Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church started receiving parishes subordinated to Archbishop Ihor (Isichenko)

On April 23, the Bishops’ Council of the UAOC was held, which considered the preparation for the Local Council of the UAOC to be held on 4-5 June 2015 in Kyiv and which will be dedicated to the 25th anniversary of election of the first patriarch of the UAOC His Eminence Mstyslav.

The Council adopted resolutions, messages and a number of decisions that determine the area of development of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

As reported by the official website of the Diocese of Lviv of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, the first question will be the choice of the Primate of the UAOC, with this purpose a pre-conciliar commission was set up, including:

1. Metropolitan Andriy (Abramchuk) of Galicia.

2. Bishop Afanasiy (Shkurupii) of Kharkiv and Poltava.

3. Mitred Archpriest Nikolai VYnar, Dean of Sokal Lviv diocese.

4. Mitred Archpriest Stefan Yaremchuk, rector of the Embankment church of St. Nicholas, Kyiv Diocese.

5. Mitred Archpriest Vitaly Danchak, priest of St Andrew's Cathedral in Kyiv.

6. Mitred Archpriest Anatoliy Zaliznytskyy, Dean of Ternopil Deanery, Ternopil Diocese.

7. Mitred Archpriest Yevhen Shuvar, Vice Rector of Ivano-Frankivsk Theological Academy.

The Bishops’ Council of the UAOC invited representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the diaspora of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to come to the Council.

The Council has passed a number of administrative decisions:

1) Archbishop Volodymyr (Shlapak) of Zhytomyr and Polissya was out-staffed.

2) Auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Mstyslav (Huk) was appointed Bishop of Ternopil, ruling bishop of Khmelnytsky Diocese.

3) Metropolitan Roman (Balaschuk) of Vinnitsa and Bratslav was assigned to continue taking care of parishes of the Diocese Khmelnytsky alongside with Vinnitsya, who were under his father's auspices.

4) The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church accepted the clergymen of Kyiv deanery of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (united) in the jurisdiction of Archbishop Ihor Isichenko, led by their dean Fr Dmitry Prysiazhnyy. As an exception, the priests retained their subordination to the dean, who reports directly to the Primate and the Bishops' Council.

The Bishops’ Council adopted a statement regarding this stage of reunion of the UAOC and UOC-KP in one national church. Respectively, a pre-conciliar committee was set up that formulated preconditions for the unification of two churches in the hope that the UOC (MP would join this process.

Metropolitan Makariy addressed the UAOC bishops and called on the Primates of other Ukrainian churches to real earnest action instead of verbal expression.

The Council of the UAOC episcopate adopted an appeal to the President of Ukraine Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Deputy Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, director of St Sophia Museum Nelya Kukovalskaya to address the problematic issue of the Cathedral of St. Andrew the First-Called in  Kyiv and called to immediate execution of relevant documentation, which had been delayed so far for more than 1.5 months.

Locum Tenens of the Kyivan Metropolitan seat thanked ruling bishops for fruitful work in the Bishops' Council, called for the development of intensive spiritual work in the dioceses, asked God's blessing on the preparation and conduct of the Local Council. Metropolitan Makariy also invoked God's assistance on our Ukrainian army so it could defeat the common enemy, and prayed that residents of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions became united as one family of our glorious state of Ukraine.