Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine

On 5 January 2019, Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, signed the tomos that officially recognized and established the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and granted it autocephaly (self-governorship).

[34] On 2 February 2016, the Patriarch of Moscow officially declared that "it is important that there is already a common understanding of the need for consensus among all the Churches, excluding any unilateral actions in granting autocephaly.

They failed to support the Maidan Revolution of Dignity, aiming, among other things, to thwart Moscow's influence and interference in Ukraine's internal affairs.

[61] On the same day, 20 April, the Holy synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate "voted to proceed with taking the necessary steps for granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine".

"[63][64] The same day, President Poroshenko declared on his official Facebook page that "the Ecumenical Patriarchate had commenced the procedures necessary for granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

[...] [S]ince Russia, as the one responsible for the current painful situation in Ukraine, is unable to solve the problem, the Ecumenical Patriarchate assumed the initiative of resolving the problem in accordance with the authority afforded to it by the Sacred Canons and the jurisdictional responsibility over the eparchy of Kyiv, receiving a request to this end by the honorable Ukrainian Government, as well as recurring requests by "Patriarch" Philaret of Kyiv appealing for our adjudication of his case.

[33] The same day, the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion, gave an interview to Russia 24 TV channel about the appointment of the two exarchs.

[88] In this interview, Hilarion issued his warning that the Russian Orthodox Church will "have no other choice but to break the communion" with the Ecumenical Patriarch if autocephaly is granted to Ukraine.

[91][92] The same day, the UOC-MP published an official declaration[93] on its website which states: "[T]he appointment of the two Exarchs is a gross violation of the canonical territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The decision made by the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate contradicts the 2nd Canon of the Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople), namely that, without being invited, "Bishops must not leave their own diocese and go over to churches beyond its boundaries".

To suspend the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in all Episcopal Assemblies, theological dialogues, multilateral commissions and other structures chaired or co-chaired by representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

[97][98] On the same day, Metropolitan Hilarion clarified the situation in an interview published on the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations.

[...] We do not think, of course, that all this will finally shut the door for dialogue, but our today's decision is a signal to the Patriarchate of Constantinople that if the actions of this kind continue, we will have to break the Eucharistic communion entirely.

"On 23 September 2018 Patriarch Bartholomew, during a Divine Liturgy he was celebrating in the Saint Fokas Orthodox church declared that he "had sent a message that Ukraine would receive autocephaly as soon as possible, since it is entitled to it".

""[25] Similar accounts were given by the Religious Information Service of Ukraine, quoting Interfax-Religion, Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, and the Kremlin website.

[133][134][135] On 27 November the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided unanimously to dissolve its exarchate of the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe (AROCWE).

[163][170][171] On 6 January 2019, Daniel (Zelinsky) of Pamphilon declared his mission in Ukraine as an exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate was "the complete proclamation of the tomos and at the same time the unification council.

Doctor in theology Cyrill Govorun [uk] of the UOC-MP argued that the tomos would take effect only when all the members of the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will have signed it.

[183] On 7 February 2019, Metropolitan Anthony of the UOC of the USA declared to President Poroshenko concerning the granting of the tomos: "The entire process was carried out by the Holy Spirit.

[191][192] The goal of this vote was, according to the KyivPost, to "speed up the receipt of a tomos (ordinance) – [the] recognition of a local Orthodox church in Ukraine by the global Orthodoxy".

[186] Iryna Lutsenko, the representative of the Ukrainian president in parliament, declared the goal of this action was to make a "sign of solidarity with this process [of Ukraine receiving a tomos]" as well as "a symbolic gesture of unity with the Mother-Church [Constantinople]".

[185][196] On 28 November 2018, in conformity with the law on religious organizations, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the transfer of the St Andrew's church to the Ecumenical Patriarchate's permanent use.

[197] On the morning of 15 November, four unknown people threw Molotov cocktails at the St Andrew's church (but they didn't explode) and attacked the priest with a spray.

[206] On 16 November 2018 Ukrinform reported that the Ukrainian Culture Ministry had challenged the legality of the transfer of the Pochayiv Lavra, located in the Ternopil Oblast, to the UOC-MP.

"[244] On 18 January, 49 members of the Ukrainian Parliament, most of them from the Opposition Bloc and including the party's leader,[245][246] appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to repeal the law 2662-VIII (formerly bill 5309).

Those five churches "within three months should make amendments to their statutory documents provided under Part 7 Article 12 of the Law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" and submit them for registration as required.

[252] In April 2019, Interfax reported, quoting a Facebook post from Vadim Novinsky of the Opposition Bloc, that the District Administrative Court of Kyiv [uk] had ruled that the forced renaming of the UOC-MP was unconstitutional.

[258][259][260] On 20 April 2019, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine opened the proceedings concerning the 18 January appeal of the 49 MPs who want to declare the law 2662-VIII (formerly bill 5309) unconstitutional.

[269][270] President of Parliament, Andriy Parubiy, declared he had asked the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Spirituality to rewrite the bill 4128 in order for it to be "in accordance with the recommendations and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights".

[285] Ukrainian MP Volodymyr Yelenskiy declared the law 4128 was in accordance with the 2007 "Svyato-Mykhaylivska Parafiya v. Ukraine" decision of the European Court of Human Rights.