ЖІНОЦТВО ДІАСПОРИ В КУЛЬТУРНО-ПРОСВІТНИЦЬКІЙ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ПРАВОСЛАВНОЇ ЦЕРКВИ КАНАДИ

The article attempts to highlight the problems: Ukrainian immigrant woman in Canada and the Church (not a woman in the Church), immigrant woman and religion of the first decades of Ukrainian settlement in a non-Slavic country, the relationship between God and a woman who performed Christian duties alone, in the absence of church buildings in Canadian reality during this period, the lack of Orthodox priests, when worship was conducted by ascetics in the open air or in a noble hut provided by one of the diaspora members, when the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada was founded. From 1891 to 1918, and the unique experience of pioneer women of the settlement to preserve the cultural and historical origins of the people, culturally transmitting function of religion – religious and national values, spiritual and ethnic basis of Orthodox holidays, folk culture, decorative applied arts, quilting, all the knowledge that Canadian Ukrainian women later used to assist the UOC in fulfilling its cultural and cultural-educational missions and enriching the church practice common to the historical homeland with new rituals. The attitude of Ukrainian Christian women to Orthodox values as components of the Ukrainian mentality is reflected. Their spirituality in the context of religious understanding of life is highlighted; their selfless religiosity as its core and guide of charitable activity. Thus, given the process of interaction between Orthodoxy and religious and cultural tradetions, it is about the service of Ukrainian women of the Canadian diaspora to God at the break of radical changes in women’s lives – in a situation of forced immigration and preservation of spiritual and moral values of their people; on the role of women in shaping the religious and ideological foundations of the community, especially the religious and moral capital of the future generation of Ukrainians, educating young people from the diaspora on the principles of Christian morality, national ideals, which is essentially a patriotic ideology for its people. An analysis of the socialization of immigrant women as individuals who lived and acted on the moral form of social consciousness; its acquisition of equal rights in society, thanks to the policies of the Monitoba government. Consideration of the cultural activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church provides an opportunity to imagine one of the aspects of the development of the Ukrainian Orthodox religion in Canada. The article reflects the constructive role of the cultural and educational activities of the UOC as a consolidating function of religious values; the importance of the Church in raising its image and growing the spiritual potential of the diaspora community. The woman, as in the historical homeland, a “priestess” from the immigrant community, is responsible to the community for religious culture, the religious consciousness of the diaspora and her own family, the preservation and viability of religious and national traditions and cultural heritage. An attempt is made to analyze the relationship: man – God on the example of devotion to the Orthodox faith of Ukrainian immigrant women, their essential implementation within the ethno-religious community of the Canadian diaspora.