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{{cleanupThe '''Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church''' (UAOC) is the third largest Orthodox Church in Ukraine after the autonomous [[Church of Ukraine|Ukrainian Orthodox Church]] under the Moscow Patriarchate and the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the [[NPOVKyiv Patriarchate]]. The UAOC, intro expandedwhich has its origins in the early 20th century in Ukraine, spelling. Not enough context givenhas preserved the vision of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Ukrainian nationalism in the Ukrainian Diaspora during the Soviet era and now in independent Ukraine itself.}}

The '''Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church''' is ==Founding and Dissolution of the UAOC==For centuries what became the smallest UAOC was part of the "big three" Orthodox Churches Church in Ukraine (, which was founded by the Church of Constantinople and remained part of it prior to the others being independence of the [[Church of UkraineRussia|Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)of Rus']], and . After the transfer of the seat of the [[Church metropolitans of Ukraine (Kiev Patriarchate)|Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Kiev to cities further east and north (Kievan Patriarchateand eventually to Moscow)]]). The original UAOC was created in 1921, because the territories of what today is Ukraine's new found independence. With came under the new nation being createdPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, many ethnic which had jurisdiction over the region returned to Constantinople and eventually to the Ukrainian's living in Ukraine felt they needed an Catholic Church after the [[AutocephalousUnion of Brest]] Orthodox Church. There have been about 3 different UAOCIt wasn's in t until the conquest of Ukraineby the rising Russian Empire that its Church was reunited with the Church of Rus'.

==History==In wake Due to the cultural differences that had developed as a result of the break up Polish occupation and the Union of Brest the reunion of the Russian Empire some national groups sought autonomy or autocephaly from Moscow. In 1921 an All-Orthodox Church in Ukraine Sobor (Synod) with the Church of Rus' was called in Kievopposed by some Ukrainian Orthodox, who began advocating the Capital establishment of the newly minted country an independent Church of Ukraine. Although suppressed by the Russian Empire, and following its collapse in the delegation created the '''early 20th century supporters of an independent Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church''' held an All-Ukrainian Council ('''UAOC'sobor''). Because of in Kiev that on 5 May 1920 declared the actions establishment of the Sobor, the Sobor delegates had ordained Metropolitan Vasyl (Lypkivsky) as head of the an independent Local Orthodox Church. The UAOC was at that point independent of all other churches, and it claimed to haveobtained its autocephalous status a few years later in 1924 when Gregory VII, Patriarch of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch, issued a tomos re-establishing the Kievan Metropolia. The responsibility of establishing a new Synod of Bishops was given to the Metropolitan-Archbishop of Warsaw, Dionisij WaledynskyjUkraine.

HoweverThe UAOC sought for hierarchical support, but none of the Ukrainian nation did not last for very longhierarchs serving in Ukraine would join the Church and consequently in 1921 a group of clergy and laymen together "consecrated" Archpriest [[Vasyl Lypkivskyj]] as a bishop, enthroning him as Metropolitan of Kyiv and eventually the USSR came into beingAll Ukraine. The Soviet's were openly atheist He consequently "consecrated" other bishops for Ukraine and Russification was being introduced throughout the USSR. The Soviet government persecuted dioceses of the UAOC (for being Orthodox, formed in Canada and for being the United States by Ukrainian); nationalists and converts from Ukrainian Catholicism. (These eparchies later became the [[Russian Ukrainian Orthodox Churchof Canada]] also prevented and the UAOC from establishing their ecclesiastical order for some time. Eventually, [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA|Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the UAOC was erasedUSA]].)

During World War IIThe UAOC in Ukraine was dissolved following the Bolshevik occupation and annexation of eastern and central Ukraine in the 1920s. In 1924, however, the Ecumenical Patriarchate unilaterally rescinded the transfer of the Orthodox Church in what today is western Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukrainian's were not being pursecuted due Poland to the war (Ukraine was a battleground inbetween the German and Soviet ArmyChurch of Rus's). On October 8, 1942 Archbishop Nikanor and established it as the independent [[Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) Church of Kiev|Bishop MstyslavPoland]] . Although operating on the territory of the UAOC interwar Poland and Metropolitan Oleksiy (Hromadsky) of officially called the Ukrainian Autonomous Polish Orthodox Church entered into an Act of Union at the Pochayiv (Pochaev) Lavra uniting these two church hierarchies. German occupation authorities and pro-Russian hierarchs of the Autonomous , this new Local Orthodox Church convinced Metropolitan Oleksiy to withdraw his signature. Metropolitan Oleksiy 's flock was executed primarily Ukrainian and Belorussian in Volynia on May 7, 1943 by UPA ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army Ukrainian Insurgent Army]) insurgentscomposition.

