On March 28, 2018, the 29th Council of the Kharkiv-Poltava Diocese of the UAOC was held in St Demetrios Catechetical-Pastoral Center of Kharkiv.
On March 28, 2018, the 29th Council of the Kharkiv-Poltava Diocese of the UAOC was held in St Demetrios Catechetical-Pastoral Center of Kharkiv. The delegates got acquainted with the presentation of the strategic plan for the development of the eparchy in the transition period “Development in Dialogue", prepared by the working group headed by Fr. Volodymyr Chervnnikov. The coordinator of the Strategy for the Development of the UGCC until 2020 at the Kyiv Archdiocese of the UGCC, Fr Vasyl Chudiovych participated in the discussion of the plan. The project plan was approved; it will be posted on the eparchial web resources after the finalization of the results of the discussion. The statement “Name of the UAOC (o) is an instrument of a hybrid war against the Ukrainian Church” was adopted. In this document, the Kharkiv-Poltava Diocese draws attention to the political tint of the UAOC (r) abbreviation and requires, under its name, to use the correct name enshrined in the tradition – “Kharkiv-Poltava Diocese of the UAOC”, or the official name entered in the state register – “Kharkiv-Poltava Diocese of the UAOC (revived)”. "Falsification of its legal status and the spread of the myth about the existence of a separate UAOC (r) are viewed in the diocese as an element of the hybrid war, designed to discredit the centrist church movements in Ukraine and the process of normalizing the canonical status of the Orthodox communities of the Kyivan tradition,” the statement reads. The Council appealed to the Head of the UGCC Patriarch Sviatoslav with a request to represent the interests of the Kharkiv-Poltava Diocese in the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations. A letter was sent to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groisman about the violation of the law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” by the Department for Religious Affairs and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. The press service's report does not specify the nature of violations. The council supported the project of internship of parish superiors in the best church communities of the Galician dioceses of the UGCC. The powers of the diocesan council, the revision committee and the eparchial court were extended. The Council ended with a joint celebration of the Liturgy of the Early Sacrificial Gifts. As RISU reported, Archbishop Igor (Isichenko) in an interview with the newspaper Nation and State told on which basis the Kharkiv-Poltava diocese of the UAOC got united with the UGCC. The issue of unity of the Kharkiv-Poltava Eparchy of the UAOC with the UGCC is not about the transition to another denomination or joining it, but, as Bishop Igor says, “about brotherly advice on the restoration of Eucharistic and administrative unity between the two churches.” Archbishop Isichenko explained that “from the end of the nineteenth century, the UGCC has been successfully undergoing the process of restoring the authentic Kyiv rite and is the part of our local Christian community which is the closest to the Kyivan tradition,” "We appealed to the episcopate of the UGCC with a request for brotherly advice on the restoration of Eucharistic and administrative unity between our churches. And I am infinitely grateful that our appeal, despite its complete unexpectedness for the UGCC, was accepted with respect, understanding and respect for our position. The UGCC Hierarchical Synod of September 2015 set up a commission to prepare response to this appeal. The work of the said commission is currently underway,” said Archbishop Igor (Isichenko).