Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate
| Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Founder | Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) |
| Independence | Established in 1992 |
| Recognition | Unrecognized by canonical Orthodox churches |
| Primate | Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) |
| Headquarters | Kiev, Ukraine |
| Territory | Ukraine |
| Possessions | Western Europe, United States |
| Language | Ukrainian, Church Slavonic |
| Members | See adherents |
| Website | Ukrainian Orthodox Church |
Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (Ukrainian: Українська Православна Церква Київського Патрiархату, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, UOC-KP) is one of the three major Orthodox churches in Ukraine, alongside the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), and the . The church is currently unrecognized by canonical Eastern Orthodox churches, although now the Ecumenical Patriarchate who is the Mother Church, and alone can only grant canonical status and autocephaly is examining the request and petition of the Ukrainian Government and its people to be officially recognised.
The UOC-KP's Mother Church is in the St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The head of the church is Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), who was enthroned in 1995. Patriarch Filaret was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1997, but the Synod and Sobor of the UOC-KP do not recognize this action.
The church originated in 1992 as a result of a schism between the Moscow Patriarchate and its former locum tenens, Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine Filaret, when Filaret chose to convert his former see (of which he was head for more than two decades) into a Ukrainian , initially within the legal framework of the Russian Orthodox Church. The majority of the Pro-Russian bishops refused to support him, and forced him to resign his position. Undeterred, Filaret, with support of the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, initiated a merger with the . With the support of nationalist groups such as UNA-UNSO, the church fought for control over property. In response, almost all Pro-Russian bishops called a sobor in Kharkiv, where they refused to follow Filaret, and ruled to defrock and anathemise him. However the union between the Western Ukrainian and diaspora clergy of the former UAOC and the now 'defrocked' Russian Orthodox clergy who followed Filaret, became very fragile. After the death of Patriarch Mstyslav in the summer of 1993, the union reached a breaking point causing the UAOC to terminate the union. After a brief leadership of Patriarch Volodomyr (Romaniuk), Filaret assumed the Patriarchal throne in autumn 1995.
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