History of Christianity in Ukraine
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- This article should include material from Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchy, and from Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Christianity in Ukraine dates to the earliest centuries of the apostolic church when, according to the legends, it was preached by St. Andrew in parts of the modern territory of Ukraine. The acceptance of Byzantine Christianity as a dominant religion in the area, as well as a state religion, was marked by 988 mass Baptism of Kiev by Grand Prince Vladimir the Great of Kiev (St. Vladimir, Volodymyr in Ukrainian), a ruler of Kievan Rus. After the great East-West Schism that soon followed, the territory of Kievan Rus remained with the Byzantine Patriarch's Eastern Orthodoxy. While most of the christians in Ukraine were and still are orthodox, since 1598 an Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGKC), which claimed varying with time but always a significant membership in western Ukraine, is in full communion with the Catholic see. Still, Eastern Orthodoxy was a traditional religion in Ukraine and at some points in history was inseparable from most Ukrainians' national self-identity.
The political jurisdiction of orthodox churches in Ukraine changed several times in its history. Currently, three orthodox church bodies coexist, and often compete, in Ukraine. However, since the differences between them are purely political rather than doctrinal, this situation is expected to be resolved at some future point with a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church to unite the Orthodox christians in the nation.
Currently, the major Ukrainian christian churches are:
- The "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" (UOC-MP) under the Patriarch of Moscow of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Since 1990 the UOC-MP operates as an autonomous church (one step short of full autocephaly). The Metropolitan Volodymyr (Viktor Sabodan) is enthroned since 1992 as the head of the UOC-MP under the title Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine.
- The Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchy (UOC-KP) created in 1991, currently with unrecognized canonical standing among other Eastern Orthodox churches. Since 1995 UOC-KP is headed by Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko) who until 1991 was a Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine under the ROC, which defrocked him in 1992 and excommunicated in 1997 "for schismatic activities".
- The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), which re-established itself in Ukraine after independence from the Soviet Union, having survived in the diaspora after Soviet government suppression following its birth during the brief period of Ukrainian independence in the aftermath of World War I.
- The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, re-established in independent Ukraine following the dissolution of the Soviet Union where its ban was actively supported by ROC. Since 2001 UGCC is headed by Major Archbishop and Cardinal Lubomyr Husar.
Additionally, a Roman Catholic church and various protestant churches currently hold a very small but growing membership in Ukraine.
The UOC-MP is currently the only Ukrainian church to have canonical standing (legal recognition) in Eastern Orthodoxy world-wide, and operates in communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. It also controls the majority of Orthodox church buildings in Ukraine. The UOC-KP, on the other hand, has attracted the allegiance of the largest number of Orthodox believers in Ukraine. The UOC-KP and especially the UAOC and UGCC have strong support in the Ukrainian diaspora.
History
St. Andrew is thought to have preached on the southern borders of Ukraine, along the Black Sea. Legend has is that he travelled up the Dnieper (Dnipro) river and reached the future location of Kiev, where he erected a cross on the site where the Church of St. Andrew currently stands, and prophesied the foundation of a great Christian city. A representative from southern Ukraine was present at the First Council of Nicaea (325). Around this time, these churches and the inland farther north came under the control of the Goths, some of whom were christians.
Some of the Slavic population of Kiev and Western Ukraine under the rule of Great Moravia were Christians in the 9th century. Christianity became dominant in the territory with the mass Baptism of Kievans in the Dnieper river in 988 by St. Vladimir. Early on, the metropolitans had their seat in Pereyaslav, and later in Kiev. The people of Rus'-Ukraine lost their Metropolitan to the predecessors of the first Russian state in 1299, but regained a Ukrainian Metropolitan in Halych in 1303. The area was also ruled in part by a Metropolitan in Navahradak, White Ruthenia (Belarus). In the 1400s, primacy over the Ukrainian church was restored to Kiev, under the title "Metropolitan of Kiev and Halicia". In the Union of Brest of 1596 a part of the Ukrainian Church came under the jurisdiction of the Roman Pope, becoming a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, while the majority of Ukrainians remained within Eastern Orthodoxy. In 1686, the Orthodox Church of Kiev and all Rus' was transferred from the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople to the recently established Patriarch of Moscow which marked the start of the long process of Russification.
Distinguishing between church bodies
The current divided and fluid situation traces its roots to the gradual suppression of the distinctive Ukrainian Orthodox Church by Tsarist Russia after the transfer of the Church of Rus' proper from the Patriarch of Constantinople to the Patriarch of Moscow in 1686. This transfer was resisted at first at Constantinople, since it was attempted via the ecclesiastic crime of bribery by the Russian Church, then only recently elevated to patriarchal status, but eventually accepted under pressure from the Turkish Sultan. A policy of ecclesiastic forced Russification of Ukrainian Christianity was established. Ukrainian bishops were slated to serve only in the foreign land of Russia, and vice-versa. Ukrainian-Greek priestly vestments were replaced by Russian ones. By 1800, all bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church would henceforth be only Russians.
But when the Russian occupation appeared to cease after the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian Church immediately moved to restore its integrity. In 1921 a Sobor announced a new Autocephaly, and created the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) in Kiev with Metropolitan Wasyl Lupkivskyj ordained as a head of the UAOC. In the wake of the break up of the Russian Empire, some national groups also sought an autonomy from Moscow, and a Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church was also founded around this time. The Soviet government persecuted these churches. The Russian Orthodox Church also prevented the UAOC from establishing their ecclesiastical order for some time. Between the world wars these national churches were grudgingly tolerated by the ROC; as the UAOC had entered into communion with Constantinople, the Moscow Patriarchate was grudgingly obliged to acknowledge communion with the new Ukrainian autocephalic church.
On October 8, 1942 Archbishop Nikanor and Bishop Mstyslav (later a Patriarch) of the UAOC and Metropolitan Oleksiy (Hromadsky) of the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church concluded an Act of Union, uniting the two national churches at the Pochaev Lavra (monastery). Nazi occupation authorities and pro-Russian hierarchs of the Autonomous Church forced Metropolitan Oleksiy to remove his signature. Metropolitan Oleksiy was executed in Volhynia on May 7, 1943.
The Russian Orthodox Church regained its general monopoly in the Ukrainian SSR after World War II. Most of the other churches were forced out as the Soviet government only recognized the Moscow Patriarchate, revived at the time of the Russian Revolution, as the only legitimate church in most of the Soviet Union. Many accused it of being a puppet of the Communist Party. After the suspicious death of Tikhon of Moscow these autocephalic churches sought to remain independent; something that Moscow tolerated until after World War II when many Ukrainian Orthodox clergy not affiliated with Moscow fled to Germany, the United States, or Canada. The UAOC and UGCC and their church property in Ukraine were liquidated by the Soviets with the assistance of the Patriarchate of Moscow, which could legally lay claim to any Orthodox church property that was within the territory of its uncontested jurisdiction. Any UAOC hierarchs or clergy who remained in Ukraine and refused to join the Russian Church were executed or sent to concentration camps. In the next several years, similar actions were taken against the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Western Ukraine and Transcarpathia.