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==History==
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, large numbers of Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian [[Uniate]] immigrants came to the United States, with many of the latter group converting to Orthodoxy after their immigration. Around 1915, a number of parishes organized themselves into an independent Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdiction in North America, finding guidance in a visiting [[Church of Antioch|Antiochian]] hierarch, Metr. [[Germanos (Shehadi) of Zahle]], whose leadership was sought out particularly by Ukrainians who had been under the [[OCA|Russian Metropolia]], but regarded its hierarch of the time, [[Alexander (Nemolovsky) of Brussels|Alexander (Nemolovsky)]], as being "anti-Ukrainian". [http://www.archdiocese.ca/moreUOCCformation.pdf] Eventually, a petition was sent in 1923 to the newly formed [[Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church]] (UAOC), a jurisdiction formed in the aftermath of Ukrainian independence in 1918, but which has never enjoyed canonical recognition in mainstream Orthodoxy.
The UAOC sent Metr. John (Teodorovich) in 1924 to head an American-Canadian diocese, arriving amid questions about the validity of his [[consecration of a bishop|consecration]], given that he had been [[ordination|ordained]] by UAOC bishops, whose consecrations were unrecognized by the mainstream of the Orthodox Church. John had great success in organizing parishes, due to his considerable administrative skill and his insistence on the liturgical use of Ukrainian (rather than [[Church Slavonic]] or English) as well as other Ukrainian cultural identifiers. In the aftermath of Ukrainian independence, nationalist feelings ran strong, and so an emphasis on Ukrainian identity was welcome to those who gathered under John.
