Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)

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The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Ukrainian: Українська Православна Церква; Russian: Украинская Православная Церковь) is an autonomous church of Eastern Orthodoxy in Ukraine, under the ecclesiastic link to the Moscow Patriarchy. The church is one of the two major rival Ukrainian Orthodox churches (the other being the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate). For the purpose of distinguishing the two orthodox churches, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is often referred in public as Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchy (UOC-MP).

Formerly known as Ukrainian exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church it received a full autonomy (a status one step short of full autocephaly) on October 27, 1990. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church considers itself to be a Ukrainian exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchy as well as the descendant of the Orthodox Church of Kiev and all Rus' in Ukraine, thus claiming a direct lineage to the original Baptism of Rus' by St. Vladimir (Volodymyr) in 988.

The Metropolitan Volodymyr (Viktor Sabodan) is enthroned since 1992 as the head of the UOC under the title Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine.

The church is currently the only Ukrainian church to have canonical standing in Eastern Orthodoxy, and operates in full communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. It also owns the majority of Orthodox church buildings in Ukraine and is predominant in eastern and southern Ukraine.

The official residency of Metropolitan Volodymyr is in Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) in Kiev.

As of 2006 the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had the allegiance of 10, 875 registred religious communities in Ukraine (approximately 68 percent of all Orthodox Christian communities in the country)[1], located mostly in central, eastern and southern regions and is the the largest religious body in Ukraine. However, this claim is contested by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate. Officially UOC calims to have up to 35 million followers, though the real figure is likely to be less. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church's officially views other Orthodox churches of Ukraine to be "schismatic nationalist organizations" whose claims to represent Orthodoxy are canonically invalid.

[edit] See also

• History of Christianity in Ukraine
• Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate
• Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
• Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Autocephalous and Autonomous Churches of Eastern Orthodoxy

Autocephalous Churches

Four Ancient Patriarchates: Constantinople | Alexandria | Antioch | Jerusalem Russia | Serbia | Romania | Bulgaria | Georgia Cyprus | Greece | Poland | Albania | Czechia and Slovakia | OCA*

Autonomous Churches

Sinai | Finland | Estonia* | Japan* | China* | Ukraine* | Western Europe* | Bessarabia* | Moldova* | Ohrid* | (ROCOR)

The * designates a church whose autocephaly or autonomy is not universally recognized.

[edit] External links

• Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchy (Ukrainian)/(Russian)
• Ukrainian Orthodoxy official site (Russian)