BOSTON – A Unification Synod convened in Kiev Ukraine on Saturday December 15, 2018, presided by Metropolitan Emmanuel of France representing Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, successfully instituted the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine and elected its first prelate, Metropolitan Epiphanios of Pereiaslav and Belotserkovsky.
Epiphanios is 39 years old and he will receive the institutive Tomos from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, becoming one of the fifteenth prelates of the Orthodox Church in the world.
He was chosen by secret ballot in the second round after he had obtained the majority in the first round. Metropolitan Mikhail of Volynia and Lutsk reportedly came in second place, and Metropolitan Simeon of Vinnitsa and Bar in third, the latter coming from the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Epiphanios assumed the title of Metropolitan of Kiev and of all of Ukraine. He was born on February 3, 1979 in the village of Volkovo, in the Ivanovsk province of the Odessa region, into a family of workers. In 1999 he concluded his studies at the Kiev Theological Seminary, and in 2004 at the theological academy of the Patriarchate. In 2009 he was ordained bishop of Vyshgorod, and in 2013 he became a Metropolitan.
He holds a doctorate in Theology and has studied philosophy in Athens, Greece and he speaks the Greek language fluently. He has visited Mount Athos and other religious sites in Greece.
Soon after the election the Ecumenical Patriarchate issued the following communique: “It is with praise to God, great joy and satisfaction that the Ecumenical Patriarchate announces the successful completion of the work of the Unifying Synod (Sobor) – foundational of the new Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Ukraine – which was convened in Kyiv today, December 15th 2018. Metropolitan Epiphanios of Pereiaslav and Belotserkovsky was elected as its Primate.”
“His Beatitude, the newly-elected Primate, contacted His All-Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch, expressed his respect and requested the good wishes and blessings of the Mother Church for the fruition of his primatial ministry, which begins under good auspices.”
In this context, “it was announced that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew invited His Beatitude Epiphanios to concelebrate the Divine Liturgy at the Phanar on the great feast of Theophany and to deliver to him the Tomos of establishment of the new sister Autocephalous Church.”
Immediately after the Unification Synod that elected Metropolitan Epiphanios, Ukraine President Pedro Poroshenko, who sat at the Council’s at the side its presiding hierarch, Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, together with Senate President Andrej Parubyj turned to the crowd with the exclamation “Glory to God, and glory to Ukraine!”
He also said “Ukraine was not, is not, and will not be the canonical territory of the Russian church,” adding that creating an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was now a matter of national security.
“This is a question of Ukrainian statehood,” Poroshenko said. “We are seizing spiritual independence, which can be likened to political independence. We are breaking the chains that tie us to the (Russian) empire.”
Representatives of Ukraine’s three Orthodox Churches attended the synod in Kiev. Two hierarchs from the branch loyal to Moscow attended the meeting. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of external affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow, compared those two hierarchs to Judas, the disciple who betrayed Christ. The Synod of the branch loyal to the Patriarchate of Moscow defrocked those two hierarchs, but Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew immediately took them under his ecclesiastical omoforion.
The first words of Metropolitan Epiphanios were, “We succeeded, overcoming all the difficulties!” He told the thousands who had gathered outside the Cathedral of St. Sophia on Saturday to receive the good news and hear the news that the new church’s doors would be open to all, and encouraged Ukrainians to join the Autocephalous Church.
On Sunday morning December 16, Epiphanios celebrated his first Sunday Divine Liturgy as the first prelate of the newly instituted Autocephalous Church of Ukraine in the church of the Golden Monastery of St. Michael, which is one of the oldest in the city.
Shortly before the Unifying Synod and the election of Epiphanios, Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow attempted very desperately to block the process, by calling on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, Pope Francis of Rome and other Religious spiritual leaders to protect Orthodox believers in Ukraine. Patriarch Kyrill was not successful in his intrigues.
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