Five years ago, a historic Unification Council took place in St. Sophia of Kyiv, at which a single autocephalous local Orthodox Church of Ukraine was established. The main outcome of the Council was the decision on the unity of the Church, the adoption of its statutory documents, and the election of the Primate – His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
As the OCU emphasizes, although the Church is formally the fruit of the work of the Unification Council on December 15, 2018, it did not originate from it, but has its own deep roots and historical and canonical durability. It stems back to the apostolic times, developed during the period of the princely and Cossack Ukrainian states, existed during the times of imperial and communist rule, having achieved its consolidation into a single and autocephalous Local Church already in the restored independent Ukraine.
From a canonical point of view, the period of split in Ukrainian Orthodoxy ended in 2018 thanks to the decisions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Unification Council, which resulted in the receipt of the Tomos onfautocephaly. Since then, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has been the only canonically formed Orthodox jurisdiction in Ukraine.
“Now, five years since the Unification Council, we can state with confidence that the decisions made there were successfully and reliably accepted by the international community, the Mother Church, other local Churches, as well as the Ukrainian episcopate, clergy and believers.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine took place and is successfully establishing itself: today it is the largest religious association in our country, primarily in terms of public trust and how our fellow citizens identify with it, but also in terms of the number of communities that make up our single spiritual family. People support it because the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is always with the people.
So may the Lord continue to bless all of us for fruitful unified work for the glory of God, for the good of the Church and Ukraine!” noted in OCU.
