What You Should Know About the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (+VIDEO)

The main theses concerning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are briefly and clearly considered: status, relations with Moscow, attitude to the war, to the territories, to the language of worship, to the “Russian world” and to the OCU.

Status

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the Church of the Ukrainian people and dates back to the baptism of Rus by Prince Volodymyr, Equal-to-the-Apostles. Throughout its entire history, it has been close to the Ukrainian people, whom it has been shaping and educating, supporting and inspiring in the most difficult times. It shared all the joys and sorrows with them. It gained its status as an independent and self-governing Church back in 1990. After the outbreak of the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the Council of the UOC, which took place on 27 May 2022 with the participation of the bishops, clergy, monastics and faithful, decided to declare the full autonomy and independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Its current status is expressed in the following:

1. The Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine is independently elected by the Ukrainian bishops.
2. Bishops are elected and appointed by the Holy Synod, which also creates new dioceses and changes their boundaries.
3. The highest court in the UOC is the Council of Bishops of the UOC.
4. The UOC independently conducts external church relations.
5. The Holy Synod independently canonises saints. There are about 300 saints who have been canonised in the UOC to this day.
6. A decision has been taken to renew the ancient practice of chrism-preparation in Kyiv.
7. The UOC takes care of the Ukrainian diaspora on its own. Currently, there are 40 active parishes and 10 pastoral centres in 13 European countries.

Relations with Moscow

At the Council of 27 May 2022, the Charter of the UOC was amended to reflect not only the administrative independence, which had existed before as well, but also the separation from the Moscow Patriarchate. From now on, the Statute does not contain any provisions indicating that the UOC is a self-governing part of the ROC, resolutions of Councils of the ROC are not a basis for  activities of the UOC, and the Metropolitan of Kyiv has ceased to be a member of the Holy Synod of the ROC. The paragraph on the commemoration of the Patriarch of Moscow during divine services in churches and monasteries of the UOC was also removed.

Attitude towards the war

Back in 2014, The Ukrainian Orthodox Church condemned the hostilities in eastern Ukraine at the highest level, the level of the Council of Bishops, and called for an end to the bloodshed and a peaceful resolution of the conflict. After the beginning of Russia’s full-fledged military invasion into the territory of Ukraine, the Primate of the UOC, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, was the first religious leader to address the Ukrainian people and condemn the war, calling upon them to defend the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine, to unite in love to God and the Motherland, to be courageous, to support our warriors and each other.

Among defenders of Ukraine there are believers of the UOC, who serve in the ranks of the National Guard, in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and in the territorial defence forces. They are sons of priests, graduates of theological schools, sextons, readers and parishioners. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church provides comprehensive assistance to Ukrainian military personnel, hospitals, civilians, refugees and everyone in need. The Church donates ammunition, equipment, medicine, food, clothing and provides shelter. Believers take part in the donation of blood for servicemen and victims on a regular basis.

The images of Gostomel, Irpin and Bucha, liberated a year ago, were especially shocking for Ukrainian citizens. The UOC hierarchs unambiguously condemned what had happened there as a crime. In particular, the Rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary, Archbishop Sylvester (Stoichev), when expressing condolences to the families of the victims and to residents of those cities, mentioned in his statement the phenomenon of “theology after Auschwitz”. In relation to the situation in Ukraine, it consists in understanding how one can testify of God after the horrors that happened, when Christian peoples turned out to be capable of committing such crimes against each other. Understanding this has been outlined as one of the urgent needs facing Christians in Ukraine.

Attitude towards the territories

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has always spoken in favour of the unity of Ukraine and has always expressed support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country. In addition to the defence against the external enemy, the UOC has constantly emphasised the need to consolidate the Ukrainian society, preserve peace and prevent internal hostility, including hostility based on religion, as well.

Attitude towards the language of worship

Traditionally, the liturgical language of the Kyiv Metropolitanate is the Church Slavonic language, which has been adopted from the fathers of the Slavic script, Equals-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius. Ukrainian is also a language of worship in some parishes of the UOC. The possibility to pray in one’s native language was provided for by the Council of Ukrainian Bishops back in 1921. Since then, it has been implemented for decades in those parishes that have such a desire. And today, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is exerting efforts to ensure the high-quality literary translation into Ukrainian and printing of the Holy Scripture and liturgical texts in Ukrainian.

“The Russian world”

Back in 2007, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, at her Council of Bishops, condemned the phenomenon of so-called “political Orthodoxy”, which consisted in attempts to use the Orthodox Church and works of Holy Fathers and Christian writers to justify various political concepts and ideas. Since the emergence of the “Russian world” ideology, it has never been officially supported by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, let alone taught in theological educational institutions. This idea could only be expressed by individuals who diverged from the position of the Church as a whole in their statements.

Relations with the OCU (the Orthodox Church of Ukraine)

The relations between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the OCU are exclusively ecclesiastical in nature. The discussion between them is exclusively in the theological and canonical area. Therefore, the discussion and resolution of controversial issues should take place only in the ecclesiastical field, with the involvement of the Orthodox Churches of the world, and not under administrative pressure of the state.