Ukraine, Orthodox Church in

UKrAINE, OrTHODOX CHUrCH IN. Although the Church in Kiev (Kyiv) survived the Mongol destruction of the city in 1240, its metropolitans soon began to reside in the new principality of Moscow. This situation continued until 1448, when Kiev, then under Polish-Lithuanian domination, was established as a distinct metropolitanate under the jurisdiction of Constantinople. Soon thereafter, in 1461, the bishops of Moscow ceased using the title of Kiev and began to style themselves as metropolitans of Moscow. Moscow later gathered strength and eventually gained control of Kiev. The Orthodox Metropolitanate of Kiev was consequently transferred from the jurisdiction of Constantinople to that of Moscow in 1686, an act which the Patriarchate of Constantinople has never recognized. The Orthodox in Ukraine remained part of the *Russian Orthodox Church until Ukraine declared its independence in the chaotic situation following World War I and the Russian Revolution. The government of this new republic passed a law allowing for the establishment of an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 1919. Meanwhile, a spontaneous movement in favour of ending ties with the Russian Church was gaining ground among the Ukrainian Orthodox faithful. Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. All this led to the proclamation of Ukrainian autocephaly at a Church council in 1921. Since no Orthodox bishop would take part in this action, the council decided to ordain its leader, Archpriest Vasyl’ Lypkivs’kyj, as *Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine through the laying-on-of-hands by the priests and laypeople present. Because of the highly unorthodox method it used to obtain a hierarchy, and because of its disregard for some established canonical principles, this Church was never recognized by any other Orthodox Church.

Nevertheless, by early 1924 the new Church had 30 bishops and approximately 1,500 priests and deacons serving in nearly 1,100 parishes in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, with possibly as many as six million members. Strong lay participation in this Church’s administration caused it to become known as the ‘sobornopravna’ or ‘conciliar’ church. When Ukraine was absorbed into the Soviet Union, the new authorities at first viewed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in a positive way, but by the late 1920s, they saw it as a dangerous expression of Ukrainian nationalism. Under government pressure, it declared itself dissolved and integrated into the Moscow Patriarchate in 1930. however, during the German occupation of Ukraine during World U War II, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was briefly re-established by bishops who had been validly ordained by Polish Orthodox bishops. Thus it has subsequently claimed to be within the traditional apostolic succession, a fact still disputed by some Orthodox churches. In any case, it was suppressed again when the Soviets regained control of the area. The situation remained unchanged until the advent of greater religious freedom in the last days of the Soviet Union. In these new conditions, a Ukrainian Orthodox Council met in Kiev in June 1990 and elected the exiled Metropolitan Mstyslav of the United States as patriarch. he returned to Ukraine in October 1990 to preside over the reemergence of this Church in its homeland. The situation became more complicated after May 21, 1992, when the Moscow Patriarchate deposed Metropolitan Filaret of Kiev and reduced him to the lay state on June 11. he had been accused of trying to separate his Church from Moscow. Filaret then joined forces with the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church and even took the title of locum tenens of Patriarch Mstyslav who had returned to the United States. Filaret enjoyed the support of the Ukrainian government in his efforts to form an autocephalous Orthodox Church.

All this happened, however, without the knowledge of Patriarch Mstyslav, who broke all ties with Filaret in November. Split leading to Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. This provoked a split within the autocephalous Church between those loyal to Mstyslav and those linked to Filaret, who now call themselves the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. After the death of Patriarch Mstyslav on June 11, 1993, each of these groups elected its own head. On September 7, 1993, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church elected 77-year-old Rev. Volodymyr Jarema as patriarch. he took the name Dimitry I. On October 21, 1993, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate elected Rev. Vasyl Romaniuk, 67, as Patriarch Volodymyr I. he died in 1995 and was succeeded by Filaret, who was enthroned as patriarch on October 22, 1995. he was subsequently excommunicated by a Bishops’ Council of the Moscow Patriarchate in February 1997. Three separate Orthodox jurisdictions in Ukraine. As a result, there are three separate Orthodox jurisdictions in Ukraine. Figures dating from 2011 indicate that the a) Ukrainian Orthodox Church linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, headed by Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan (born 1935, elected 1992), had 11,952 parishes served by 9,680 clergy. Its headquarters is at the Monastery of the Caves (Pečers’ka Lavra) in Kiev, and its official website is http://orthodox. org.ua. b) Next is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kievan Patriarchate headed by Patriarch Filaret (born 1929, elected 1995), which had 4,371 parishes served by 3,021 clergy. It is based at St Volodymyr Church in Kiev, and maintains an official website at www.cerkva.info.

c) The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is the smallest, with 1,190 parishes and 699 clergy, mostly concentrated in western Ukraine. Following Patriarch Dimitry’s death in February 2000, the Church did not elected a new patriarch in the hope of achieving reconciliation with the other Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. The primate of the autocephalous Church is Metropolitan Mefodij of Ternopil’ (born 1949, elected 2000) The Church’s website can be found at www.uaoc.org. Even though the Church linked to Moscow has by far the most parishes, opinion polls conducted in Ukraine since 1992 have consistently indicated that a larger number of Orthodox believers identifies with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church also has a significant presence in the diaspora, the great majority of which is now under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. b. Bociurkiw, ‘The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church’, Eastern Christianity and Politics in the Twentieth Century, P. Ramet (ed.), Durham NC 1988, 309–319; S. Senyk, A History of the Church in Ukraine, 1–2, Rome 1993, 2011; B. Matwijczuk, ‘Ukraine’, Blackwell, 501–503; T. E. French, ‘Ukraine, Orthodoxy in the’, EEOC 2:604–609. R. Roberson.

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Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Christian East

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