The Russian Orthodox Church regained its general monopoly after ==Restoration of the UAOC==During World War II in the German government strongly encouraged Ukrainian SSR. Most of the other churches were forced out and Belorussian nationalism as the a counterweight to Polish and Soviet government only recognized the Moscow Patriarchate, revived at the time resistance and influence in Eastern Europe. It was this that allowed dissident hierarchs of the Russian Revolution, as the only legitimate church Polish Orthodox Church in most of what had been southeastern Poland and the Soviet Union. Many accused it of being a puppet of western USSR to declare the Communist Party. After the suspicious death restoration of [[Tikhon of Moscow]] these autocephalic Churches sought to remain independent; something that Moscow tolerated until after World War Two when many Ukrainian Orthodox clergy not affiliated with Moscow fled to Germany or the United States. The UAOC in 1942. Bishop [[UkrainePolycarp (Sikorsky) of Lutsk]] was then liquidated by the Soviets with the assistance , formerly of the Moscow Patriarchate. Any UAOC hierarchs or clergy who remained in Ukraine and refused to join the Russian Church were executed or sent to concentration camps. A few years later of Poland, became the same thing happened first legitimately consecrated hierarch to serve as primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Western Ukraine UAOC (Galiciaits pre-WWII hierarchical consecrations had all been invalid under canon law) and Transcarpathia.

Re-gaining ==UAOC in the Diaspora==The restoration of the state recongnition UAOC in Ukraine proved to be brief as the late 1980s, the Church region was initially ruled from abroad occupied by Patriarch the Red Army in the 1940s and annexed to the Soviet Union. Those hierarchs and clergy of the UAOC who remained in Soviet Ukraine were forced to submit to the [[Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) of Kiev|MstyslavMoscow Patriarchate]] or else sent into internal exile or executed. Several of the Church's hierarchs fled the advance of the Red Army and then following his death ended up in 1993 re-established itself as an independent church, following the brief union with Ukrainian Diaspora in the UOC-KPWest, among them Metropolitan Polycarp.

Geographically In the church operates almost exclusively following years the UAOC existed only in the western Galcian provinces Diaspora, with minute support elsewhere. The church used to have a lot of parishes abroad in scattered across the Ukrainian emigre communities globe in Canada Australia, North and South America, and Western Europe. It, like other jurisdictions present in the United StatesWest following the Bolshevik Revolution, drifted in and out of communion with world Orthodoxy. However, these parishes now form Following the separate churches (whom are now under the Ecumenical Patriarchate repose of Constantinople)Metropolitan Polycarp in France in 1953, the Archbishop [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) of CanadaKiev|Mstyslav (Skrypnyk)]] and the [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA]]. There is a parish Parma became primate of the church UAOC in Canberra, Australia1969.

==SourceUAOC Returns to Ukraine==In 1990 the weakening of the central government of the Soviet Union allowed for the restoration of the UAOC in Ukraine for the first time since World War II. Not long after the UAOC accepted into its communion hierarchs and clergy led by Metropolitan [[Philaret (Denysenko) of Kiev|Philaret of Kiev]] of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected the 92-year old Metropolitan Mstyslav as Patriarch of Kyiv and All Ukraine, enthroning him on 6 November 1990. Following the repose of Patriarch Mstyslav in 1993 two new Patriarchs of Kyiv, [[Volodomyr (Romaniuk)]] and [[Dymytrii (Yarema) of Kyiv|Dymytriy (Yarema)]], were elected by factions of the UAOC, those under Patriarch Volodymyr largely consisting of supporters of the former Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Philaret who together founded the Kyiv Patriarchate of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It was around this time that both of the UAOC's dioceses in North America together with large parts of its Western European and Australian flocks left the Church to join the Ecumenical Patriarchate. After the death of Patriarch Dymytriy in 2000 the UAOC elected Archbishop [[Mefodiy (Kudryakov) of Kiev|Methodius]] of Ternopil' as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. Although the UAOC has established new dioceses in the Ukrainian Diaspora, it remains on friendly terms with its daughter churches under the Ecumenical Patriarchate and has attempted itself to establish communion with Constantinople in the hopes of having it establish a universally recognized, independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The UAOC today is concentrated in western Ukraine and has its headquarters at the historic Church of St. Andrew in Kiev. ==External Links and Sources==*[http://www.uaoc.info/ua/ Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church] (Official Website of the UAOC)*[http://uaoc.org/ Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the USA] (Official Website of the UAOCUSA)*[http://www.uocc.ca/en-ca/about/history/ History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada] (Official Website of the UOCC)*[http://www.ukrainianorthodoxchurchusa.org/history.html History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA] (Official Website of the UOCUSA)*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Autocephalous_Orthodox_Church Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church] (Wikipedia)*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Mstyslav_%28Skrypnyk%29 Mstyslav (Skrypnyk)] (Wikipedia Article)*[http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polikarp_(Sikorski) Polikarp (Sikorski)] (Polish-language Wikipedia) [[fr:Église orthodoxe autocéphale ukrainienne]][[ro:Biserica Ortodoxă Autocefală Ucraineană]]  [[Category:Jurisdictions]]