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Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (Ukrainian: Українська Православна Церква Київського Патрiархату, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, UOC-KP) is one of the three major Orthodox churches in Ukraine, alongside the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.[2] The church is, however, unrecognized by other canonical Eastern Orthodox churches,[3] including the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
The UOC-KP's Mother Church is in the St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kiev (Kyiv), the capital of Ukraine. The current head of the church is Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko), who was enthroned in 1995. Patriarch Filaret was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1997,[4] but the Synod and Sobor of the UOC-KP do not recognize this action. According to a poll conducted by the Razumkov Centre in 2006, 14.9 % of the Ukrainian population responded as belonging to the UOC-KP.[5]
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The church originated in 1992 after as a result of a schism between the Moscow Patriarchate and its former locum tenens, Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine Filaret, when he chose to convert his former see (which he was head of for more than two decades) into a Ukrainian autocephalous church. Initially within the legal framework of the Russian Orthodox Church, but the majority of the Ukrainian bishops refused to support him, and forced him to resign his position. Undeterred, Filaret, with support of the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, initiated a merger with the canonically-unrecognised Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. With the support of nationalist groups such as UNA-UNSO, the church fought for control over property. In response, almost all Ukrainian bishops called a sobor in Kharkiv, where they refused to follow Filaret, and ruled to defrock and anathemise him. However the union between the Western Ukrainian and diaspora clergy of the former UAOC and the now defrocked Russian Orthodox clergy who followed Filaret, became very fragile and after the death of Patriarch Mstyslav in the summer of 1993, the union reached a breaking point causing the UAOC to terminate the union. After a brief leadership of Patriarch Volodomyr (Romaniuk), Filaret assumed the Patriarchal throne in autumn 1995.
Orthodoxy (and Christianity in general) in Ukraine date to the Christianization of Kievan Rus by Vladimir the Great as a Metropolitanate of the Patriarch of Constantinople.The sacking of Kiev itself in December 1240 during the Mongol Invasion led to the ultimate collapse of the Rus' state. For many of its residents, the brutality of Mongol attacks sealed the fate of many choosing to find safe haven in the North East. In 1299, the Kievan Metropolitan Chair was moved to Vladimir by Metropolitan Maximus, keeping the title of Kiev. As Vladimir-Suzdal, and later the Grand Duchy of Moscow continued to grow unhindered, the Orthodox religious link between them and Kiev remained strong. The fall of Constantinople in 1453, allowed the once daughter church of North East, to become autocephalous, with Kiev remaining part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. From that moment on, the Churches of Ukraine and Russia went their own separate ways. The latter became central in the growing Russian Tsardom, attaining patriarchate in 1589, whilst the former became subject to repression and Polonization efforts, particularly after the Union of Brest in 1596. Eventually the persecution of Orthodox Ukrainians, led to a massive rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and united the Ukrainian Hetmanate with the Russian Tsardom, and in 1686, the Kievan Metropolia came under the Moscow Patriarchate. Ukrainian clergy, for their Greek training, held key roles in the Russian Orthodox Church until the end of the 18th century. Examples include Epifany Slavinetsky, one of the architects of the Patriarch Nikon's church reforms in the 17th century. Epifany Slavinetsky, locum tenens after Patriarch Adrian's death in 1700 and Metropolitan of Moscow, and his successor Feofan Prokopovich, a reformer of Russian Orthodox Church in early 18th century.
Orthodoxy in Ukraine greatly expanded in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly as the boundaries of Russian Empire incorporated the Crimean Khanate, Bessarabia and Right-Bank Ukraine. Only the Western province of Galicia remained outside Russian Orthodox Church (though was claimed as canonical territory, as was in the official Kievan Metropolitan title of Kiev and Galich). During the 20th century, Orthodoxy was brutally persecuted by the Soviet authorities in Soviet Ukraine, and, to lesser extent, by the authorities of the Second Polish Republic in Volhynia.
What historians now see as the reason for the following events was the decision of the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine Filaret to achieve total autocephaly (independence) of his metropolitan see with or without the approval of the mother church required by the canon law. These events followed Filaret's own unsuccessful attempt to gain a seat of the Moscow Patriarch to himself (1990) and the Ukrainian independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in August, 1991. In November 1991, Metropolitan Filaret requested the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church to grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autocephalous status. The skeptical hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church called for a full Synodical council (Sobor) where this issue would have been discussed at length. Filaret, using his support from the old friendship ties with the then newly elected President of Ukraine (Leonid Kravchuk), convinced him that a new independent government should have its own independent church. Despite the UAOC lacked any significant following outside Galicia, Filaret was able to organise a covert communion with the UAOC in case Moscow Patriarchate refused.
At the synod in March–April 1992, however, most of the clergy of the UOC who initially supported Filaret, openly criticised this move, and put most of the other bishops against him. Questions of his unpopular disregard to monastic vows (having a common-law wife) as well as the allegations of improper financial dealings with the church finances made the council vote for Filaret to retire from his position which was confirmed by a sworn oath.
Upon returning to Kiev Filaret carried out his reserve option revealing that the retirement swore was given under pressure and that he is not resigning. The Ukrainian president Leonid Kravchuk gave Filaret his support as did the nationalist Paramilitaries, in retaining his rank. In a crisis moment the Hierarchical Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, agreed to another synod which met in May 1992. The council was conducted in the eastern city of Kharkiv where the majority of the bishops voted to suspend Filaret from his clerical functioning. Simultaneously they elected a new leader Metropolitan Volodymyr (Viktor Sabodan), native of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast and a former Patriarchal Exarch to Western Europe.
With only three bishops remaining at his support Filaret initiated the unification with the UAOC, and in June 1992 creating a new Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) with 94-year-old Patriarch Mstyslav as a leader. While chosen as his assistant, Filaret was de-facto ruling the Church. A few of the Autocephalous bishops and clergy who opposed such situation refused to join the new Church and following the death of Mstyslav a year later. The church was once again ripped apart by a schism and most of the UAOC parishes were regained when the churches re-separated in July 1993.
Since his election as a Patriarch in 1995, Filaret remains very active in both church and state politics. He tried to gather around his Church all groups with a national orientation and all church organizations which did not have canonical recognition.[6] On the other hand, he expressed repentance for his past support of prosecution of Ukrainian national churches, the Autocephalous and the Greek Catholic.
He currently leads the drive for his church to become a single Ukrainian national church. His attempts to gain a canonical recognition for his church remain unsuccessful to this day and a rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church canonically linked to the Moscow Patriarchate remains the only body whose canonical standing is universally recognized by the Eastern Orthodox communion.
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