Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Exile

Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Exile [Українська Автокефальна Православна Церква в Екзилі; Ukrainska Avtokefalna Pravoslavna Tserkva v Ekzyli]. A church founded in New York in 1951 by Archbishop Palladii Vydybida-Rudenko. It traced its roots to the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox church under Metropolitan Dionisii Valedinsky. Vydybida-Rudenko questioned the canonicity of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church and placed his church under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople in 1954, thereby maintaining ties with the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of America. The church based itself on the 1924 Tomos of the patriarch of Constantinople, which had granted autocephaly to the Orthodox church in Poland. In the 1960s it had 2 bishops (Vydybida-Rudenko and Ihor Huba), 16 parishes, 25 priests, and close to 5,000 faithful, mainly postwar immigrants from Volhynia and central Ukraine. The church organ, Zhyttia i tserkva (1956–67), was edited by S. Kindzeriavy-Pastukhiv. After the deaths of Huba (1966) and Vydybida-Rudenko (1971), the church was administered by Kindzeriavy-Pastukhiv until 1980, when it ceased to exist and the majority of the clergy and faithful joined the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]