Wednesday 23 January 2019

Canadian Greek-Catholic Statutes 1915



A facsimile of the 1915 Statutes (Norms) of the Ruthenian [Greek]-Catholic Church in Canada is now available online. The text of this document is reproduced in Ukrainian and English and analysed in Bishop David Motiuk's book Eastern Christians in the New World, and is also discussed in my historical biography of Blessed Nykyta Budka, God's Martyr, History's Witness (p. 85–88)The online scan of the original publication, intended for the use of the clergy only, provides a fascinating picture of the Greek-Catholic Church in Canada (which included Ukrainians, Rusyns, and Slovaks) in the setting of First World War Canadian society. Drafted by canonist. Rev Dr Amvroziy Redkevych (1880–1961), the norms were later approved by Bishop Budka with his clergy at the first diocesan synod in Yorkton, Saskatchewan in January 1915. This text interesting for its archaic Ukrainian orthography, which was in use among Galician Ukrainians until the end of the First World War.