Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC; Ukrainian: Українська автокефальна православна церква (УАПЦ), romanized: Ukrayinska avtokefalna pravoslavna tserkva (UAPTs)) was one of the three major Eastern Orthodox churches in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church began in 1917 during the dissolution of the Russian Empire as part of the Ukrainian independence movement and in order to restore the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that existed in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1620–1685 and was annexed by the Moscow Patriarchate without approval of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
| Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church | |
|---|---|
| The Church of St. Andrew in Kyiv was the main cathedral of the UAOC | |
| Abbreviation | UAOC |
| Primate | Metropolitan Macarius (last primate) |
| Language | |
| Headquarters | Kyiv, Ukraine |
| Territory | Ukraine |
| Possessions | |
| Founder | 1st All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Assembly |
| Origin | 1921 (first), 1942 (second), 1989 (third) |
| Recognition | Full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople restored in October, 2018 Polish Orthodox Church (1942–1946) |
| Separations | UAOC in diaspora UAOC in exile |
| Merged into | Orthodox Church of Ukraine |
| Defunct | 1936 (first), 1944 (second), December 15, 2018 (third) |
| Members | 3 million |
| Part of a series on the |
| Eastern Orthodox Church |
|---|
| Overview |
It was re-established for the third time on 22 October 1989, right before the fall of the Soviet Union. The UAOC, in its contemporary form, has its origins in the synod of 1921 in Kyiv, shortly after Ukraine's newly found independence. On 15 December 2018, at the Unification Council, the UAOC and the UOC-KP, along with metropolitans from the UOC-MP, unified into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Metropolitan Epiphany (former bishop of the UOC-KP) was elected as the new Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
During the UAOC and the UOC-KP's existence, only the UOC-MP enjoyed recognition by the Orthodox Christian community worldwide, until 11 October 2018, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople lifted the excommunication which afflicted the UAOC and the UOC-KP. It was clarified on 2 November that the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized neither the UAOC nor the UOC-KP as legitimate and that their respective leaders were not recognized as primates of their churches.