Ukrainians gathered in Kyiv on Oct. 14 to hold a mass prayer celebrating the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s recent steps toward independence from Moscow.
Attendees, including President Petro Poroshenko, gathered on the city’s Sofiivska Square to thank the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate for granting approval for Ukraine to establish an independent — or “autocephalous” — Orthodox church.
After the Christianization of the Kyivan Rus in the year 988, the Metropolis of Kyiv was part of the Constantinople Patriarchate. Then, in 1686, Constantinople decided to allow the patriarch of Moscow to appoint metropolitans of Kyiv.
Since then, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has remained subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate — making the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church unrecognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Then, on Oct. 11, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople recognized the legitimacy of the bishops Filaret and Makariy, the leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, respectively.
The two Ukrainian churches spearheaded by Filaret and Makariy — both of whom were in attendance at the mass prayer — are now considered part of the Constantinople Church and not as part of the Russian Church anymore.
The Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church are planning to merge with pro-independence bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate into an independent (autocephalous) Ukrainian church, which is expected to receive a tomos — a Synod decree recognizing the independence of the Ukrainian church from the Constantinople church.
For more on President Poroshenko’s remarks at the prayer, see the Kyiv Post’s coverage on of the event.
