Constantinople Grants Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine

In 2016 Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow wrote of a schism among the Orthodox of Ukraine and hoped that it might be overcome “through existing canonical norms” (Joint Declaration of Francis and Kirill (Havana, 2016) 27). The question of how autocephaly is proclaimed had been left off the agenda of the council held on Crete that year (Holy and Great Council, Towards the Council); see the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church.

On 11 October 2018 the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, under Bartholomew I, announced five decisions (Ecumenical Patriarchate, Communiqué of 11 October 2018 decisions 1–5). It would proceed to grant autocephaly to the church of Ukraine and re-establish the Ecumenical Patriarch’s stavropegion in Kyiv (Ecumenical Patriarchate, Communiqué of 11 October 2018 decisions 1–5). It accepted the appeals of Filaret Denisenko, Makariy Maletych and their followers, who, it said, had found themselves in schism not for dogmatic reasons, and restored them to their rank and their faithful to communion (Ecumenical Patriarchate, Communiqué of 11 October 2018 decisions 1–5). It revoked the force of the synodal letter of 1686 that had given the patriarch of Moscow the right “through oikonomia”, that is by dispensation, to ordain the metropolitan of Kyiv (Ecumenical Patriarchate, Communiqué of 11 October 2018 decisions 1–5). And it appealed to all sides to avoid the seizure of churches and every act of violence (Ecumenical Patriarchate, Communiqué of 11 October 2018 decisions 1–5).

Four days later the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church called these decisions unlawful and unilateral (Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Statement of 15 October 2018 opening paragraphs). Filaret, it recalled, had been deposed by the Russian church’s bishops in 1992 and anathematised in 1997 (Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Statement of 15 October 2018 on Filaret Denisenko). The act of 1686, it held, made the metropolis of Kyiv part of the Moscow Patriarchate and could not be reviewed (Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Statement of 15 October 2018 on the act of 1686). It declared that it could not continue in eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople until those decisions were withdrawn (Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Statement of 15 October 2018 closing paragraphs).

On 15 December 2018 a council in Kyiv, which Constantinople called the unifying council, founded the new church and elected Epiphanius of Kyiv, metropolitan of Pereyaslav and Bila Tserkva, as its primate (Ecumenical Patriarchate, Communiqué of 15 December 2018). On 6 January 2019, at the liturgy in the patriarchal cathedral at the Phanar in Constantinople, Bartholomew handed him the tomos (Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Biography of Metropolitan Epiphanius).

The tomos declares the Orthodox Church within the borders of the state of Ukraine autocephalous, under a primate titled Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine (Tomos of Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (2019) paragraph 2). It limits the church’s jurisdiction to Ukrainian territory, keeps a right of appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch, says that the new church “knows as its head” the Ecumenical Throne, as the other patriarchs and primates do, and requires it to consult Constantinople on major questions (Tomos of Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (2019) paragraphs 3–6). It invokes the prayers of Prince Vladimir and Queen Olga (Tomos of Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (2019) paragraph 7); see the Baptism of Rus’.

Other Orthodox churches took different positions, of which two are given here as examples. The bishops of the Church of Greece recognised in October 2019 the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s canonical right to grant autocephaly, and left recognition of the new church to their archbishop (Church of Greece, Statement of 12 October 2019). The Serbian bishops had declared in May 2019 that they did not recognise it, and that in Ukraine they were in communion only with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church led by Metropolitan Onufriy (Serbian Orthodox Church, Communiqué of the Assembly of Bishops (May 2019) paragraph on Ukraine). That church held a council in May 2022 which condemned the war, disagreed with Patriarch Kirill’s position on it, amended its statute to attest “full independence and autonomy”, and said that Constantinople’s actions in Ukraine had only deepened misunderstandings (Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Resolutions of the Council of 27 May 2022 1, 3, 4, 9).