Second anniversary of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. What has changed?

Богдан Петришин

December 15 marks two years since the restoration of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Soon later Constantinople recognized its autocephaly and status as the only canonical successor of the Kyiv metropolitanate of the tenth century.

It was on December 15, 2018, that the Unification Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches was held in Kyiv. The participants approved the statute and elected the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The elected head became Epiphanius (Serhii Dumenko, 39 years old at that time). The Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized the landmark event, which took place in the Kyiv St. Sophia Cathedral. Metropolitan Emmanuel of Gaul, a representative of Constantinople, managed the event.

And on January 5, 2019, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople signed a Tomos on the autocephaly of the OCU in the church of St. George in Fanari after a joint liturgy with Metropolitan Epiphanius.

On January 6, on the eve of Orthodox Christmas, the enthronement ceremony of Epiphanius took place in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. After that, the OCU acquired the official autocephalous status and was recognized as the only canonical successor of the Kyiv metropolitanate.

"The only independent local Ukrainian Orthodox Church has taken place. It's an accomplished and irreversible fact. And there's no way back!" Epiphanius said on December 15, 2020, on the second anniversary of the OCU.

Besides the Ecumenical Patriarchate, three of the world's 15 Orthodox churches officially recognized the OCU

On October 24, 2020, the Church of Cyprus recognized the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Its leader, the Archbishop of Cyprus, commemorated Metropolitan Epiphanius during one of his liturgies.

Such commemoration (mentioning the leader of one church by the head of another church) in the Orthodox world means formal recognition. The Cypriot archbishop later explained that his decision should strengthen Orthodoxy and the Church of Cyprus.

Thus, a few months ago, the Church of Cyprus became the third after the Greek Church and the Patriarchate of Alexandria, which officially recognized the OCU, after the Ecumenical Patriarchate directly declared the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church.

There are 15 Orthodox churches in total in the world (including the Patriarchate of Constantinople). During services, their superiors are mentioned (remembered) in a logical sequence, called a diptych. The Ecumenical Patriarch is always mentioned first, and Metropolitan Epiphanius, the head of the OCU, has completed this list for the last two years.

OCU has over 7,000 parishes in Ukraine

In the first year of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine alone, about 600 parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate have joined it, as Metropolitan Epiphanius stated in an interview with Radio Svoboda last year.

"And I believe that in the future there'll also be another wave of such mass transitions. But it takes time. We want it to continue to be peaceful and voluntary. We don't have the right to create a religious front inside the country yet; we don't need confrontation," the head of the OCU said.

Currently, the OCU has over 7,000 parishes throughout Ukraine, as Epiphanius stated in a regular interview in April 2020. He also said that the transition of parishes to the OCU stopped because of quarantine restrictions and the difficult situation with the spread of coronavirus in Ukraine.

"Now we are trying to do everything to avoid crowds. And therefore during quarantine, there'll be no transitions and no meetings. Because in order for the community to decide, it's necessary to hold a general meeting of the parish," the head of the OCU explained.

Every third Ukrainian considers himself/herself an OCU supporter

Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) proved it with the results of a study, published in July 2020. It showed that 34.3% of Ukrainians consider themselves adherents of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and consider themselves its believers.

According to KIIS, almost 22% of respondents identified themselves as Orthodox without specifying.

15.4% of Ukrainians enroll in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), headed by Metropolitan Onufriy, and 8.4% enlist to the Greek Catholic Church.

7.8% of respondents called themselves atheists, and 1.8% of Protestant churches. Another 0.3% of Ukrainians profess Judaism, and 0.2% practices Islam.

OCU is a leader of the positive attitude among Ukrainian churches

The KIIS survey conducted in the summer of 2020 also found that 42.4% of Ukrainians have a positive attitude towards the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. 10.3% of respondents expressed a negative attitude to the OCU; 37.2% were neutral (therefore the balance of positive-negative assessments is + 32.1%).

With this indicator, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church follows next. 35.3% of respondents have a positive attitude towards it; 6% have a negative attitude (46.1% have a neutral attitude) (balance + 29.3%).

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has a negative balance of opinion: 23% of Ukrainians have a positive attitude towards it, and 31.6% have a negative attitude (another 36.8% have a neutral attitude).