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==History==
In wake of the break up of the Russian Empire some national groups sought autonomy or autocephaly from Moscow. In 1921 an All-Ukrainian Sobor (Synod) was called in Kyiv, the capital of the newly-independent Ukraine, and the '''Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church''' ('''UAOC''') was declared independent from the Moscow Patriarchate (MP). The Sobor delegates chose Metropolitan Vasyl (Lypkivsky) as head of the church. A few years later in 1924, Gregory VII, Patriarch of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch, issued a [[tomos ]] re-establishing the Kyivan Metropolia as an autocephalous entity. The responsibility of establishing a new Synod of Bishops was given to the Metropolitan-Archbishop of Warsaw, Dionisij Valedynskyj.
Ukrainian independence was short lived in this period, and eventually the USSR came into being. The Soviets 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.
