Difference between revisions of "Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church"

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The '''Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church''' (UAOC) was the third largest Orthodox Church in Ukraine after the autonomous [[Church of Ukraine|Ukrainian Orthodox Church]] under the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the [[Kyiv Patriarchate]]. The UAOC, which claimed its origins in the early 20th century in Ukraine, preserved the vision of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Ukrainian nationalism in the Ukrainian Diaspora during the Soviet era and in independent Ukraine itself.
  
The '''Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church''' is the smallest of the "big three" Orthodox Churches in Ukraine (the others being the [[Church of Ukraine|Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)]], and the [[Church of Ukraine (Kiev Patriarchate)|Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kievan Patriarchate)]]).  The original UAOC was created in 1921, because of Ukraine's new found independence.  With the new nation being created, many ethnic Ukrainian's living in Ukraine felt they needed an [[Autocephalous]] Orthodox Church. There have been about 3 different UAOC's in Ukraine.
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==Founding and Dissolution of the UAOC==
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For centuries what became the UAOC was part of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which was founded by the Church of Constantinople and remained part of it prior to the independence of the [[Church of Russia|Church of Rus']]. After the transfer of the seat of the metropolitans of Kiev from Kiev to cities further east and north (and eventually to Moscow) the territories of what today is Ukraine came under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which had jurisdiction over the region returned to Constantinople and eventually to the Ukrainian Catholic Church after the [[Union of Brest]]. It wasn't until the conquest of Ukraine by the rising Russian Empire that its Church was reunited with the Church of Rus'.
  
==History==
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Due to the cultural differences that had developed as a result of the Polish occupation and the Union of Brest the reunion of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine with the Church of Rus' was opposed by some Ukrainian Orthodox, who began advocating the establishment of an independent Church of Ukraine. Although suppressed by the Russian Empire, following its collapse in the early 20th century supporters of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church held an All-Ukrainian Council (''sobor'') in Kiev that on 5 May 1920 declared the establishment of an independent Local Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
In wake of the break up of the Russian Empire some national groups sought autonomy or autocephaly from Moscow. In 1921 an All-Ukraine Sobor (Synod) was called in Kiev, the Capital of the newly minted country of Ukraine, and the delegation created the '''Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church''' ('''UAOC''').  Because of the actions of the Sobor, the Sobor delegates had ordained Metropolitan Vasyl (Lypkivsky) as head of the Church.  The UAOC was at that point independent of all other churches, and it claimed to haveobtained its autocephalous status a few years later in 1924 when Gregory VII, Patriarch of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch, issued a tomos re-establishing the Kievan Metropolia.  The responsibility of establishing a new Synod of Bishops was given to the Metropolitan-Archbishop of Warsaw, Dionisij Waledynskyj.
 
  
However, the Ukrainian nation did not last for very long, and eventually the USSR came into being. The Soviet's were openly atheist and Russification was being introduced throughout the USSR.  The Soviet government persecuted the UAOC (for being Orthodox, and for being Ukrainian); and the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] also prevented the UAOC from establishing their ecclesiastical order for some time.  Eventually, the UAOC was erased.
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The UAOC sought for hierarchical support, but none of the hierarchs serving in Ukraine would join the Church and consequently in 1921 a group of clergy and laymen together "consecrated" Archpriest [[Vasyl Lypkivskyj]] as a bishop, enthroning him as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. He consequently "consecrated" other bishops for Ukraine and dioceses of the UAOC formed in Canada and the United States by Ukrainian nationalists and converts from Ukrainian Catholicism. (These eparchies later became the [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada]] and the [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA|Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA]].)
  
During World War II, the Orthodox and Ukrainian's were not being pursecuted due to the war (Ukraine was a battleground inbetween the German and Soviet Army's).  On October 8, 1942 Archbishop Nikanor and [[Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) of Kiev|Bishop Mstyslav]] of the UAOC and Metropolitan Oleksiy (Hromadsky) of the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church entered into an Act of Union at the Pochayiv (Pochaev) Lavra uniting these two church hierarchies. German occupation authorities and pro-Russian hierarchs of the Autonomous Church convinced Metropolitan Oleksiy to withdraw his signature. Metropolitan Oleksiy was executed in Volynia on May 7, 1943 by UPA ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army Ukrainian Insurgent Army]) insurgents.
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The UAOC in Ukraine was dissolved following the Bolshevik occupation and annexation of eastern and central Ukraine in the 1920s. In 1924, however, the Ecumenical Patriarchate unilaterally rescinded the transfer of the Orthodox Church in what today is western Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland to the Church of Rus' and established it as the independent [[Church of Poland]]. Although operating on the territory of interwar Poland and officially called the Polish Orthodox Church, this new Local Orthodox Church's flock was primarily Ukrainian and Belorussian in composition.
  
