Orthodox Church of Ukraine marks first anniversary of its foundation

15.12.2019 14:14

Kyiv Post

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is marking one year since its break from Russia’s church hierarchy.

On Dec. 15, Metropolitan Epiphanius led a celebratory liturgy at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv attended by former President Petro Poroshenko. The liturgy was held a day after Epiphanius convened a bishops’ council on the occasion of the first anniversary.

“Over a year, we have achieved a lot through joint efforts. The church matured, its unity was confirmed, the governing bodies were established,” Epiphanius said at the council. “This year has demonstrated: Despite challenges and resistance, the church was established.”

On Dec. 15, 2018, a unification council officially established the Orthodox Church of Ukraine by unifying several other religious bodies: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and breakaway parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The unification council also elected Epiphanius, Metropolitan of Pereyaslav and Bila Tserkva, born Serhiy Dumenko, as the head of the new church.

Previously, there was only one internationally recognized Orthodox church in Ukraine. It was subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate.

Last year, the highest authority in the Eastern Orthodox world, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, granted Ukraine the right to form its own national church.

After unification, on Jan. 6, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was granted a ‘tomos of autocephaly,’ a decree of independence issued by the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. This gave it canonical status as a church independent from Moscow.

Read more: Ukraine’s word of 2018: Tomos

On Dec. 14, a day before the one-year anniversary of church independence, Metropolitan Epiphanius announced that the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church had legally ceased to exist.

Although the church of the Moscow Patriarchate continues to operate in Ukraine, its parishes can voluntarily join the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine. To date, over 540 parishes have moved under the jurisdiction of the new national church.

However, not everyone is happy. Moscow Patriarchate clergy and believers opposed the move. Most surprisingly, the former leader of the Kyiv Patriarchate, who played an important role in establishing church independence, has become one of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s most vocal opponents.

Ninety-year-old Patriarch Emeritus Filaret has refused to cede power. He was a chief campaigner for religious separation from the Moscow Patriarchate ever since Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

A year after independence, he founded the Kyiv Patriarchate and was subsequently excommunicated by Moscow for creating a “schismatic” church. Filaret’s excommunication remained in force for two decades, until Constantinople rescinded the Moscow Patriarchate’s decision.

Filaret claims that Epiphanius and Poroshenko, who oversaw the creation of the new church as part of his reelection campaign, broke their promises and made him a ceremonial figure without power. He said the initial agreement implied that he would govern the new church while Epiphanius would represent it internationally.

He also rejected the canonical dissolution of the Kyiv Patriarchate after the 2018 unification council.

Filaret has called his supporters to a forum in defense of the Kyiv Patriarchate slated for Dec. 20. He claims that “internal and external powers are aimed at destroying the Kyiv Patriarchate.”

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine has tried to win over Filaret by offering him several perks. He can create a separate religious mission within the church, lead services at St. Volodymyr’s Church, use his official residence in central Kyiv and draw a salary for the rest of his life. But this has not appeased him.

On the eve of the historic unification council’s first anniversary, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church made an official appeal to Filaret and his supporters to reconcile and halt their “self-isolation.”

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