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The '''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. The church is currently unrecognized by other canonical Eastern Orthodox churches, including the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). The UOC-KP's Mother Church is , although in April 2018 an official petition of the Ukrainian Government and the St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv, Patriarchate with the capital of Ukraine. The head of UAOC was forwarded to the church is Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), who Ecumenical Patriarchate which was enthroned in 1995. Patriarch Filaret was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1997, but the Synod and Sobor of the UOC-KP did not recognize this action. According accepted to be examined with possible Autocephaly to a poll conducted by the Razumkov Centre be granted in 2006, only 14.9% of the Ukrainian population responded as belonging to the UOC-KPnear future.
The UOC-KP's Mother Church is in the St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The head of the church is Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), who was enthroned in 1995. Patriarch Filaret was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1997, but the Synod and Sobor of the UOC-KP did not recognize this action. The KP Patriarchate has the support of over 30 million faithful in Ukraine. (In comparison The Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine has the support of approximately 5 million faithful in Ukraine). In recent public news polls conducted by the KIIS in Kyiv showed that over 77% of those asked were supporters of The Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyivan Patriarchate and only 8% aligned themselves with The Moscow Patriarchate.
==History==
On 27 October 1990, in a ceremony at St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Patriarch Alexei handed to Metropolitan Filaret a tomos granting "independence in self government" (the tomos did not use either of the words "autonomy" or "autocephaly") to Metropolitan Filaret, and enthroned Filaret, heretofore "Metropolitan of Kyiv", as "Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine".
The [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate]] originated in 1992 as a result of a schism between the Moscow Patriarchate and its former locum tenens, Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine Filaret, when Filaret chose to convert his former see (of which he was head for more than two decades) into a Ukrainian autocephalous church, initially within the legal framework of the Russian Orthodox Church. 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 See 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 the status of 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 Patriarchatealthough this act was to this day redeemed un-canonicalby the Ecumenical Patriarchate who remains always the Mother Church of the Ukrainians . 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.
