Ukrainian churches, abbreviation for those that arose in Ukraine and v. a. Eastern Churches widespread there: Ukrainian Catholic Church, Uniate: Eastern Church connectedwith the Catholic Church (Uniate), includes the Catholics of the Byzantine-Ukrainian rite. Emerging from the Union of Brest-Litowsk of 1595/96 (Brest Union), the Ukrainian Catholic Churchonly continuedto existin the Polish partafter the partition of the Ukraine (1667). After the partitions of Poland it was abolished in the Russian territory in 1839 and in the Cholmer Land in 1875 and could only be found in the Austrian crown land of Galicia since 1772 develop further (1807 establishment of the metropolis of Galitsch / Lemberg [Lwiw]). Since the 19th century she also understood each other to a large extent (especially under the Metropolitan A. Szeptycky) as a representative of the national interests of Ukrainians. After Eastern Galicia was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR in the wake of World War II, a “synod” of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, forced under state pressure, declared the abolition of the Brest Union in 1946 and agreed to “reunification” with the Russian Orthodox Church. Afterwards, forced into an illegal existence as an »underground church« in the Ukraine, the Ukrainian Catholic Church was only able to reconstitute itself in 1990 in the wake of the political changes that had taken place in the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR. 1963–91 their heads (J. Slipy; M. I. Lubachiwsky) residedin Rome, and since 1963 they have held the title of »Grand Archbishop of Lemberg«.
According to listofusnewspapers, today (2015) the Ukrainian Catholic Church counts around 4.42 million people in Ukraine and abroad, according to the Pontifical Yearbook. There are separate ecclesiastical jurisdictions for Ukrainian Catholic Christians in Poland and in the diaspora (especially in the USA, Canada and South America). For church members living in Germany there is an Apostolic Exarchate (also responsible for Scandinavia) based in Munich. After 1990, the theological academy in Lemberg (Lviv; founded by A. Szeptycky in 1928) also reopened the traditional spiritual center of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. In 2005 the Major Archbishop moved his seat from Lemberg (Lviv) to Kiev and now bears the title »Major Archbishop of Kiev and Galicia«.
Ukrainian churches (Russian Orthodox)
Ukrainian churches, abbreviation for those that arose in Ukraine and v. a. published there Eastern Churches: Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox: closely associated historically with the Russian Orthodox Church Eastern Church, which is fallen as a result of schisms in three Orthodox Ukrainian national churches: the Moscow Patriarchate canonical Community federated autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) as well as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Patriarchate Kiev (UOK – PK) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOK), both not recognized by the Moscow Patriarchate. According to the latest available estimates, about 15% of the Ukrainian population belong to the UOK, about 25% to the UOK-PK and less than 2% to the UAOK. Around 21% of Ukrainians consider themselves to be Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, but do not associate themselves with any of the three churches mentioned. According to a decision of the Orthodox Synod of Constantinople (Ecumenical Patriarch) in October 2018, the three Orthodox Ukrainian churches are to be merged into a single autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. For this purpose, the subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate, against its resistance, was lifted and the excommunication of the patriarchs from UOK – PK and UAOK was reversed.
The beginning of an independent Ukrainian church organization formed the Orthodox Metropolis of Galitsch, established in 1303. In 1458 this merged into the new metropolis of Kiev, which was established for the Ukrainians and Belarusians in the Polish-Lithuanian state, in 1685/86 it was incorporated into the Russian Orthodox Church and downgraded to the rank of a mere diocese (eparchy). It was not until 1919, in the course of national and ecclesiastical autonomy efforts, that a Ukrainian Orthodox Church emerged again with the UAOK, independent of the Moscow Patriarchate (led by its own patriarch), which, however, was not recognized within the general orthodoxy. Banned and persecuted as a »refuge of Ukrainian nationalism« in the Soviet Union, it remained since 1930 BC. a. important among Ukrainian emigrants. In exile it was divided into three originally independent metropolises (USA / South America; Canada; Europe / Australia), which formed an association in 1973, while smaller parts of the ecclesiastical emigration remained independent or submitted to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In the In the Ukraine, the Orthodox Church was again completely subordinated to the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1944/45, but received the status of an exarchate and in 1990, after the first signs of new Ukrainian national church efforts had become visible in 1989, as a UOK as an independent autonomous organization in matters of internal administration Church raised. Nevertheless, a split in the church could not be prevented: After Ukraine had achieved its state independence, part of the Orthodox clergy turned away from the Moscow Patriarchate and founded the UOK – PK with parts of the UAOK, which had been reconstituted in Ukraine after 1990, the former Russian metropolitan and exarch Filaret (M. A. Denisenko, * 1929; Relieved of office in 1992, excommunicated in 1997) heads as “Patriarch”. In addition, the numerically smallest UAOK continues to exist.
