Turning the pages back...

October 23, 1971

It was 35 years ago this week, on October 14 through the 17, 1971, that then-Archbishop Mstyslav, as reported by The Weekly, was unanimously elected metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. at its seventh Synod held in Philadelphia. Archbishop Mstyslav had been acting metropolitan of the Church since the death of Metropolitan John Thedorovich on May 3. Nineteen years later, in 1990, Metropolitan Mstyslav was named Patriarch Mstyslav I, the first patriarch of Kyiv and all Rus'-Ukraine of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

The 1971 Synod also elevated Bishop Mark to the rank of archbishop and named him vicar of the metropolitan, moving him from Washington to New York. Additionally, the Rev. Theodore Buggan, a third-generation Ukrainian American, was elected bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A.

As part of the Synod, a set of resolutions called for a hierarchical unity of all Ukrainian Orthodox Churches in the free world and the convocation of a joint Synod of Bishops. It was agreed by a resolution to convene a Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of North and South America and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Europe and Australia.

Greetings were sent to the Synod by Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of the Orthodox Church and by President Richard M. Nixon.

Source: "Archbishop Mstyslav is Named Metropolitan of Orthodox Church; Seventh Synod of the Church Convenes in Philadelphia," The Ukrainian Weekly, October 23, 1971.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 15, 2006, No. 42, Vol. LXXIV

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