Vasy'l Lypkivs'kyi was a the first Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine for the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. He was born in the village of Popudnia (now Cherkasy oblast', Ukraine), where his father was a priest. He studied at the Uman' Theological Seminary and the Kyiv Theological Academy, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1891. During the 1900s and early 1910s he repeatedly fell out of favor with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church because of his participation in the Ukrainian ecclesiastic movement. In 1919, the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic passed a law allowing for the founding of a Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and under his supervision, the first religious service in the Ukrainian language took place at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Kyiv-Pechersk in 1920. For this, the Russian Orthodox hierarchs deprived him of his clerical title.

The First All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Council (led by Lypkivs'kyi) asserted Ukrainian autocephaly on 23 October 1921. Since no Orthodox bishop would take part in this action, the council decided to ordain its leader as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine for the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church through the laying-on-of-hands by the priests and laypeople. Because of this highly anomalous ordination, the church was never acknowledged by other Orthodox churches. By the late 1920s, the Soviet authorities saw the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church as a dangerous expression of Ukrainian nationalism, and Lypkivs'kyi was arrested several times. In 1927, he was placed under house arrest, and was sentenced to death in 1937.

Petro Maievs'kyi was a Ukrainian Orthodox clergyman in Ukraine, Canada, and the United States. He was born in Nykonovychi, in the L'viv region of Ukraine. He studied philosophy at the University of L'viv and in the history and philology department at the University of St. Volodymyr in Kyiv. He was a participant in the First All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Council, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1921 by Metr. Vasyl' Lypkivs'kyi. He emigrated to Winnipeg, Canada in 1931. He served as rector of the St. Mary the Protectress Cathedral in Winnipeg, then moved to moved to Los Angeles, California in 1946 to found a mission parish independent of any Orthodox bishop.