Ukraine, Orthodox Church of

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Православна церква України, romanized: Pravoslavna tserkva Ukrainy; 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.

The Eastern Orthodox Church partially recognizes the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as the only canonical successor of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv, while the Catholic Church recognizes the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church as the only canonical successor.

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).[21][22] 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 autocephalic Orthodox Churches has been opposed by the Russian Orthodox Church as well as by the Government of Russia.

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. The UOC-MP has since been banned by the Ukrainian government.

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