Kharkiv Exarchate of UGCC Created, First Exarch Appointed

Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych, with the consent of the Synod of Bishops and having consulted with the Holy See, has created the Kharkiv Exarchate of the UGCC, separating its territory from the Donetsk and Kharkiv Exarchate.

According to Vatican Radio, the Holy Father consented to the canonical election by the Synod of Fr. Vasyl Tuchaptets, OSBM, hitherto hegumen of the monastery of St. Basil the Great in Kyiv, as the first Exarch of Kharkiv.

Bishop nominee Vasyl Tuchapets, OSBM, was born September 29, 1967, in Yavoriv in the Lviv region. In 1986 he entered the Most Holy Redeemer Province Basilian Order of St. Josaphat in Ukraine, where in 1996 he took his perpetual vows. He attained his philosophical and theological education in Poland. In 1998 he defended a licentiate in patristic theology.

He was ordained on July 12, 1997, by Bishop Sophron Dmyterko, OSBM. Since 1998, he has performed various pastoral duties at monasteries of the Province, and has worked as a lecturer. From 2005 he was the hegumen of the monastery of St. Basil the Great in Kyiv, and from February 2012 the Counselor and Vicar Protohegumen of the Most Holy Redeemer Province.