The Russian Orthodox Church regained its general monopoly after World War II in the Ukrainian SSR. Most of the other churches were forced out as the Soviet government only recognized the Moscow Patriarchate, revived at the time of the Russian Revolution, as the only legitimate church in most of the Soviet Union. Many accused it of being a puppet of the Communist Party. After the suspicious death of [[Tikhon of Moscow]] these autocephalic Churches sought to remain independent; something that Moscow tolerated until after World War Two when many Ukrainian Orthodox clergy not affiliated with Moscow fled to Germany or the United States. The UAOC in [[Ukraine]] was then liquidated by the Soviets with the assistance of the Moscow Patriarchate. Any UAOC hierarchs or clergy who remained in Ukraine and refused to join the Russian Church were executed or sent to concentration camps. A few years later the same thing happened to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Western Ukraine (Galicia) and Transcarpathia.
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==Restoration of the UAOC==
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During World War II the German government strongly encouraged Ukrainian and Belorussian nationalism as a counterweight to Polish and Soviet resistance and influence in Eastern Europe. It was this that allowed dissident hierarchs of the Polish Orthodox Church in what had been southeastern Poland and the western USSR to declare the restoration of the UAOC in 1942. Bishop [[Polycarp (Sikorsky) of Lutsk]], formerly of the Church of Poland, became the first legitimately consecrated  hierarch to serve as primate of the UAOC (its pre-WWII hierarchical consecrations had all been invalid under canon law).
  
Re-gaining the state recongnition in the late 1980s, the Church was initially ruled from abroad by Patriarch [[Mstyslav of Kiev|Mstyslav]] and then following his death in 1993 re-established itself as an independent church, following the brief union with the UOC-KP.
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==UAOC in the Diaspora==
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The restoration of the UAOC in Ukraine proved to be brief as the region was occupied by the Red Army in the 1940s and annexed to the Soviet Union. Those hierarchs and clergy of the UAOC who remained in Soviet Ukraine were forced to submit to the [[Moscow Patriarchate]] or else sent into internal exile or executed. Several of the Church's hierarchs fled the advance of the Red Army and ended up in the Ukrainian Diaspora in the West, among them Metropolitan Polycarp.
  
Geographically the church operates almost exclusively in the western Galcian provinces with minute support elsewhere. The church used to have a lot of parishes abroad in the Ukrainian emigre communities in Canada and in the United States. However, these parishes now form the separate churches (whom are now under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople), the [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada]] and the [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA]]. There is a parish of the church in Canberra, Australia.
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In the following years the UAOC existed only in the Diaspora, with parishes scattered across the globe in Australia, North and South America, and Western Europe. It, like other jurisdictions present in the West following the Bolshevik Revolution, drifted in and out of communion with world Orthodoxy. Following the repose of Metropolitan Polycarp in France in 1953, Archbishop [[Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) of Kiev|Mstyslav (Skrypnyk)]] of Parma became primate of the UAOC in 1969.
  
==Source==
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==UAOC Returns to Ukraine==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Autocephalous_Orthodox_Church Wikipedia Article]
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In 1990 the weakening of the central government of the Soviet Union allowed for the restoration of the UAOC in Ukraine for the first time since World War II. Not long after the UAOC accepted into its communion hierarchs and clergy led by Metropolitan [[Philaret (Denysenko) of Kiev|Philaret of Kiev]] of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected the 92-year old Metropolitan Mstyslav as Patriarch of Kyiv and All Ukraine, enthroning him on 6 November 1990.
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Following the repose of Patriarch Mstyslav in 1993 two new Patriarchs of Kyiv, [[Volodomyr (Romaniuk)]] and [[Dymytrii (Yarema) of Kyiv|Dymytriy (Yarema)]], were elected by factions of the UAOC, those under Patriarch Volodymyr largely consisting of supporters of the former Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Philaret who together founded the Kyiv Patriarchate of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It was around this time that both of the UAOC's dioceses in North America together with large parts of its Western European and Australian flocks left the Church to join the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
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After the death of Patriarch Dymytriy in 2000 the UAOC elected Archbishop [[Mefodiy (Kudryakov) of Kiev|Methodius]] of Ternopil' as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. The UAOC was mainly in western Ukraine and had its headquarters at the historic Church of St. Andrew in Kiev. In the Unification Council of 15 December, 2018, the UAOC dissolved itself and joined the newly established [[Orthodox Church of Ukraine]].
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==External Links and Sources==
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*[http://www.uaoc.info/ua/ Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church] (Official Website of the UAOC)
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*[http://uaoc.org/ Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the USA] (Official Website of the UAOCUSA)
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*[http://www.uocc.ca/en-ca/about/history/ History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada] (Official Website of the UOCC)
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*[http://www.ukrainianorthodoxchurchusa.org/history.html History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA] (Official Website of the UOCUSA)
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*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Autocephalous_Orthodox_Church Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church] (Wikipedia)
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*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Mstyslav_%28Skrypnyk%29 Mstyslav (Skrypnyk)] (Wikipedia)
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*[http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polikarp_(Sikorski) Polikarp (Sikorski)] (Polish-language Wikipedia)
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[[fr:Église orthodoxe autocéphale ukrainienne]]
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[[ro:Biserica Ortodoxă Autocefală Ucraineană]]
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[[Category:Jurisdictions]]

Latest revision as of 16:44, February 5, 2022

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) was the third largest Orthodox Church in Ukraine after the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. The UAOC, which claimed its origins in the early 20th century in Ukraine, preserved the vision of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Ukrainian nationalism in the Ukrainian Diaspora during the Soviet era and in independent Ukraine itself.

