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Orthodox Atlas

Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine · Kyiv · est. 1990

The self-governing Orthodox Church of Ukraine under the Moscow Patriarchate, which declared its full independence in 2022.

Contested

Primate & Hierarchs

  • Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine —Onufriy· Primate

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) is the Orthodox Church of Ukraine governed from Kyiv, whose primate bears the title Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. In 1990 the Moscow Patriarchate granted it a gramota of independence and self-government, and it remained the largest Orthodox body in Ukraine through the 2018–19 establishment of a rival Church under a Tomos from the Ecumenical Patriarchate. At a council held at the Feofaniya monastery on 27 May 2022 it declared its full independence from Moscow and removed the references to that see from its statute; no autocephalous Church has recognised that independence, and Moscow continues to number it among its self-governing Churches, so its canonical standing remains contested. Its spiritual centre is the Kyiv Caves Lavra, and it keeps the Julian calendar and the traditional fasting discipline.

Recognition

  • Russian Orthodox Church (Patriarchate of Moscow) recognizes this Church (1990) — Independence and self-government granted by gramota of the Moscow Patriarchate; the UOC's 2022 declaration of full independence is not recognised.