Use of Slavonic

Question: 

I would like to know at what year in the history of the Ukrainian Orthodox church in the Ukraine, did the liturgy change from Slavonic to Ukrainian? How and why did this come about?

Dr. Alexander Roman alex@unicorne.org

This happened formally on October 23, 1921 when the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church came into being in Kyiv.

The UAOC affirmed the "Kyivan Canons" which, among other things, affirmed that the liturgical language of the Ukrainian Church is to be contemporary, understandable Ukrainian and that anyone opposing this right is working "against the promptings of the Holy Spirit."

Russian developed from the Slavonic language directly, whereas there was a much greater chasm between contemporary Ukrainian and Slavonic.  In addition, many Russian elements had crept into Slavonic over the centuries creating a further linguistic problem for Ukrainian church-goers.  The Ukrainian intelligentsia and others had long criticized the Orthodox Church for being insensitive on this score.  Even Russian hierarchs in Ukraine had come to promote the idea of using Ukrainian as a liturgical language, including St Theophane the Recluse of Poltava (glorified by the ROCOR).

The Ukrainian poet, Taras Shevchenko, whose national festival we are now celebrating knew both Russian and Ukrainian very well.  He said he often had to leave Church, often in a physically ill state, when he heard the Russified Slavonic being chanted in Church!

Ukrainian Orthodoxy