Old Believers
Nikifor, when he began reaching out to Old Believers in 1780, was based in Poltava, the headquarters of what was then the Diocese of Sloviansk and Kherson, covering much of eastern Ukraine, and later to become the Diocese of Ekaterinoslav). When he visited a chapel of Popovtsy (Old Believers who already had priests of their own, not recognised by the official church) Old Believers in Elisavetgrad in July of that year, he offered the local Old Believers the possibility of legalising their chapel as an official church, integrated into the established Church, with a priest selected by the Old Believers themselves, utilising the pre-Nikonian service books and rites. The offer was rejected by the Old Believers of Elisavetgrad, but later that month, many Old Believers of the village of Bolshaya Znamenka (in Melitopol uyezd) accepted a similar arrangement. In February 1781, an archbishop issued a letter, authorising them to set up a church legally and carry out their services in accordance with their traditional rites. That was done by consecrating as a church the wooden chapel that the Old Believers of Znamenka had built in 1776.