His Eminence Archbishop William C. Skurla, D.D is the fifth Metropolitan of the Byzantine Catholic (Ruthenian) Metropolitan Church, the only Eastern Catholic Metropolitan Church sui iuris (self-governing)in the United States. As Archbishop, he is also the eighth head of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, where the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church is based. Leader of the Metropolitan Church in the USA, Metropolitan William heads the Council of Hierarchs, comprised of the bishops of the Byzantine Catholic eparchies of Passaic, Parma, and Phoenix. Archbishop William was born in Duluty, Minnesota, June 1, 1956. He holds a degree in Philosophy from Columbia University in New York City, and Masters of Divnity and a Masters of Theology from Mary Immaculate Seminary in Northampton, Pensylvania.
Most Reverend Kurt Burnette
Bishop of the Eparchy of Passaic
Bishop Burnette was born in Norfolk County, England in 1955. He was ordained a priest for the Eparchy of Van Nuys in 1989. He received a licentiate in canon law from the Pontificium Institutum Orientale in Rome in 2007 and holds a doctorate in civil law from Newport University. He also has earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and electrical engineering from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Utah. He has served as a pastor, professor and canonical judge across the United States, including serving as dean of the School of Religion at Newport University from 1995 to 2002, and administrator of St. Irene Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon from 1998 to 2004. He has also served for several Tribunals, including those in the dioceses of Phoenix, Las Vegas and Gallup, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Eparchy of Van Nuys. Bishop Burnette also served as a priest of the Eparchy of Phoenix and as rector of the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh. He was ordained as Bishop and enthroned as the Fifth Bishop of the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of Passaic on December 4, 2013 at Saint Michael the Archangel Cathedral, Passaic, New Jersey.
Most Reverend Artur Bubnevych
Bishop of the Eparchy of Phoenix
Bishop Artur Bubnevych was born on June 22, 1975, in the village of Perechyn, in the Transcarpathian Oblast of Soviet Ukraine, in what was then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This region is the site of the Eparchy of Mukachevo, the oldest Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic eparchy. Due to the oppression of our Church under communist rule, he was secretly baptized at home by the Byzantine Catholic priest Andrey Gleba on July 7, 1975. He speaks his native Ruthenian language as well as English, German, Latvian, Russian, and Ukrainian. In June 1994, he graduated from the Vinogradov Polytechnical College, and then entered the Seminary of Blessed Theodore Romzha in August of that year. The Eparchy sent him to Austria where he learned English at the Language Catechetical Institute in 1995, and in 1996 he entered the International Theological Institute for studies on Marriage and Family for the Master of Theology. He graduated from the Seminary in 1998 and in December he was ordained to the order of Subdiaconate by Bishop Ioann Semediy. He had entered the Licentiate program at the same institute and graduated from there with his License in Theology in 2001. He then worked for the Diocese of Liepaja in Latvia until 2005. Bishop Artur worked for the Eparchy of Mukachevo, serving as the Project Secretary with Bishop Milan Šašik, CM, 2006-2013. In addition, to his work at the chancery of the Eparchy of Mukachevo, he served as a teacher of English at the Seminary, and in 2006-2011 he served as the main cantor at his home parish of Saint Nicholas in Perechyn.
In 2013, he made the decision to apply to come to America as a missionary for the Byzantine Catholic Church, and worked in the Eparchy of Phoenix from September 2013 to March 2014 as a Subdeacon and parish office assistant at St Stephen Cathedral in Phoenix. In 2014 Bishop Gerald Dino ordained Bishop Artur on March 9 to the Order of Diaconate and on September 14 to the Order of Priesthood; both ordinations were celebrated at St Stephen's Cathedral. Bishop Gerald assigned him as the Pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Albuquerque, starting on January 9, 2015. In addition to his pastoral work, the Bishop Artur has served on these commissions:
- the Intereparchial Commission of Youth and Young Adults (May 2018);
- Vocation's Board (January 2023);
- Eparchial Pension Committee (May 2023);
- Intereparchial Commission on Sacred Liturgy (Sept 2023).
Besides his priestly ministry, Bishop Artur enjoys the sports of downhill skiing and Mountain Biking along with camping.