The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (; OCU), also called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is a partially recognized Eastern Orthodox church in Ukraine. It was granted autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on 6 January 2019.
Some of the Eastern Orthodox churches recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as the only canonical successor of the Metropolis of Kyiv.
The church was established under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople by a unification council that convened in Kyiv on 15 December 2018, following which Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I granted it a tomos of autocephaly. The unification council united the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church into the OCU. Two bishops formerly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP) also joined. The unification council elected the Metropolitan of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Bila Tserkva, Epiphanius Dumenko, as its primate and as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
It was also agreed by the council that those "Orthodox Christians of Ukrainian provenance in the Orthodox diaspora" should be subject to the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (per Article 4 of the Statute). This provision is also enshrined in the OCU's tomos of autocephaly. In March 2019, Metropolitan Epiphanius said that the transfer of parishes of the dissolved Kyiv Patriarchate to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate had already begun.
The establishment of the OCU and its recognition by other autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches has been opposed by the Russian Orthodox Church as well as by the Government of Russia. Other Orthodox churches have also not yet recognized this newly founded church as a legitimate Orthodox Church.
According to some sources, the OCU is the largest church in Ukraine, while other sources leave that attribute to the UOC-MP, both of which have claimed full independence and autonomy.Sample of 2,018 respondents aged 18 years and over, interviewed 25–30 March 2016 in all regions of Ukraine except Crimea and the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Since the August 2024 adoption of a law against religious organisations collaborating with an aggressor state (Russia), the UOC-MP has been at risk of being banned by the Ukrainian government.
Name The official name of the church is the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine" (the use of the name "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" is also allowed). The style of its primate is "His Beatitude (name), Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine". The Tomos of autocephaly of the OCU refers to the OCU as the "Most Holy Church of Ukraine".
On 30 January 2019, the OCU was legally registered under the name "Kyїvan Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine)" (). The head of the Ukrainian Department of Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Culture, Andriy Yurash, clarified: "These two terms [the UOC and the OCU] will be used as synonymous and this is expressly agreed with the Phanar. Therefore, the use of the terms, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, is affixed precisely to the administrative unit that is called the Kyivan Metropolitanate".
In his annual report at the hierarchal assembly on 15 December 2020, Metropolitan Epiphanius clarified that names of the following churches – "Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church", "Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate" and "Kyiv Patriarchate" – are all additional historical names for the same Orthodox Church of Ukraine.Доповідь Предстоятеля на Архієрейському Соборі 15 грудня 2020 року. Pomisna.info. 15 December 2020
History
Metropolis of Kyiv
In 988, as a result of the Christianization of Kievan Rus' by Vladimir the Great, the first Christian church on the territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia was formed under the name of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, with its center in the city of Kyiv. In 1299, Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus' Maximus moved to Vladimir in 1299; it is unclear why, although his decision has traditionally been connected to the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' in 1237–1241. His successor and later Metropolitan Peter moved the residence to Moscow in 1325. In 1437, Patriarch Joseph II appointed Isidore of Kiev as Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus', but prince Vasily II of Moscow was suspicious of the new metropolitan due to his Catholic views. In 1448, the Council of Moscow's Bishops, following Isidore participation in the Council of Florence where he defended Catholicism, replaced him with Jonah as Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus'. This event did not have the consent of the Patriarch of Constantinople and is considered the beginning of the secession of the unrecognised, Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church. Meanwhile, Gregory the Bulgarian was appointed over what would become the Metropolis of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus' (1441–1596), initially based in Navahrudak, later moved to Vilnius.
During the 14th to 16th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth expanded into Western territories of former Kievan Rus', taking control of Kyiv and promoting Catholic influence, that ultimately led to the Union of Brest in 1596. Under the Union of Brest, Kyiv, Galicia and partially territories East of the Dnipro controlled by Metropolitan bishop Michael Rohoza of Kyiv, Galicia and all Rus' joined the Roman Catholic Church, becoming the Ruthenian Uniate Church. Several Eastern Orthodox bishops objected against the union, primarily in the Ruthenian Voivodeship (Palatinatus russiae, what today is Western Ukraine) however due to the weak state of Orthodox Christianity in the 16th century caused by Ottoman and Mongol invasions, they were not able to stop the Uniate influence.
