HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

Reviews 235to produce a richly detailed account. Though this narrative fullness seems to havelimited theoretical elaboration, this fine book raises important questions—questions,about ethnicity and politics, and about the burden of our tragic past—that we cannotescape.Alex SaganHarvard UniversityNARYS ISTORH UKRAINS'KOI AVTOKEFAL'NOI PRAVO-SLAVNOI TSERKVY u VELYKII BRYTANII 1947-1987. Editedby S. Bohatirets' and S. Fostun. London: Diocesan Council of theUkrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Great Britain, 1988.616 pp.Although the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the diaspora has been in existence inthe United States for seventy years, in Great Britain the church has had a history ofonly some forty-five years. Nary s lstorii is the first step in documenting the historyof the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Diocese in Great Britain.Issued to commemorate the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine, the volume isdivided into two sections: general history of the eparchy (pp. 7-288) and historiesof individual parishes and communities (pp. 289-556). The book features severallengthy appendices, one of which is a list of all of the deceased faithful of the entirediocese. Included are some 258 photographs of historic gatherings and liturgicalcelebrations, of individual priests and churches.Narys Istorii opens with the portrait of and a pastoral letter from His BeatitudeMetropolitan Mstyslav (now patriarch of Kiev), who is recognized as the founder ofthe Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Diocese in Great Britain. The first sectionsets forth reports—actual minutes almost—of various historical events including:minutes and resolutions of diocesan sobors; minutes and communiqués of diocesancouncil meetings; hierarchical visitations; communiqués from the chancellery; pastoralhierarchical letters issued on the occasion of church holy days; obituaries andeulogies of clergy and faithful; diocesan constitutions; jubilee reports; and portionsof Bishop Volodymyr's daily diary of pastoral visitations within the diocese.The final pages of this section provide a history of related church organizations,such as the women's group known as the Sisterhood of St. Olha; publications of thediocese; lists of each diocesan convention with names of the board members elected;lists of hierarchs and clerics who served the church in Great Britain, as well as eachparish and community of the diocese. (The distinction between a parish and a communityis that a parish owns a particular building where liturgical services and othercommunity activities take place.)Section two of Narys Istorii contains histories of each parish and community ofthe diocese. A sub-section within this part of the book gives the history of the parishchoirs of the eparchy.