(Point & Counterpoint | By Saken Aymurzaev) One hundred days after the establishment of the autocephalous Ukrainian Church, it faces grave opposition from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Nor is there any unanimity within the Church itself; instead, it features a range of conflicting groups, factions, and centers of influence.
In December 2018, eparchs (senior clergy) of Ukraine’s three main Orthodox Churches gathered in Kiev’s St. Sophia’s Cathedral. Among them were all the bishops of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, as well as two representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Unification Congress—held in the presence of exarchs (envoys) of Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople; Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko; and the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Andrey Parubiy—laid the foundation of a new Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The same congress elected Kiev Metropolitan Epiphanius to the position of OCU Primate.
It has now been 100 days since the establishment of an autocephalous Ukrainian Church, which is in itself amazing—it is not often that one can observe the birth of a new church. […]
