Priesthood and Episcopacy
On April 23, 1967 he was ordained deacon in South Bound Brook, New Jersey by Metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) (future first patriarch of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church), and a priest on July 23 by Metropolitan John (Theodorovich), in Pittsburgh. His pastoral work comprised St. Vladimir Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois and St. Nicholas Church in Troy, New York. Father Theodore was tonsured a monk on December 18, 1971, receiving the name Constantine, and on May 7, 1972, he was consecrated by Metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) to the Chicago cathedra of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in America (UOC in America). In 1977 he was elevated to the rank of archbishop, and to metropolitan in 1982. After the death of Patriarch Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) in 1993 he became the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in America (UOC in America), and in 1994, of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the Diaspora. In 1995–1996 the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in America (UOC in America) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the Diaspora entered in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and Metropolitan Constantine received the titular diocese of Irinoupolis.
Following the will of Patriarch Dymytriy (Yarema), in the year 2000 the Council of Bishops of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, recognized Metropolitan Constantine as the spiritual head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine. On September 27, 2000, Metropolitan Constantine named Ihor (Isichenko), Archbishop of Kharkov and Poltava as his representative in Ukraine.
Read more about this topic: Constantine Of Irinoupolis
Famous quotes containing the word priesthood:
“The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years.”
—Bishop John Spong (b. 1931)