This article should include the material from Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko).

Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate (, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, UOC-KP) is one of the three major Orthodox churches in Ukraine.^[1] The church is, however, unrecognized by other canonical Eastern Orthodox churches,^[2] including the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), the other major Orthodox church in Ukraine.

The UOC-KP's Mother Church is in the St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kiev (Kyiv), the capital of Ukraine. The current head of the church is Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko), who was enthroned in 1995. Denysenko was excommunicated by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1997, an action, however, which he does not recognize.^[3] According to a poll conducted by the Razumkov Centre, 21.8% of the Ukrainian population responded as belonging to the UOC-KP.^[4]

History

The modern history of the church begins in August 1989, when the parish of the Church of Ss. Peter & Paul in Lviv announced its breach with the Russian Orthodox Church under the Patriarch of Moscow.

In June 1990, Metropolitan Mstyslav was elected in absentia as the church's head under the title of the Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus'-Ukraine. Patriarch Mstyslav was the last surviving hierarch of the founders of Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. He was enthroned in November at St. Sophia Cathedral.

Patriarch Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) was reposed in June 1993 and was succeeded in October by Patriarch Volodomyr (Romaniuk).^[2] Patriarch Volodomyr was later reposed in July 1995.^[2] His funeral was held in near the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and was marked by a clash between the funeral procession and law-enforcement forces.^[5][6] The current head of the church, Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko), was enthroned in October, 1995.^[2] His status as head of the church led to a split in the church, in which four bishops left the church with their parishes.

Since his election as a Patriarch, Filaret remains very active in both church and state politics. He tried to gather around his Church all groups with a nationalist orientation and all church organizations which did not have canonical recognition.^[7] On the other hand, he expressed repentance for his past support of prosecution of Ukrainian national churches, the Autocephalous and the Greek Catholic.

He currently leads 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.

See also

• The Macedonian Orthodox and Montenegrin Orthodox Churches, which face a similar kind of non-recognition;
• Orthodox Church in Italy, which is in full communion with Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchy).
• Bulgarian Alternative Synod, which is in full communion with Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchy).

References

External links

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