page_title: Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine
section_title: Dissolution of the UOC-KP and the UAOC
hierarchical_section_title: Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine / Unification council / Dissolution of the UOC-KP and the UAOC
caption_attribution_description: English: Unification council of Orthodox Church in Ukraine Русский: Объединительный собор Украинской православной церкви Українська: Об'єднавчий собор Українських православних церков
context_page_description: The Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine is a council which was held on 15 December 2018 in the St Sophia's Cathedral in Kiev. The council voted to unite the existing Ukrainian Eastern Orthodox churches through their representatives, on the basis of complete canonical independence. All the members of the UOC-KP and the UAOC, and two members of the UOC-MP, merged into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the unification council elected Epiphanius I as its first primate.
context_section_description: On 15 December, before the unification council started, the UOC-KP and the UAOC held separate meetings during which they both dissolved themselves, which delayed the beginning of the unification council.
  Orthodoxie.com gives the following description of the events of the unification council: the council started three hours late because 10-12 bishops of the UOC-MP had been brought to Kiev by the SBU and forced to sign letters containing their vote for Metropolitan Simeon; however, when Met. Simeon presented the letters to the representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the council, the representatives demanded that those bishops be presents in person at the council to vote, which caused a three-hour delay. The council then started. The Ecumenical Patriarchate demanded that Metropolitan Simeon be elected by the council, and asked President Poroshenko to make pressure on the voters in order for Met. Simeon to be elected, which Poroshenko did. However, members of the UOC-KP had their own candidate who was faithful to Filaret, which caused another delay.
  Archimandrite and doctor in theology Cyrill Govorun of the UOC-MP said two bishops of the UOC-MP were present, Simeon and Alexander (Drabinko), and that those bishops "brought with them written requests which delegated to them the right to vote on behalf of other bishops who were not present. There was a discussion at the Council whether it was possible to accept these votes in absentia, and it was decided that it was impossible. Those votes were not counted."
  On 18 December, Metropolitan Mykhayil (Zinkevich), of the now dissolved UOC-KP, declared in a press conference that he had been forced by Filaret to withdraw his candidacy from the unification council. According to Mykhail, Filaret said that if the UOC-KP was to nominate two candidate, both of those candidates might lose the election at the unification council. Filaret therefore threatened that if Mykhail did not withdrew his candidacy before going to the unification council, Filaret would not sign the paper of the dissolution of the UOC-KP and Filaret would not go to the unification council. In the end, Mykhail withdrew his candidacy as he perceived this decision was the best for the OCU. On 16 December, a similar account had been given by a member of the diocese of Mykhail, deputy Mykola Buliga, who participated in the unification council as a laity. According to Buliga, it is this disagreement between Filaret and Mykhail which made the council start more than three hours late. Moreover, Buliga claims that President Poroshenko was pressured by Filaret to support Epiphany during the council, and Poroshenko pressured the voters in order for them to vote for Epiphany. Buliga indicated that Mykhail was the favorite and that even after the withdrawal of his candidacy, Mykhail still got 30 votes.
  Mikhayl's withdrawal of candidacy was allegedly done after an intervention by Filaret. According to BBC Ukraine, Metropolitan Mykhail of Lutsk and Volyn withdrew his candidacy during the council before the final vote, which allowed Epiphany to win against Metropolitan Simeon by 20 votes.
  Filaret later denied Mykhail was blackmailed to withdraw his candidacy, saying Mykhail was only "persuaded" to withdraw his candidacy "[i]n order to maintain unity". He also explained in an interview that "the enemy forces simply took advantage of his [Mykhail] desire to be the head of the Ukrainian Church. If it were not for the forces that supported him, he would not have nominated his candidacy."
caption: Inside the cathedral during the unification council. In order from left to right: Petro Poroshenko, Epiphany, Metropolitan Emmanuel of France [fr], Filaret (Filaret is wearing a skufia).
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