The History of Liturgical Service Books in Our Archeparchy

The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and the Philadelphia Archeparchy are entering a new chapter in their liturgical life with the introduction of an updated Ukrainian-language service book approved by the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in 2023. Now in use in parishes around the world, the new text has brought several changes to the prayers familiar to generations of faithful, inviting clergy and parishioners alike to grow accustomed to updated formulations while preserving the spirit of the tradition.

These developments also offer an opportunity to look back at the rich history of liturgical books used in the UGCC and in the Philadelphia Archeparchy over the past centuries. Rather than focusing on theological or ritual analysis, this overview traces how liturgical texts evolved in response to pastoral needs, language, and historical circumstances within our Church in America.

The earliest UGCC priests and bishops who served in the United States relied on official Church Slavonic editions published in Lviv by Metropolitan Sylvester Sembratovych in 1886 and Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky in 1905. These rare volumes are preserved today in the archive library of the Archeparchy.

Following the Second Vatican Council and the gradual introduction of vernacular languages into the liturgical life of the Church in America, Ukrainian and English translations were added alongside Church Slavonic. Even earlier, in 1954, Bishop Ambrose Senyshyn had published a bilingual Church Slavonic–English version of the Divine Liturgy in the prayer book Christ With Us: Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

In the years that followed, Ukrainian bishops established a liturgical commission to prepare revisions and adaptations of the liturgical texts. A full Ukrainian translation was published in 1968, and in 1988 the Synod of the UGCC approved another revised text in Ukrainian and English. Issued in small bilingual prayer books, this version continues to be used in many parishes to this day.