Ukrainians came to the United States between 1880 and 1914. They are distinguished primarily by language and religion. Ukrainian religious affiliations are generally split between the Uniate Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Ukrainian immigrants tried to re-create their religiously oriented environment in America. Their religious life has been shaped by the struggle to preserve their Eastern rite in a generally unsympathetic Latin-rite Catholic environment. The Reverend Alexis G. Toth (1853–1909), a Carpatho-Rusyn priest, led his group into the Russian Orthodox Church. By the 1920s this complicated early history of Ukrainian immigrant religious life had led to the creation of Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. Religion has been both a unifying and divisive force in the life of the Ukrainian — American community.