interwiki, renameuser, Administrators
13,552
edits
Changes
m
no edit summary
Metropolitan Wasyly was born Wasyl’ Fedak on November 1, 1909, in Kadobivtsy, Ukraine. Together with his parents and five siblings, he immigrated to Canada and settled in Sheho, Saskatchewan. In young adulthood, he became a teacher, a career that lasted 14 years. He then studied at a seminary of the UOCC from 1941 to 1944. He was ordained to the [[deacon|diaconate]] on September 27, 1944 and shortly thereafter into the [[priest]]hood on October 1. As a priest, he served parishes in Manitoba and Ontario. In 1951, he arrived in Hamilton, Ontario to serve the parish of [[Vladimir of Kiev|St. Vladimir]]. He served this parish for 29 years, seeing the parish grow from 47 to 500 families.
His wife, Paraskeviya Tymofij, whom he married in 1932, died in April 1976. Two years later, an Extraordinary [[Sobor]] (general council) of the UOCC elected him as its candidate for bishop. On [[July 16]], 1978, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Saskatoon at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Winnipeg by Metropolitan Andrew, Archbishop Boris, and Bishop Mykolaj. Following the death of then Archbishop Mykolaj in 1981, Bishop Wasyly became the acting Bishop of the Eastern Eparchy. He was elevated to Archbishop of Toronto in 1983. Then in 1985, the 17th Sobor of the UOCC selected Wasyly to be its Metropolitan and Primate with the honorific "His Beatitude," and he will be the last Hierarch to hold that title in the UOCC, as decided by His All Holiness [[Patriarch Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople|Patriarch Bartholemew I]]. As Primate, he was the spiritual leader of the Ukrianian Orthodox Church of Canada and chancellor of its seminary, [[St. Andrew's College (Winnipeg, Manitoba)|St. Andrew's College]].
Under the leadership of Metropolitan Wasyly, the UOCC came into [[full communion]] with the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate]] in 1990. In [[1993]], he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.