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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.[2] The church is 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 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,[4] but the Synod and Sobor of the UOC-KP do did not recognize this action. According to a poll conducted by the Razumkov Centre in 2006, only 14.9% of the Ukrainian population responded as belonging to the UOC-KP.[5]
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 current state of affairs 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 lawCanon Law. These Some have suggested that these events followed Filaret's own unsuccessful attempt to gain a seat be elected as Patriarch of Moscow following the Moscow repose of Patriarch to himself (1990) Pimen 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. Although 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 Kyiv , Filaret carried out his reserve option revealing that the retirement swore oath was given made 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.
He is leading 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.