Michael Sopulak was Head of the Department of Social Care of the UCC, later a professor at the Ukrainian Theological Seminary in Hirschberg (Germany) and Kulemborg (Holland), since 1949 chancellor of the diocese in Edmonton (Canada), and director and co-editor of the "Ukrainian News" publishing house.
Michael Sopulak graduated from the Seminary of the Holy Spirit in Lviv with a bachelor's degree in Theological Studies, M.A., and Ph.D. in Theological Studies in Innsbruck, Austria.
After graduation, he was ordained a priest in 1936 by the Auxiliary bishop Ivan Buchko. The subdiaconate was conferred on him by the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.In Lviv he was a director of the Vocational School, and therefore director of the Publishing House "Biblos".
During World War II, Michael went west and began working in Krakow for the Ukrainian Central Committee as the head of its Social Welfare Department. There he provided important assistance to Ukrainians in need and, especially, Ukrainian political prisoners.
During the Surrender of Germany in 1945 Michael was in Nuremberg. After the arrival of the Americans, he began to work in the committee in Fürth near Nuremberg. Later he was called to become a professor of dogmatics at the Ukrainian Theological Seminary in Hirschberg, Germany, where he also served as deputy rector.
In 1949 Dr. Sopulak moved to Canada for permanent residence in the Edmonton Eparchy, Alberta. Michael served as a Chancellor of the Eparchy and the Director of the “Ukrainian News” Publishing House. He worked in this position for more than 30 years, later serving as an editor-in-chief and as the head of the “Ukrainian News” publishing house.
Michael Sopulak founded the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Eucharist in North Edmonton in 1950, and St. Michael's Ukrainian Cemetery in 1955. Among other achievements, on the initiative of Dr.Sopulak, was purchased and built the Ukrainian Village, which annually hosts summer camps for Ukrainian school children.
Dr. Sopulak was struck down with a serious illness in 1981. The last 24th issue of the weekly “Ukrainian News” newspaper was already edited on his hospital bed.
Composer and musicologist Ihor Sonevytsky (b. 1926, Halynkivtsi, Ukraine, d. 2006, Lexington, USA) was born into the family of a philologist, writer and teacher, and a journalist, art gallery manager and amateur singer. He studied at the Lysenko Music Institute and the First Ukrainian High School in Lviv. Later he studied at the Vienna Music Academy and graduated from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Munich with a degree in composition and conducting. Following his arrival in New York, he was among the founders of the Ukrainian Music Institute of America in 1952, and following the death of Roman Sawycky in 1960, Sonevytsky became its director. He completed a doctorate from the Ukrainian Free University in Munich in 1961 and was a visiting lecturer of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Rome. Sonevytsky’s extensive experience conducting Ukrainian-American choirs resulted in him composing many sacred and secular choral works, and owing to his work with the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble in New York, incidental music became the dominant genre in his output. He also composed an opera, a ballet version of Cinderella, chamber works for winds, solo piano compositions and many art songs. Sonevytsky wrote a monograph about composer Artem Vedel.