Ukraine has completed the penultimate step before receiving a recognized Orthodox Church independent from Moscow. On Dec. 15, a Council in Ukraine convened to unify the existing three Orthodox Churches, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC KP), Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP), and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) into one single Church, which would then be granted the Tomos of autocephaly, or declaration of independence, from the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
OP-ED
Alya Shandra: New chances, new risks. Where Ukrainian Orthodoxy stands on the eve of independence
Newly elected Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Yepifaniy Sergiy Dumenko conducts the first liturgy since the creation of a new Ukrainian church independent from Russia in the Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv on Dec. 16, 2018.
