05/19/2026
Glory to Jesus Christ!
I am happy to announce that the Byzantine Eparchy of Parma has officially taken a 1-year lease with an option to buy on St. John the Baptist church in Bradford as of May 15th! This is the beginning of a one year project to explore whether a Byzantine community can put down roots here in Central Illinois. Your participation, prayers, evangelization and financial support will all play a part in whether a long lasting Byzantine community will be viable here in Bradford.
Our Inaugural Divine Liturgy will be this Sunday the 24th at 3pm, with Fr. Thomas Loya officiating. All are welcome to attend, please invite your friends and family, we would love to have a full church. We will be hosting a pot-luck meal after the liturgy, please join us and bring something to share.
After our Inaugural Divine Liturgy, we will have our first regularly scheduled liturgy at 10am on June 14th. At this time we anticipate a 10am Liturgy on the 1st and 2nd Sundays of each month, with a 5pm Saturday Vesperal Divine Liturgy for the 3rd Sunday of each month. We are still working through scheduling at this time, but this seems relatively firm for at least the first month or two.
We have successfully completed setting up a bank account for our community. Many of you have offered one time donations or a monthly tithe commitment as a part of our planning for this community, thank you for those generous commitments. It is important that it is understood that any donations are not to a historical preservation fund, but will be used to help establish a living community of Byzantine Catholics in Central Illinois, which if successful could give St John’s a sacred purpose for many years to come.
We are now ready to start receiving your donations. We will have an eTithe option posted here and at church soon, for now you can drop a check made out to the Byzantine Eparchy of Parma in the collection basket. You can also mail me a check, address in the email I sent out today.
Thank you again to everyone who has offered financial support, your commitment to generosity made a huge difference in this process. If you have previously provided us with a check they will be deposited in the coming days.
Finally, we are working on establishing communication methods to ease planning for after-liturgy hospitality, financial transparency, maintenance questions (I am still learning where everything is), any changes in liturgy schedule, etc. For the time being we will continue to use Facebook for announcements. Given the geographically distributed nature of our community we are looking to use a Telegram group to keep us organized and allow more immediate response to questions or issues. Anyone who wishes to participate may do so here: https://t.me/+Cbl6BJAE7IFmOTcx
I look forward to seeing you at St John’s!
Jake McKean
email: [email protected]