Founding and Dissolution of the UAOC

For centuries what became the UAOC was part of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which was founded by the Church of Constantinople and remained part of it prior to the independence of the Church of Rus'. After the transfer of the seat of the metropolitans of Kiev from Kiev to cities further east and north (and eventually to Moscow) the territories of what today is Ukraine came under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which had jurisdiction over the region returned to Constantinople and eventually to the Ukrainian Catholic Church after the Union of Brest. It wasn't until the conquest of Ukraine by the rising Russian Empire that its Church was reunited with the Church of Rus'.

Due to the cultural differences that had developed as a result of the Polish occupation and the Union of Brest the reunion of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine with the Church of Rus' was opposed by some Ukrainian Orthodox, who began advocating the establishment of an independent Church of Ukraine. Although suppressed by the Russian Empire, following its collapse in the early 20th century supporters of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church held an All-Ukrainian Council (sobor) in Kiev that on 5 May 1920 declared the establishment of an independent Local Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

The UAOC sought for hierarchical support, but none of the hierarchs serving in Ukraine would join the Church and consequently in 1921 a group of clergy and laymen together "consecrated" Archpriest Vasyl Lypkivskyj as a bishop, enthroning him as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. He consequently "consecrated" other bishops for Ukraine and dioceses of the UAOC formed in Canada and the United States by Ukrainian nationalists and converts from Ukrainian Catholicism. (These eparchies later became the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.)

The UAOC in Ukraine was dissolved following the Bolshevik occupation and annexation of eastern and central Ukraine in the 1920s. In 1924, however, the Ecumenical Patriarchate unilaterally rescinded the transfer of the Orthodox Church in what today is western Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland to the Church of Rus' and established it as the independent Church of Poland. Although operating on the territory of interwar Poland and officially called the Polish Orthodox Church, this new Local Orthodox Church's flock was primarily Ukrainian and Belorussian in composition.

Restoration of the UAOC

During World War II the German government strongly encouraged Ukrainian and Belorussian nationalism as a counterweight to Polish and Soviet resistance and influence in Eastern Europe. It was this that allowed dissident hierarchs of the Polish Orthodox Church in what had been southeastern Poland and the western USSR to declare the restoration of the UAOC in 1942. Bishop Polycarp (Sikorsky) of Lutsk, formerly of the Church of Poland, became the first legitimately consecrated hierarch to serve as primate of the UAOC (its pre-WWII hierarchical consecrations had all been invalid under canon law).

UAOC in the Diaspora

The restoration of the UAOC in Ukraine proved to be brief as the region was occupied by the Red Army in the 1940s and annexed to the Soviet Union. Those hierarchs and clergy of the UAOC who remained in Soviet Ukraine were forced to submit to the Moscow Patriarchate or else sent into internal exile or executed. Several of the Church's hierarchs fled the advance of the Red Army and ended up in the Ukrainian Diaspora in the West, among them Metropolitan Polycarp.

In the following years the UAOC existed only in the Diaspora, with parishes scattered across the globe in Australia, North and South America, and Western Europe. It, like other jurisdictions present in the West following the Bolshevik Revolution, drifted in and out of communion with world Orthodoxy. Following the repose of Metropolitan Polycarp in France in 1953, Archbishop Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) of Parma became primate of the UAOC in 1969.

UAOC Returns to Ukraine

In 1990 the weakening of the central government of the Soviet Union allowed for the restoration of the UAOC in Ukraine for the first time since World War II. Not long after the UAOC accepted into its communion hierarchs and clergy led by Metropolitan Philaret of Kiev of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected the 92-year old Metropolitan Mstyslav as Patriarch of Kyiv and All Ukraine, enthroning him on 6 November 1990.

Following the repose of Patriarch Mstyslav in 1993 two new Patriarchs of Kyiv, Volodomyr (Romaniuk) and Dymytriy (Yarema), were elected by factions of the UAOC, those under Patriarch Volodymyr largely consisting of supporters of the former Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Philaret who together founded the Kyiv Patriarchate of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It was around this time that both of the UAOC's dioceses in North America together with large parts of its Western European and Australian flocks left the Church to join the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

After the death of Patriarch Dymytriy in 2000 the UAOC elected Archbishop Methodius of Ternopil' as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. The UAOC was mainly in western Ukraine and had its headquarters at the historic Church of St. Andrew in Kiev. In the Unification Council of 15 December, 2018, the UAOC dissolved itself and joined the newly established Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

External Links and Sources