Association of Ruthenian Church Communities in the USA and Canada

Association of Ruthenian Church Communities in the USA and Canada (Товариство руських церковних громад в ЗДА і Канаді; Tovarystvo ruskykh tserkovnykh hromad v ZDA i Kanadi). An association of clergy and church communities (15 in all) founded on 30 December 1901 at a convention in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of co-ordinating religious life in the first Ukrainian immigrant parishes and of campaigning for a Ukrainian bishop in America. The association was headed by the Sacerdotal Council, consisting of five priests (chaired by Rev Ivan Konstankevych), and the Supreme Council, consisting of three priests and three laymen. At an important convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in March 1902, the association adopted some radical resolutions against the dependency of Ukrainian church communities on the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States of America. The association, which included clergy from Galicia only, existed until 1907, when the first Ukrainian bishop, Soter Ortynsky, arrived in the United States.

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