Rusins, Rusyns, Ruthenians?

[Iryna Prykarpatska]

Not all Lemko people will agree if they are referred to as Rusyny. The name
Rusyn was used by Polish people to identify all those who attended Greek-
Catholic or Orthodox church (церкву) but not Roman-Catholic church (костьол)
as Polish do. But there is a strict division between Rusyny and Lemky along
the language criteria.
It should be kept in mind that Rusyns do not identify themselves as Lemky as
well Lemky do not identify themselves as Rusyny. These are two separate
ethnic groups that have very strong affinity with each other due to East
church tradition (practice of religion along Greek tradition) as opposite to
West church tradition (practice of religion along Roman tradition), but they
are still different.

2007/12/14, V. Boitchenko <tompkins440 at verizon.net>:
>
> The situation in the US is very similar. Many old towns on the East Cost
> have two churches (often across the street from each other), a Uniate and
> a
> Russian Orthodox, with parishioners usually coming from the same
> background
> (Poland and Slovakia), often cousins. Uniates identify themselves as
> Ukrainians, and Orthodox identify as Lemko (Rusyns). vb
>