St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church
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What is a Byzantine Catholic?
A Byzantine Catholic is a member of the Catholic Church who worships the Lord according the Ritual of the Eastern Church. In all essentials of Faith there is absolutely no difference between a Byzantine Catholic and a Roman Catholic. The Byzantine Catholic Church has a Ritual of its own as valid as and more ancient than the Roman Catholic Ritual. The Ritual of any branch of the Catholic Church represents not only the actions and vestments which surround the Sacraments of the Church as well as the external decorations of the Church, but even more importantly, also the very Theology and Ecclesiology of the Church. The Byzantine Catholic Church possesses the same seven Sacraments and professes the same Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as the Roman Catholic Church.
History of St. Nicholas Church
Saint Nicholas Church is a member of the Byzantine Rite Catholic Church with its Episcopal See in Van Nuys, California. In the early 1900's American witnessed the arrival of numberous peoples from Central Europe to her shores. Many of these people brought with them a rich heritage of religious and cultural traditions of the Byzantine Rite. These Byzantine Catholics, who received the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the great Byzantine Empire, settled mainly in the Eastern part of America. A helf century later, however, the second and third generation of children immigrated to new sections of our country. Many traveled to the Great West where they did not find parishes of their own Rite. In 1956, the first Byzantine Rite parish was established in Van Nuys. A need for a church was also felt in the Riverside-San Bernardino area and in June 1958, St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic church was founded in Fontana. The parish had its humble beginnings first in Newman High School and then in St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. Then on December 25, 1958, the parish family gathered in their own church to celebrate Christmas. The church has undergone extensive renovation and expansion since then and presently consists of the church, a social hall, a rectyory, cantor's quarters, and several classrooms.
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