Orthodox Church of Ukraine

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St. Michael's Monastery in Kiev

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is an autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine . It was created in 2018 through the merger of the two national churches not recognized as canonically, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church . In 2016, 45.7% of all Ukrainians belonged to the former and around 1.4% of the population to the latter.

After its founding, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was initially under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople until the Ecumenical Patriarch declared it independent on January 6, 2019. So far, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Church of Greece have recognized Constantinople's move. The new church is more strongly represented in western Ukraine . Metropolitan Epiphanius was elected its first head in December 2018 . Its seat is the St. Michael's Monastery in Kiev .

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) continues to exist alongside her .

history

Orthodox Church in Ukraine

The history of the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine is complex. Around 988 a unified Russian Orthodox Church was formed in the Kievan Rus . This belonged to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1586 a Moscow Patriarchate was established.

In 1596, in the areas that belonged to Poland-Lithuania , a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , which submitted to the Pope in Rome , was replaced.

In 1795, as a result of the third partition of Poland, the northern regions of Ukraine fell to the Russian Empire . The churches there were again subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate. In 1921 the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church , the so-called Autonomists , split off from the Moscow Patriarchate.

Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

After the proclamation of the first independent Ukrainian state, the Ukrainian People's Republic , on January 25, 1918, Ukrainian clergy tried to underpin state independence by founding an autocephalous Orthodox Church. A resolution of the Russian Orthodox Church in September 1918 approved the recognition of an autonomous Ukrainian church. Due to the chaotic conditions, the first efforts were unsuccessful. The Bolsheviks , victorious in the civil war , wanted to weaken the Russian Orthodox Church and were initially benevolent to the idea of ​​a Ukrainian national church . The first autocephalous Ukrainian church was founded in Kiev in May 1920 and elected Vasyl Lypkivskyi as its first metropolitan in October 1921 . Since he lacked the necessary recognition from a patriarch , he was ordained by priests and laypeople by the laying on of hands , which was not compatible with Orthodox canon law. The first UAOK was therefore not recognized by the other Orthodox churches. Nevertheless, in the mid-1920s, it was able to gather 3–6 million believers in the Ukraine, who were organized in 1,000 parishes with 1,500 priests and 30 bishops. After the deputy patriarchal administrator Sergei (from 1943 patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church) made a declaration to the Soviet state in 1927 , in which the Russian Orthodox Church accepted the separation of church and state, the Bolsheviks lost their interest in Ukrainian autocephaly. Bishop Lypkiwskyj was forced to resign and banished that same year, and the church lost its autocephaly in 1930. In the following years, over 1,000 of its clergy were banished. In 1937 it ceased to exist.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate)

Since 1990 Ukrainian bishops have been demanding greater independence for their church, which was organized in the Ukraine Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church .

In April 1992, Metropolitan Philaret of Kiev announced his departure from the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian Church in the Patriarchate of Moscow then elected a new leadership and was founded in May as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) .

On June 25 and 26, 1992, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate was founded in Kiev as an association of clergy and congregations around Metropolitan Philaret and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church . Patriarch Mstyslaw (Skrypnyk) of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, who lived in the USA, was headed by his deputy Metropolitan Philaret. Both churches retained their own organizational structures.

In 1993, after Patriarch Mstyslav's death, the two churches separated again, and Metropolitan Vladimir (Romanjuk) became the new head of the Kiev Patriarchate. In 1994 the independent metropolis of Aquileia and Western Europe was accepted as an autonomous particular church. In 1995 Metropolitan Philaret became the new head of the Church after the sudden death of Metropolitan Vladimir. In 1997 he was officially recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church with the excommunication occupied.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate) has been trying harder since 2000 to merge with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, for a long time without success. In Crimea , police blocked access to the cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate) in Simferopol in August 2017 .

According to a September 2018 poll by the Ukrainian Razumkov Center, 35.4 percent of the country's citizens were in favor of founding a Ukrainian Church ("local autocephalous Orthodox Church") independent of Russia. 19.2 percent said they were against it. 33.5 percent said they didn't care. 11.9 percent did not provide any information. The answers were different depending on the region: In eastern Ukraine, 14.3 percent said they were in favor (32.1 percent against; 43 percent don't care; 10.7 percent no answer). In the south, 16.1 percent were in favor (18.2 percent against; 44.6 percent don't care; 21.1 percent no information). In the West, 60.5 percent voted in favor (12.3 percent against; 19 percent don't care; 8.2 percent no answer).

In October 2018, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate) and the competing Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church were jointly recognized as canonical against the opposition of the Russian Church and placed under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Orthodox Church of Ukraine

Patriarch Bartholomeos I signing the Tomos (Decree) on autocephaly of the United Orthodox Church of Ukraine

On December 15, 2018, the founding of a new Ukrainian Orthodox regional church was decided at a council in Kiev. At a ceremony in the Patriarchate in Istanbul on January 5, 2019, Bartholomew I and the new Ukrainian metropolitan Epiphanius signed a document on the autocephaly of the new church in the presence of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko . On January 6, 2019, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomäus I, presented the Church with the bull (Tomos) conferring church independence (autocephaly).

Structures

Dioceses

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate) was organized in 2018 in 35 eparchies with 4807 parishes. There are also dioceses in Russia, Moldova, Greece, the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and other countries. The German deanery includes parishes in Bielefeld, Braunschweig, Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Frankfurt / Main and other cities. In Germany there are around 110,000 believers in the church.

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was organized in 2018 in 14 eparchies with 1048 parishes.

Monasteries

The church has 74 monasteries with monks and nuns.

