At a recent reception and dinner in his honor hosted by the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in New York City, His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine recalled with gratitude the Tomos of Autocephaly that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church received from His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and explained the enduring significance of His All-Holiness’ courageous act.
The Tomos of Autocephaly granted ecclesiastical independence to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which had been claimed for centuries by the Patriarchate of Moscow. As the Ukrainian and Russian people are distinct from one another, the Ukrainian people had petitioned Moscow to allow them autocephaly for decades, only for their appeals to fall upon deaf ears. Standing against immense pressure not to grant it, His All-Holiness signed the Tomos of Autocephaly on January 5, 2019.
Since then, said Metropolitan Epiphaniy, the Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church has become a cornerstone for Ukrainian nation, particularly during the last few years of struggle and war. He expressed confidence that slowly, step by step, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church would unite all Orthodox believers of Ukraine in one, single Orthodox Church.
The unifying power of Ukrainian autocephaly goes beyond even Ukraine itself. Speaking at an official dinner held in his honor by the Holy Archdiocese of Australia in Melbourne on October 14, 2024, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stated that “the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as a crucial move for preserving unity within Orthodoxy.” His All-Holiness has also said that “any attempt to challenge the Autocephaly of the Church of Ukraine undermines inter-Orthodox peace and hinders cooperation and common witness of the Orthodox Churches.”
This fact stems from the foundational canonical order of the Church, which grants to the Church of Constantinople the responsibility to adjudicate disagreements between Churches. Canon 9 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, which was held in Chalcedon in 451, states: “If a bishop or cleric has a disagreement with the metropolitan of the province, let him appeal to the Exarch of the Metropolis, or to the throne of the Imperial City of Constantinople, and let him be tried there.”
In line with this canon, His All-Holiness emphasized in March 2019 that “the Ecumenical Patriarchate had always had the responsibility – not the privilege — to foresee the need of solving any problem at any local Church, and it openly declares its opinion without causing any kind of concern to the rest of the Patriarchs.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch added “that the past and present bestowals of the ecclesiastic status of Autocephaly have one and only aim: ‘the orderly functioning of any individual church, and not the production of false impressions and division of the One, Holy, United and Apostolic Church of God.’”
As the second anniversary of the Tomos approached, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sent a message of congratulations to Metropolitan Epiphaniy in December 2020, stating: “Two years have passed since the unification assembly that took place in Kyiv when the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was elected and the church’s constitutional charter was approved. Since then, and after the delivery of the Tomos of Autocephaly at the Phanar on the 6th of January, the Most Holy Church of Ukraine bears witness to the Orthodox faith and serves as the local Orthodox Church in the territory of the Ukrainian state, ‘under your strong and philanthropic guidance.’” To enable the local Orthodox Church in the territory of the Ukrainian state to be served properly was the impetus for the granting of the Tomos of Autocephaly.
To those who claimed that the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s granting of autocephaly to the Church in Ukraine led Russia to initiate its unjust war against a sister Orthodox nation, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew responded in April 2022: “It is outrageous that some people believe that the war broke out because of the Autocephaly of Ukraine. They’re looking for an alibi to justify the unjustified.”
At the Archon dinner in January 2025, Metropolitan Epiphaniy said: “Now is crucial moment for Ukraine. We await important decisions which could bring the end of this war. I’ve been asked how we can see the end of this war. I answered: ‘We are Christians. We believe in God. We believe that He exists. We believe that He is able to create the conditions for this war to end, maybe immediately. But God acts through us, and for this reason, we call on everybody to pray.’”
Those prayers, for the peace, health, and salvation of the people of the Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as for all Orthodox Christians and all people of good will around the world, are urgently needed.
