(SOURCE: Ukrainian Orthodoxy - Українське Православ'я) Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky was born in 1864 in the village of Poludni in what is today the Cherkasy oblast. He was the son of a priest, Fr. Konstantyn. He decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, as was customary in priestly families. He completed his theological education at the Kyiv Theological Academy and was appointed to serve the community in Lypivtsi in the Kyiv gubernia. He helped organize schools in his community and actually served as principal of one of them. He was later appointed to a pastorship and educational work in Kyiv.
In 1919 the government of the Ukrainian National Republic passed a law declaring that the Orthodox Church in Ukraine must become Autocephalous as was befitting the Church of a sovereign state. This was motivated by the tragic fact that the Orthodox Church under Moscow frequently served as an agent of the Moscow empire. This adherence to the Church of Moscow would obviously not assist the growth of a sovereign Ukrainian state, which arose to reflect and serve the aspirations of the people of Ukraine after three centuries of submergence in the above empire. Fr. Vasyl was one of the clergy who actively worked for the Ukrainianization of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. This did not endear him to the hierarchs and clergy who remained faithful to the Church of Moscow. His serving of the Liturgy in the literary Ukrainian language, instead of the “canonical” Church Slavonic, further exacerbated the situation. In October of 1921 a Sobor was convoked at the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. It consisted of priests and delegates from parishes throughout Ukraine. No hierarch of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine would or could attend the Sobor.
Therefore, the Sobor delegates decided upon a radical step: two candidates for Bishop selected by the Sobor would be consecrated by the laying-on of hands by the community as a whole, as the Body of Christ. These two Bishops would then follow the traditional order of ordaining other Bishops in the regular manner. Fr. Vasyl consented to be the first so ordained and so became the Metropolitan.
At first the Bolshevik regime looked with some approval upon this event, mistakenly perceiving it as a weakening of the power of its ideological enemy, the Orthodox Church. (Communism opposed any religion except its own quasi-religion of dogmatic Marxism and the veneration of the Communist state and its leaders). Besides, the early years of the Communist regime in Ukraine were marked by a policy of Ukrainianization. This did not last long. Metropolitan Vasyl had to struggle hard to serve his flock. He did so until the Communist authorities forced another Sobor to “relieve him of his duties”. In 1930 the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was declared liquidated.
Metropolitan Vasyl lived for a time in poverty and intense persecution until he was arrested for the last time, quickly tried and shot. He poured out his life as a sacrifice, interceding for his beloved people of Ukraine before the Lord Who shed His Blood upon the Cross for all mankind.
Today there is a monument on the cemetery in Kyiv where Metropolitan Vasyl’s remains may have been hastily interred. Panakhydas have been served for the repose of his soul throughout the world. A street has been named in his honour in Kyiv and there have been conferences dedicated to his work.
May the Lord hear his and our prayers and grant His peace and harmony to the people of Ukraine in the homeland and throughout the world. Amen.
See also The people’s metropolitan
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