Cleric, editor, historian.
Born at Brovarky, Poltava, Ukraine on 5 March 1929 to Semen and Paraskevia Minenko, he immigrated with his family to the United States in 1949, and in 1955 was ordained to serve the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. His religious studies began at the Theological Academy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Munich, Germany and continued at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York. He also studied at City University of New York and Brock University, Ontario. In 1984, he was awarded a Master of Divinity degree from St. Andrew’s College in Winnipeg. His pastoral work included parishes in New York City, Toronto, Grimsby (Ontario), Waterloo (Ontario), and Winnipeg.
From 1975 to 1985, he served as editor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada’s newspaper, Visnyk. For his work, he was awarded his mitre in 1988 and was made a protopresbyter in 1999. He was involved in many church matters including being a member of the Church Court and Committees of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (UOCC). As a student and a young priest, he became involved in Ukrainian student and youth organizations in Germany, United States, and Canada. He passed on his love and knowledge of Ukraine through this involvement and by teaching at the parish schools at each of his parishes. Inspired by his teaching, many students became actively involved in the Ukrainian community.
His love of teaching continued in Winnipeg when, in 1978, he was appointed a professor of liturgics and church history at St. Andrew’s College. In 1985, he was appointed Dean and served in this capacity until 1995. His involvement in the community included serving as a member of the Secretariat of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, chairperson of Trident Press and as a member of the Ukrainian Free Academy of the USA and of the Order of St. Andrew. Intensely interested in the history of Ukrainian Orthodoxy in the twentieth century, he travelled to European archives and photocopied relevant documentation. He also obtained voluminous documentation from the consistorial records of the UOCC, clipped articles from the press, and collected publications, ephemera, and photographs relevant to Ukrainian Orthodox history in Ukraine and abroad. He authored many essays and articles over the years, and he published his first book on the Orthodox Church in Ukraine during the Second World War shortly before he died. Earlier, he had completed books on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the 20th century and the Kyivan Metropolia through the ages.
In 1952, he married Ukrainian immigrant Anastasia Krywonos (1930-2007) in New York City, with whom he had four sons. In his latter years, he participated fully in his grandchildren’s activities, listening to their stories, attending piano and ballet recitals, or flying at a moment’s notice to assist with their care in times of need. He died on 30 May 2006 and was buried at South Bound Brook, New Jersey.
In 2009, his son Mark Minenko donated his father’s materials to the University of Alberta Archives. The Research Program on Religion and Culture hired Dr. Taras Kurylo to inventory the entire collection. This work was completed in April 2012. The Minenko collection comprises more than two thousand files in 119 archival boxes. Its strengths are in the history of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches during the Second World War and in the postwar diaspora. One researcher who looked at the inventory enthused that the collection is a “Klondike” for scholars of twentieth-century Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The collection is open to researchers.
Obituary [Tymofiy Minenko], Winnipeg Free Press, 2 June 2006.
Obituary [Anastasia Minenko], Winnipeg Free Press, 27 December 2007.
“Minenko, Timothy,” University of Alberta Archives.
“Research Program on Religion and Culture,” Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Newsletter, 2012.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 16 February 2024
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