Across the City Line: Eastern Churches in Mishawaka (Boundary)

St. Michael Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Mishawaka, established 1916 — Assumption backyard church, Mishawaka, standing since 1959

St. Michael, Mishawaka: The St. Michael seated near South Bend is St. Michael Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, 712 E. Lawrence Street, Mishawaka, established in 1916 on Mishawaka's west side. It belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Eparchy of Chicago, and is a Byzantine Catholic parish in communion with Rome — not an Orthodox church, a distinction the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend's newspaper has spelled out for readers who assume otherwise. No Orthodox parish named St. Michael the Archangel is documented in South Bend; the Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of the Midwest lists no South Bend parish.

The backyard church: The South Bend Tribune reported in 2005 on the Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a small church, about 18 by 40 feet, standing in a Mishawaka backyard since 1959, built by an Orthodox priest, since deceased, whose daughter Katherine Palsce then kept it; the Rev. John Schmidt celebrated liturgy there on some Sundays from January 2005. The same article counted the area's Orthodox churches as two — Sts. Peter and Paul Serbian and St. Andrew Greek, both in South Bend.

Two clarifications: No Greek Orthodox parish named Annunciation appears in South Bend or Mishawaka in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese directories consulted; the name belongs to parishes elsewhere. Within South Bend itself, St. John of Damascus, 839 Woodcliff Drive, is a Melkite Greek Catholic parish, listed by Saint Mary's College under Catholic — Eastern or Byzantine Rite — and is not Orthodox.

Sources:

1. Today's Catholic, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, April 5, 2017 — St. Michael Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Mishawaka: the 1916 establishment, the Lawrence Street address, and the warning that the Byzantine Catholic parish is not Orthodox.
2. South Bend Tribune (2005), as catalogued by the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library (MBRL) — the Assumption backyard church in Mishawaka, standing since 1959, and the count of two Orthodox churches in South Bend.
3. Saint Mary's College, Area Congregations and Faith Communities directory — St. John of Damascus (Melkite), 839 Woodcliff Drive, South Bend, classed under Catholic — Eastern or Byzantine Rite.
4. Orthodox Church in America, Diocese of the Midwest parish directory (oca.org) — Indiana parishes listed at Chesterton, Crawfordsville, Indianapolis, Kokomo and Merrillville; none at South Bend.