Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 19 – The Orthodox world does not recognize the category “independent church” which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was long part of the Moscow Patriarchate but which at the insistence of Kyiv has declared itself to be such in order to conform to Ukrainian law.
But because the Orthodox church as a whole does not recognize the existence of that category but only recognizes churches that have the status of autocephalous bodies, something the Orthodox Church of Ukraine which received that status in 2018 but which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not, that presents other Orthodox leaders with a problem.
They can’t recognize the UOC as independent because canon law has no such status, but if they don’t, then they either have to maintain the position that the UOC is part of and subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate which is recognized as autocephaly or they must not enter into communion with the UOC.
That problem has now come to a head, and Nezavimaya Gazeta religious affairs journalist Milena Faustova points to the fact that many Orthodox churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate did not send greetings to UOC head Metropolitan Onufry on the 11th anniversary of his enthronement.
A few Orthodox churches did, but the fact that so many did not shows, in Faustova’s words, that “the Orthodox world has begun to forget about the UOC,” something that will make it more difficult for that church to survive in its competition with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (ng.ru/ng_religii/2025-08-19/9_601_metropolitan.html).
That the Moscow Patriarchate did not send greetings reflects the difficult position it finds itself in between Orthodox cannon law and its own desire to maintain its own position in Ukraine. Moscow’s failure and that of most other autocephalous churches to send greetings may seem a small thing, but it represents a major turning point in the church history of Ukraine.
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