Kulsary - Divine Mercy Parish

Consecration of the chapel in Kulsary

On Dec 4, 2007 all priests working in Atyrau Apostolic Administration gathered in Kulsary.

It was a special day for our small community in this town. After nearly exactly four years from the foundation of the parish it was possible to consecrate the chapel and the parish house. The consecration was done by the Apostolic Administrator in West Kazakhstan,

bp Janusz Kaleta.

The history of the parish in Kulsary

We began to organize the parish in Kulsary in November 2003. Kulsary, a town of 40 000 citizens, is located 230 km from Atyrau. At the start of the parish there is Amantaj, a Kazakh baptized by late Rev. Lorenz Gawol. A few times Amantaj had come for mass to Atyrau, and once said that perhaps it would be better to found a parish in Kulsary, so that other catholics living there could participate in the ecclesial life more easily.

On Nov 10, 2003 we bought a small two – room flat in the 5^th micro district in Kulsary. Indeed, there found themselves a dozen or so people of catholic origin. We began traveling to Kulsary every week and preparing them to the sacraments.

Divine Mercy parish in Kulsary was finally registered after a series of vicissitudes as late as on May 21, 2004. Rev. Dariusz Buras became the first administrator of the parish. From some perspective it is possible to say that what begins with difficulties often brings good fruit. After short time it turned out that in our flat there was not enough space for the praying on Sundays and festivals. So it became clear that we would need to procure another accommodation.

On Feb 28, 2005 we bought a house with a small piece of land, which had been built as a shop. Later a kitchen, a living room and a garage was added. The house was in need of a heavy repair; nevertheless, we were really happy to have at last an independent space able to admit more people. Besides, we would be able to celebrate mass not disturbing anybody. Fr. Dariusz adapted one of the rooms for a chapel and we could move to “the ours”. We made changes in the registration documents of the parish and began saying mass in our house of prayer.

Kulsary is situated around 100 km from Tengiz – the biggest in Kazakhstan and one of the biggest oilfields in the world. From the very beginning of our activity we were striving to reach there with pastoral ministry. It was not easy even though many catholics work there: Americans, Filipinos, the Irish, Poles, catholics from Kazakhstan. The foundation of the parish in Kulsary shortened the distance to Tengiz significantly. In the spring 2005, after many efforts we started celebrating mass for them in the “Shanarak camp”. At first the liturgy took place once a fortnight in the BHP instruction room. Then we moved to the cinema. Now the mass is celebrated every Sunday at 10 a.m.

The next steps in the parish development were preparations to the reconstruction of the building. The plans of the general overhaul were prepared jointly by Rev. Janusz Kaleta and Jozef Szegedi, Rona Stroy company director, who had built our church in Atyrau, as well as a pastoral centre and sisters’ convent. Repair works set out on July 2006 and lasted with a winter break till October 2007.

On May 2, 2006 Rev. Dariusz Buras was released from the function of the parish administrator in Kulsary in order to become a spiritual director in the Higher Interdiocesan Theological Seminary in Karaganda. Rev. Cezary Komosinski took his place and moved to Kulsary for keeps as soon as the house’s repair was completed.

The chapel that came into being after demolishing division walls in the former shop and liquidating the second floor is 56 sq. m. Together with a gallery about 70 sq. m. and it can house 70 - 80 people. We managed to bring a marble altar, a pulpit and a baptismal font (baptistery) made in Poland in Mr. Krzysztof Czarnota’s mason workshop. Divine Mercy Image painted by Dorota Piwowarczyk was endowed by Fr. Jerzy Karpiński SJ, the former provincial of the Jesuits Russian province, who is at present a confessor in the Divine Mercy sanctuary in Lagiewniki in Cracow. In our chapel we also have authentic church benches (pews) brought from Poland.

Apart from that, our parish house admits a priest’s flat, a parish office, the kitchen and a multifunction room that can be used for religious instruction or parish meetings as may be required. Owing working water – supply, a system of central heating and water heating is a great achievement in local conditions. The bathroom in which there is always hot water is also a luxury in Kulsary.

The purchase of the house of prayer was possible through the Apostolic See grant, whereas its reconstruction was done thanks to grants of German organization Renovabis and a company Yeskert Kyzmet Rutledge (Rutledge H2S) that cleared a vast part of our expenses. We are greatly indebted to all our benefactors and we promiss to remember about them in our prayers.

Translation, Katarzyna Januszewska