page_title: Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine
section_title: Vote
hierarchical_section_title: Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine / Unification council / Vote
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: There were 192 or 200 voters in total. 42 of them were bishops of the UOC-KP, 12 were bishops of the UAOC and at least 2 were bishops of the UOC-MP; how many bishops of the UOC-MP participated remains unclear, 10 bishops of the UOC-MP were planned to participate. Every bishop was to bring two people to vote; the UOC-KP's total of electors was planned to be 126, the UAOC's total of electors was planned to be 36 delegates, and the UOC-MP's total of electors was planned to be 30.
  In the second round, laity and priests did not vote, only bishops.
  According to Interfax, some of the UOC-KP bishops had their own candidate for the council: Metropolitan Mykhail (Zinkevich) of Lutsk and Volyn who would be candidate for the unification council. According to Unian, said Mykhail was supported by a minority of bishops of the UOC-KP.
  According to religious expert Alexander Sagan, the vote went as follow. Mykhail, Epiphany and Simeon were the three candidates at the post of head of the OCU. In the first round, the score of the three candidates was: Mykhail: 38; Simeon: 56; Epiphany: 81. Allegedly, at the end, Mikhail dismissed his candidacy. According to Sagan, the votes of bishops were as follows: Simeon: 28; Epiphany: 36. Still according to Sagan, the vote was secret during both rounds. According to Orthodoxia.info, Mykhail supporters' votes went to Epiphany after Mykhail withdrew his candidacy.
  According to archbishop Eustratius (Zorya) who was part of the UOC-KP, the charter of the united church was adopted with an overwhelming majority (only one voter was against).
caption: Inside the cathedral during the unification council
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