Demographer Oleh Wolowyna delivers 2001 Mohyla Lecture

SASKATOON - Dr. Oleh Wolowyna of Chapel Hill, N.C., on November 16 delivered the 2001 Mohyla Lecture at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon. A demographer and statistician by training, Dr. Wolowyna provided a historical overview as well as current information on the participation of ethnic Ukrainian Canadians in traditional and non-traditional churches.

Dr. Wolowyna noted the important role that assimilation and mortality have played in declining rates of participation of ethnic Ukrainians in both the Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. Utilizing recently released Canada Census data, he described regional variations but underscored that the overall rate of decline has accelerated in the last decade.

He noted in particular the trend whereby individuals of partial Ukrainian ancestry - some 650,000 - are members of neither the Ukrainian Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church, and that, combined with the process of continuing assimilation, will have serious future implications for both Churches.

Dr. Wolowyna has taught at the University of Western Ontario and University of North Carolina. He is President of Informed Decisions Inc., The firm is currently designing and implementing health information systems in Ukraine and Jordan.

The Mohyla Lecture Series, created in 1995 and supported by the Prairie Center for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage, is a program of annual lectures devoted to a discussion of Ukrainian heritage and current affairs.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 13, 2002, No. 2, Vol. LXX

| Home Page |