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Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox-Canonical Elect Patriarch at First All-Church Sobor

26.06.2005, [08:35] // Orthodox //

Kyiv - From 15 through 17 June 2005, bishops, clergy and faithful from North America, South America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, representing nearly 40 countries, arrived in Kyiv to participate in the first sobor [assembly] of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church-Canonical (UAOC-C). The church's head, Metropolitan Moisei, was elevated to the rank of patriarch during the sobor.

According to the press office of Bishop Ioan, Bishop of the Midwest (USA) of the UAOC-C, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church-Canonical was originally established in 1924 with a Tomos issued by Gregorios VII, ecumenical patriarch, re-establishing the historic Kyivan-Rus (Ukrainian) Metropolitanate as an autocephalous church, placing the responsibility of establishing a new synod of bishops upon the metropolitan archbishop of Warsaw, Dionisij Walenynskyj. Through the years, because of the war and its resulting partitions, the bishops of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church-Canonical were forced into exile. In 2002, Metropolitan Moisei (Kulyk), head of the UAOC-C, returned from the diaspora to re-establish the church in Ukraine and to unite all the various churches which had developed in the diaspora.

According to the press office, the principle objective of the sobor was to affirm the standing of the UAOC-C with respect to the Tomos of 1924 and to call upon the ecumenical patriarch and the other canonical Orthodox churches throughout the world to support its legitimacy both historically and canonically. The other objectives of the sobor were to report on and to analyze the growth and work done by the UAOC-C in its mother-church of Ukraine and throughout the world, to familiarize everyone with the various situations in which the UAOC-C lives and functions and to recommend ways in which the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church may grow and develop in the future.

On Saturday, 17 June, the synod of bishops elevated Metropolitan Moisei to the office of patriarch of the UAOC-C in a ceremony at the Cathedral of Saint Sophia and enthroned Patriarch Moisei on Sunday, June 18 at the Cathedral of Saint Sophia. Afterwards, the new patriarch, bishops, clergy and people walked to the offices of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to symbolically ask for recognition by the Ukrainian government.

Bishop Ioan of the United States told reporters: “Despite statements to the contrary by the government of Ukraine, there is no religious freedom in Ukraine. President Yushchenko has never responded to the requests of the UAOC-C for registration, and he has completely ignored the five letters the bishops from around the world have written to him. Yushchenko, whom all our bishops, as individuals, and the faithful of our church, had supported during the Orange Revolution, has unilaterally attempted to crush us. We have no option other than to make the suppression of our church known to the governments of the United States and the European Union.”

According to the press office, the church is growing rapidly, and, as a result, the sobor celebrated the ordinations of Bishop-elect Chrysostomos as bishop of Ecuador and Bishop-elect Vsevolod as bishop of the Ternopil-Bukovyna eparchy. In addition, Charles Smollen, an American national stationed at a US Army base in Germany, was ordained to the priesthood by Patriarch Moisei for service in the Diocese of the Midwest.

RISU note: The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church-Canonical was previously known as the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church-Sobornopravna [governed by the sobor].

Source: press office of Bishop Ioan, Bishop of the Midwest (USA)

• http://www.uaocmoisey.org