OCU embraces around 9000 parishes
As of today, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine consists of 45 dioceses, which unite about 9,000 parishes across Ukraine and over eight dozen male and female monasteries.
Approximately 500 parishes changed their canonical subordination in the past year, leaving the Moscow Patriarchate and joining the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Despite challenging circumstances, the efforts of parish communities resulted in the consecration of several dozen new churches over the past year, reported Metropolitan Epifaniy.
The OCU operates 9 higher theological education institutions: 5 academies (Kyiv, Lviv, Volyn, Uzhhorod, Ivano-Frankivsk), 1 institute (Ivano-Frankivsk), and 3 seminaries (Lviv, Rivne, Dnipro). Additionally, at Chernivtsi National University named after Yuriy Fedkovych, which has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the OCU through the Office of Spiritual Education and Theological Science, educational programs in Theology at the bachelor's and master's levels are offered. Over 1,200 students are currently enrolled in these programs.
The OCU's Holy Synod oversees 15 synodal institutions and 6 commissions. Approximately 5,700 clerics serve within the OCU. The church also has 63 bishops: 45 diocesan bishops, 10 vicars, 3 titular bishops, and 4 bishops in retirement.
As Metropolitan Epifaniy emphasized, "according to all these indicators, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, even under the abnormal conditions of the non-canonical jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, remains one of the largest Local Churches."
