London, Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate Lay Association in Great Britain, 1981, 130 pp.
The title of this serious monograph is much broader than its content. Basically it is a study of the Ukrainian Church in the seventeenth century and the unsuccessful attempt at establishing a Patriarchate in Kyiv. After a brief review of the origin of the idea of the Patriarchate, Rev. Nahayevsky highlights in some detail the most important events in the struggle for Church unity between the Uniates and the Orthodox. The role of Metropolitan Rutsky, Boretsky, Mohyla and Archbisop Smotrytsky in this struggle is particularly explored. The author also dwells in some length on the relationship between the Eastern Churches and the Roman Church and their various traditions and historic commitments.
The study is not only stimulating to the historically aware but especially informative and helpful to those with little knowledge of seventeenth century Ukrainian Church history. It also shows the existance of historical preceding’s for the current situation in the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
The book rests on the author’s evident knowledge of the sources, but there is a definite lack of clearity in its organization and style. Much of value is buried under verbose and awkward language. Here is one example from p.53: “Three years later Adam Kysil made a foundation ‘hramota’ for the Latin Rite Monastery, he wrote his Profession in Latin possessed of the same spirit which emphasized, that only through human sins and a lack of Christian charity and mutual understanding had hatreds crept in causing the breach of the one Church of Christ”. The study is also not enhanced by the inclusion of many photographs which have no relevance to the text.
None of these comments are intended to detract from what is clearly a serious work, which despite its brevity makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the origin and the development of the idea of Kyivan Patriarchate.
