onions and mayonnaise.

After the meal club members met with J.W. and Greta Stephenson and Jim Kurilko, local historians. Kurilko shared memories about his father, grandfather and the settling of the Hartshorne area in the late 19th century by Uniate Catholics from Carpathian Mountains by the community. They settled in 1897 near the site of the current Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church which was subsequently built in 1917 on the site. The group visited two local cemeteries with many tombstones of early members of the community with inscriptions in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and the dialect of the Carpathian Mountain Region.