All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Council

All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Council (Всеукраїнсъка Православна Церковна Рада; Vseukrainska Pravoslavna Tserkovna Rada). The council was formed in 1917 at the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and consisted of representatives of the clergy and the laity from all parts of Ukraine. It was headed by well-known church leaders—Archbishop Oleksii Dorodnytsyn and Rev O. Marychiv. The council was determined to put an end to the church's dependence on Moscow and summoned the All-Ukrainian Church Sobor at the beginning of 1918. The council also devoted special attention to the Ukrainianization of the parishes and the liturgy. The first liturgy in Ukrainian was conducted in Kyiv at Saint Nicholas's Military Cathedral on 9 May 1919. Through the efforts of the council, the Ukrainian Orthodox church declared itself to be autocephalous on 5 May 1920 in Kyiv. In 1921 a sobor was summoned, and it established the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church (UAOC). In 1928 the presidium of the council consisted of the chairman, Archpriest L. Yunakiv, and the following members: Archbishop Yosyp Oksiiuk, Metropolitan Mykola Boretsky, Archbishop Kostiantyn Maliushkevych, Rev M. Hrushevsky, Rev Yakiv Chulaivsky, Archpriest L. Karpov, and laymen Volodymyr Chekhivsky and M. Kobzar.

The council was active, with a different membership, up to the forced dissolution of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church in 1930. By 1937, of the church's 2,000 parishes none was left. Almost all of the council's members and staff, as well as the bishops and clergy of the UAOC, died in Soviet concentration camps.

A council bearing the same name, but with a different structure and activity, existed for a short time in Kyiv during the Second World War.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pershyi Vseukraїns'kyi Pravoslavyi Tserkovnyi Sobor UAPTs, 14–30 zhovtnia 1921 roku: Dokumenty i materialy (Kyiv–Lviv 1999)

Ivan Korovytsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]