Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in Kyiv, Ukraine
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church proclaimed on 15 December 2018 at the Unification Council in Kyiv, with Metropolitan Epiphanius (Dumenko) as Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine. Its cathedral is St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv, a blue-walled complex with white trim, a tall bell tower crowned by a gilded onion dome, and a main church with several gilded domes above a low white wall with a green roof and a mural along its base.
A unification council held in December 2018 brought together several Orthodox churches operating in Ukraine under a single national structure, which then gained recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. On January 6, 2019, the institution received its Tomos of Autocephaly, formally ending centuries of ecclesiastical subordination to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The church's cathedral is St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv, and its head bears the title Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine. On 24 May 2023 the Holy Synod at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra decided to switch to the New Julian calendar from 1 September 2023, a change confirmed by the Local Council on 27 July 2023.
The seat of the church is St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv, whose address is 22 Triokhsviatytelska Street, a short walk from St Sophia's Cathedral and the upper end of Andriivskyi Descent. The blue-and-white complex with its tall bell tower is best reached on foot from the Kontraktova Square or Zoloti Vorota metro stations. The church's administrative body, the Kyiv Metropolis, was registered in Ukraine's state register on 30 January 2019.
The Tomos of autocephaly was signed by Patriarch Bartholomew on 5 January 2019 at St George's Cathedral in the Phanar, Istanbul, and handed to Metropolitan Epiphanius the next day, 6 January, during a joint liturgy. The document is in Greek; the sources do not record it being kept as a relic in Kyiv.
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