Canon law situation

The former Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate was not recognized as canonical by most of the other Orthodox churches until 2019 . This meant that baptism , ordination and other sacraments were not recognized by most Orthodox churches. Members of the church were also excluded from the Eucharist in other churches. The Church was not represented in any higher-ranking Orthodox body, not even in the Orthodox Bishops' Conference in Germany or the World Council of Churches .

The church under Metropolitan Philaret tried very hard to get canonical recognition by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , just four days after its foundation, Metropolitan Philaret traveled to Istanbul for the first time in 1992. In 2016 the Ukrainian parliament asked the Ecumenical Patriarch to recognize the Church. Discussions between the two churches in Istanbul also took place in 2017.

In the summer of 2018, all signs pointed to Constantinople recognizing the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church in October 2018. The fact that the pressure from the Kremlin was not enough to prevent this step led to sharp reactions from the Russian Orthodox Church, which saw itself in a losing role. Alexander Soldatov wrote in the Novaya Gazeta that the ideology of the Russian Orthodox Church ideally corresponds to the ideology of Vladimir Putin and his anti-Americanism and great power chauvinism and ends with an end to ecumenism due to its character of heresy .

On October 10, 2018, Bartholomeos I announced at a bishops' conference in Istanbul that the Ukrainian churches can organize themselves independently.

On December 15, 2018, a synod decided to merge the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

On January 6, 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople handed over the decree on the recognition of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine to its head, the Kiev Metropolitan Epiphanius. Patriarch Bartholomäus I presented the document called Tomos at a service for Orthodox Christmas in the St. George's Church in Istanbul. The day before, he and Epiphanius had signed the document.

At the end of October 2019, the head of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece , Archbishop Hieronymos , confirmed the recognition of the newly founded “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” by the Church of Greece in an official letter to the Kiev Metropolitan Epiphanius.

At the beginning of November 2019, the head of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all of Africa , Patriarch Theodoros II , recognized the newly founded "Orthodox Church of Ukraine".

Conflict between "honorary patriarch" Philaret and Metropolitan Epiphanius

The patriarch of the previous Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate , who was appointed "honorary patriarch" in the newly founded autocephalous church (a position that, according to Constantinople, should not exist at all), openly turned against him a few months after the new church was founded Metropolitan Epiphanius, as well as against Bartholomeos I. Philaret's bestowal of autocephaly, criticized their conditions, which establish a dependency on the Patriarch of Constantinople, and claimed that the previous Kiev patriarchate continued to exist. He also insinuated that the two hierarchs breached their word, as they allegedly marginalized him contrary to the agreements.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Representative survey of the Institute of Sociology of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences , 2016, (Ukrainian)
  2. Religious Self-Identification and Prayer in Ukraine , Olena Bogdan, Kiev International Institute of Sociology, 2016, pdf (English version)
  3. Олександрійський патріархат визнав автокефалію ПЦУ . Ukrinform . November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  4. Олександрійський патріархат визнав ПЦУ. Чому це важливо . BBC . November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  5. ^ The Patriarchate of Alexandria recognizes the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine (upd) ( en-US ) November 8, 2019.
  6. Letter sent by Patriarch Theodore to hierarchs on recognition of Ukrainian autocephaly ( en-US ) November 8, 2019.
  7. Александрийский патриарх признал ПЦУ . November 8, 2019.
  8. Fr Romanos Anastasiadis: Ρωμαλέω Φρονήματι ...: Metropolitan Ignatius of Volos (Church of Greece) about the Ukrainian Autocephaly / Ο Μητροπολίτης Δημητριάδος και Αλμυρού κ. Ιγνάτιος για την Αυτοκεφαλία της Ορθοδόξου Εκκλησίας της Ουκρανίας (video) . 15th July 2019.
  9. ^ Catholic News Agency , September 1, 2017.
  10. Research Center Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen, u. a., Ukraine-Analyzes No. 207, October 26, 2018, page 7; accessed on January 28, 2019; http://www.laender-analysen.de/ukraine/pdf/UkraineAnalysen207.pdf
  11. Ukrainian Orthodox Church before independence. In: religion.orf.at. October 12, 2018, accessed November 18, 2018 .
  12. Patriarch recognizes Ukrainian Church. In: n-tv.de. January 5, 2019, accessed January 5, 2019 .
  13. Orthodox Church in Ukraine independent. In: faz.net. January 6, 2019, accessed January 6, 2019 .
  14. a b Information from the State Department for Religious and Nationality Matters from January 1, 2018 (Ukrainian)
  15. Ukrainian-Orthodox parish of St. Wolodymir in Hanover-Misburg, Archpriest also looks after parishes in Bielefeld-Senne, Braunschweig and Hamburg
  16. Ukrainian Orthodox Church Congregation of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Cologne, website
  17. https://www.ukrorthodox-kirche.de/de/
  18. ^ Discussions in Istanbul Radio Vaticana based on information from the Religious Information Service of Ukraine on January 17, 2017
  19. "The decision has been made: the Ukrainian Church will be autocephalous!" , Novaya Gazeta, August 31, 2018
  20. The Patriarchates Start a Great War , Novaya Gazeta, September 10, 2018
  21. News 06:00 am Radio SRF 1, October 11, 2018 ( Memento from October 12, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  22. Ukraine: Church of Greece recognizes new church. In: vaticannews.va. October 30, 2019, accessed November 15, 2019 .
  23. Egypt: Patriarch of Alexandria recognizes the Ukrainian Church. In: vaticannews.va. November 8, 2019, accessed November 15, 2019 .
  24. Patriarch Filaret refuses to accept tomos of Orthodox Church's autocephaly , UNIAN, June 11, 2019 (English)