UAOC elects a new Primate

Bishop Makariy (Maletych), Metropolitan of Lviv, and ruling bishop of Rivne, Volyn and the Tauride dioceses became the new Primate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Today, he received 360 votes out of 499 at the Local Council of the UAOC.

According to the RISU reporter, altogether four candidates were put to a vote: apart from Bishop Makariy, the candidates were hierarchs Roman (Balaschuk), Volodymyr (Cherpak) and Herman (Semanchuk).

Note that after the death of the previous head of the UAOC, on February 27, the Extraordinary Bishops’ Council of the UAOC elected Metropolitan Makariy to the post of Locum Tenens of the UAOC Primate’s seat.

Reference: Makariy (Maletych) was born on October 1, 1944, in the village of Krasne, Turka district, Lviv region. In 1973,he enrolled to Odessa Theological Seminary. On August 10, 1975, he was ordained a priest of the ROC. In 1982,he graduated from Moscow Theological Seminary, per correspondence department. He served as a priest in Donetsk, Luhansk, Rostov, and Lviv regions. In 1989,he left the ROC. In 1996,he was ordained by hierarchs Dymytriy (Yarema), Ihor (Isichenko) and Mefodiy (Kudriakov) as the Bishop of Lviv of the UAOC. In 1997 he was appointed ruling bishop of Rivne and Volyn Diocese, in 2001 – of the Tauride Diocese. In 2001, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop, and in 2011,he became Metropolitan. On February 27, 2015, the Extraordinary Bishops’ Council elected him Locum Tenens of the UAOC Primate’s Throne. On June 4, 2015, he was electedthe Primate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.