Synod of UOC-MP Divides Odesa Eparchy into Two

On 20 December, in the Kyiv Cave Monastery, an extended session of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate was held under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Volodymyr.

The synod heard a report of Metropolitan Ahafangel of Odesa and Izmail on the division of the Odesa Eparchy into two independent ones and decreed the following:

To establish a separate Baltsk Eparchy within the administrative limits of Baltskyi, Ananivskyi, Kodymskyi, Savranskyi, Kotovskyi, Frunze, Velyko-Mykhailivsk, Rozdilnianskyi, Berezovskyi, Shyriaivskyi, Mykolaiv, Lubashiv, Ivanivskyi Districts of Odesa Region.

The city of Odesa, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Biliaivskyi, Ovidiopolskyi, Artsyzskyi, Tatarbunarskyim Saratskyi, Tarutynskyi, Kiliiskyi, Kominternivskyi, Izmail, Bolgradsk, Reniisky Districts are to remain within Odesa Region.

Archbishop Oleksii of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi was dismissed from the post of the Vicar of Odesa Region and superior of the Monastery of the Holy Assumption in Odesa and appointed Head of the Baltsk Eparchy.

The Synod also decreed to establish Feodosia Eparchy within Feodosia and Kerch circuits of Simferopol Eparchy and to appoint Metropolitan Platon (Udovenko) its head.