Exhibition opening - Autonomy Lost and Regained

For people following the news from Ukraine in 2019 unfamiliar with the history of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, the grant of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople may have seemed like a radical innovation or a historical rupture. Or they may have simply been baffled by all of the fuss.

To correct some of these misconceptions and provide the historical background behind the granting of the Tomos of Autocephaly in 2019, we are presenting the exhibition Autonomy Lost and Regained: The Ukrainian Orthodox Metropolia of Kyiv 1633-2019. It shows how the events of 2019 were not so much a rupture as a return, and rather than a radical innovation, it was the culmination of more than a century of determined effort. The exhibition follows the long path from the era of Petro Mohyla in the 17th century, through the forcible incorporation of the Kyiv Metropolia into the Moscow Patriarchate, and finally to the struggles for the renewal of local autonomy during the 20th and 21st centuries.

Given the continued concerns about the public health situation in New Jersey, the exhibition is being presented in both online and in-person form. Both will launch with an online opening on Saturday, May 22, 2021.

Join us for an overview of the exhibition, short presentations by members of the exhibition team, and a virtual reception where you can chat with UHEC staff, the curators, and each other!

This event is free, but registration is required. Registrants will receive a Zoom link prior to the event.

This exhibition is made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.