Dr. Nicholas Denysenko serves as the Emil and Elfriede Jochum Professor and Chair at Valparaiso University (Indiana). He studied business at the University of Minnesota (B.Sc., 1994), and his graduate studies were at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (M.Div., 2000) and the Catholic University of America (Ph.D., 2008). Professor Denysenko is the author of several books and articles on liturgical theology and Orthodoxy.
The historic decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in 2018-19 dominated the news and heightened tensions between the world's Orthodox Churches. In his presentation, Dr. Denysenko will connect the events that led to the creation of the OCU with the modern history of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. Aspects of politics, history, and ecclesiology will be discussed based on his recent monograph The Orthodox Church in Ukraine: A Century of Separation (Northern Illinois University Press 2018).