I realize that some of this information may be a repeat of things I have already shared about our Church. I do so in order to reinforce this information.

Ukraine has a long Christian tradition, dating from the 10th century. Today there are more than 22,000 different religious communities in Ukraine from about 80 different Christian denominations and/or religions. The atheist policy of the Soviets truly left its mark. Because of the spiritual void Communism left in Eastern Europe, many Ukrainians now   are unchurched.

As you probably already know, in 988 Volodymyr the Great chose Christianity, in its Byzantine form, as the national religion of Kyivan-Rus. This happened before the Great Church Schism of 1054 which divided the Christian East from the Christian West. The Kyivan Church inherited the traditions of the Byzantine East and was part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople while, at the same time remaining in communion with the Latin West and its patriarch, the Patriarch of Rome. Though Constantinople and Rome had their disputes, the Kyivan hierarchy tried to work for Christian unity. Representatives from Rus participated in the Western Councils of Lyon (1245) and Constance (1418). Metropolitan Isidore of Kyiv, was himself one of the creators of the Union of Florence (1439).

While the Kyivan Metropolitanate was working towards reunion, a new metropolitanate arose north of Kyiv, in Moscow. The Church of Moscow refused to accept the Union of Florence and separated from the metropolitanate of Kyiv, announcing its autocephaly (self-governing status) in 1448.

In 1589, with Greek Orthodoxy and Constantinople became subject to Turkish domination and the Church of Moscow became a patriarchate.

The Kyivan Church then took action to become more firmly allied with the Church of Rome. Rome guaranteed the Kyivan Church that union would not force it to change any of its traditional Eastern Christian practices or theology and that the Church could preserve its ethnic, cultural and ecclesial character. This was confirmed at the Council of Brest in 1596, which is the beginning of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church as an institution.

I have been asked several times: Why do you insist on using the name Greek-Catholic while other Ukrainian churches in the area don’t use this full name? It should be noted that our Church in Ukraine uses this name and only in the United States was there a tendency to drop the title Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

More Next Time!