Annexation of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv by the Moscow Patriarchate
In 1685, the Moscow Patriarchate began the annexation of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, ordaining Metropolitan Gedeon of Kyiv in Muscovy. In 1686, through simony, Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysius IV (who was later anathema) issued a Synodal letter granting the right to ordain the Metropolitan of Kyiv to the Moscow Patriarch in the manner of austerity elected by the council of clergy and the faithful of his diocese. It was obligatory that the Metropolitan of Kyiv should mention the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as his First Hierarch in any service, proclaiming and confirming his canonical dependence on the Mother Church of Constantinople, but none of these conditions were met. The Metropolitanate of Kyiv actually became one of the ordinary dioceses of the Moscow Patriarchate, when Peter the Great in 1722 appointed Barlaam (Voniatovych) to the rank of archbishop, not metropolitan. The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the process of granting autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine during its meeting on 11 October 2018 canceled the Synodal Letter of 1686 due to simony and its gross violation of the rights of an independent metropolitanate.
Attempts to restore the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the jurisdiction of Constantinople
The Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa, seeking for the independence of the Cossack Hetmanate, was among the first to return to the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. A multitude of churches were built all over Ukraine during his reign in the Ukrainian Baroque style. Despite the anathema, laid on Mazepa by the Russian Church in 1708, it was not recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which considers it uncanonical and imposed with political motives as a means of political and ideological repression, with no religious, theological or canonical reasons.
The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, written in 1710, which is also considered to be one of the first examples of constitutional documents in the world, proclaimed the Eastern Orthodox faith to be the faith of Ukraine, with the Metropolitanate of Kyiv acquiring the direct subordination to the Apostolic Church of Constantinople. Due to the Battle of Poltava, when Charles XII of Sweden's and Hetman Mazepa's armies were defeated by Peter I of Russia, the constitution never came into power.
Proclaiming of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
In the wake of the breakup of the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian Orthodox Christians again sought autonomy or autocephaly from Moscow. The independent, autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church was proclaimed by the Directorate of Ukraine led by Symon Petliura in 1919.
The Law on the Supreme Government of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church stipulated that the Supreme Church Authority in Ukraine would lose all dependence on the Russian Patriarch and move to the All-Ukrainian Church Council.
In 1921 an All-Ukrainian Synod was called in Kyiv, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was declared independent from the Moscow Patriarchate. The Sobor delegates chose Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky as head of the church. In this form, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church existed until 1936 when, due to Soviet pressure, it was liquidated, with some of its members emigrating to the United States.
For a short period of time, the UAOC was restored during occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany in 1942. This period lasted till the return of the Red Army in 1944, after that the UAOC was again liquidated for a second time and remained structured only in the Ukrainian diaspora.
In 1990, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was reinstated in Ukraine, and the former Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) was enthroned as a patriarch. Since 2000, the church primate has been the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
Unification council
Following months of negotiations and preparations, on 15 December 2018, all the bishops of the UOC-KP and the UAOC as well as two metropolitans of the UOC-MP convened in Kyiv's Saint Sophia Cathedral, presided over by the metropolitan of the ecumenical throne, Emmanuel Adamakis, to merge into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, elect their primate and adopt the statute of the newly independent Church of Ukraine.
Metropolitan Epiphanius of the UOC-KP, who had been chosen on 13 December by the UOC-KP as its only candidate, and was believed to have been Filaret Denysenko's right arm and protégé, was elected Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine by the unification council by the second round of voting.
Epiphanius later made clear that no important decision would be taken by his church until he had received the church's formal ecclesiastical decree (or "tomos").
The Ecumenical Patriarch congratulated and blessed the newly elected metropolitan on the day of his election and said the newly elected primate was invited to come to Istanbul to concelebrate the Divine Liturgy with the Ecumenical Patriarch and receive the Orthodox Church of Ukraine's tomos on 6 January 2019.
Shortly after the Council, Metropolitan Epiphanius said that the OCU had about 7 thousand parishes. In the CPC, the number of parishes and commented on the seizure of temples, Ukrainska Pravda (21 December 2018)
Advertisements to promote a united Ukrainian Orthodox Church had been made months prior to the Unification Council. Petro Poroshenko declared "not a dime" from the Ukrainian State had been paid for them, that he paid those advertisements with his own money. Poroshenko refused to state how much had been spent.
Following the Council, Filaret Denysenko, who had been the primate and Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (1995–2018), became the "honorary patriarch" of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, serving in the St Volodymyr's Cathedral.
Granting of the tomos of autocephaly