UAOC appeals to Ecumenical Patriarch for accession to the Church of Constantinople on the rights Ukrainian Church had until 1686
On July 5, a regular session of the UAOC Council was held under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Makariy Maletych of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Primate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, at the premises of the Kyiv Patriarchy in Kyiv.
The Council considered the following issues:
The decisions of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church held in June 2016 on Crete and their approval.
The support for the appeal to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
The appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the normalization of the canonical status of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church at the interchurch level and entry to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church to the fullness of the Mother Church of the rights the Ukrainian Church had until 1686.
The second appeal to the President of Ukraine and Prime Minister of Ukraine requesting a meeting with the hierarchs of the UAOC.
The appointment of Archbishop Afanasiy of Kharkiv and Poltava to the office of the acting ruling bishop of Cherkasy and Kirovohrad diocese.
The appeal to the Ukrainian people on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of restoration of Ukrainian state independence.
The approval of provisions on the orders of Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (Orders of the Blessed Hetman Sahaidachny and Reverend Ilya Muromets).
Following the discussion the Bishops' Council of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church adopted the following decisions:
with a view of consolidating Orthodoxy in Ukraine, overcoming the division of Ukrainian Orthodox and establishing a local Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to appeal to His All Holiness Bartholomew I, the Archbishop of Constantinople,
New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch asking him to accept the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church as part of the Mother Church of Constantinople on the rights of the Ukrainian Church with the center at the Kyiv Metropolis until 1686 and in accordance with the decisions of the Holy and Great Orthodox Council on the island of Crete in 2016 on granting autonomous status to the churches.
The Bishops' Council said in its appeal:
“The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church originates its church building from the apostolic blessing given by St Andrew the First-Called (33-70, I century AD), Scythian eparchy (II – mid IX), the Ukrainian Church with the center at the Kyiv Metropolis (862-1686) and the recognition of Christianity as state religion in Rus-Ukraine in 988.
In modern times, the twentieth century, the fullness of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church had a century-long history of the previously proclaimed status (May 5, 1920) of its rebirth as an independent national church at the Ukrainian Orthodox Council in Kyiv on October 14-30, 1921, and the blessing of recovery hierarchy of UAOC during the Second World War (1942-1944) by the Primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Poland, Metropolitan Dionysiy Valedynsky and the third revival of UAOC in 1989-1990 under the tenure of His Holiness Mstislav Skrypnyk, Patriarch of Kyiv and all Ukraine (which also was the hierarch of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the US and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Diaspora, which is currently a part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate).”
It was reported by the Press Service of Carpathian Diocese of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
