Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada - Recent History

Recent History

After dialoguing with the Church of Constantinople the UGOCC was received into its jurisdiction as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada in 1990, bringing it into the full communion of the canonical Orthodox Church . (Several years later its sister church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Diaspora, also joined the Patriarchate of Constantinople.) The decree of Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrius (Papadopoulos) uniting the UOCC with the Church of Constantinople recognized the Church’s internal autonomy under its metropolitan, justifying the reception of the UOCC into the Patriarchate’s jurisdiction on the basis of the historic jurisdiction of the Church of Constantinople in Ukraine.

Following the death of Metropolitan Wasyly in early 2005 the twenty-first sobor of the UOCC elected Archbishop John as Metropolitan of Winnipeg and Canada. In August 2008 an extraordinary sobor was held in Saskatoon to elect new bishops, amend the UOCC’s bylaws, and mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the UOCC in the city . The sobor elected Bishops Ilarion (Rudnyk) of Telmissus as Bishop of Edmonton and Andriy (Peshko) as auxiliary Bishop of Saskatoon. (At the time both bishops were serving as auxiliary bishops in Western Europe.) The Holy Synod of the Constantinopolitan Orthodox Church later confirmed the transfer of Bishop Ilarion to western Canada, but has yet to approve the transfer of Bishop Andriy, who has nonetheless taken up residence in Canada.

In July 2010 another special sobor of the UOCC was held to nominate a successor to the newly retired Metropolitan John. The sobor nominated Archbishop Yurij (Kalistchuk) of Toronto for the metropolitanate, and consequently on August 30, 2010, the Holy Synod in Constantinople elected Archbishop Yurij as Metropolitan of Winnipeg and Canada.