What is the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Abroad?

Orthodoxy in the Ukraine predates the modern nation-states in Eastern Europe by many centuries. In 988 the Grand Prince of Kiev, Volodymyr, through the agency of missionary clergy sent from Constantinople, converted to Orthodox Christianity and his people, the Russ, followed.

In the late Medieval period political power shifted to Moscow when the Russian Tsars made that their capital city but the ancient city of Kiev remained the mother of all the Russ lands. After the breakup of the Russian Empire following World War I, Ukraine, for some years, was able to assert its independence and the Ukrainian Church had its once-again-found autocephaly confirmed by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Squashed by the emerging Soviet state and, after another period of freedom in the 1940s, again crushed by the USSR, many clergy and faithful fled abroad, especially to the USA and Canada. With the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the Ukrainian Church again aserted its freedom and autocephaly and Metropolitan Mystyslav, in exile in the USA for many decades, returned to Ukraine where he was elected Patriarch of Kiev and Primate of the Church.

Notwithstanding a certain degree of turmoil and the emergence of three Orthodox jurisdictions in the Ukraine, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) - now guided by its current Primate, His Beatitude Makarij, Metropolitan of Kiev - has maintained its position as one of the three official Orthodox jurisdictions. Never emarginated or censured the UOAC continues to proclaim the Holy Orthodox Faith and work for the unity of all Orthodox in ts lands and abroad.

The UAOC Abroad serves Ukrainian and all other Orthodox people who live in its countries of jurisdictions - Romanian, American, Italian, Australian, Greek - and anyone who turns to it searching for the everlasting life that only our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ offers to all people of good will. Its Synod of Bishops respects the primacy of the Metropolitan of Kiev and remains at his disposal for all spiritual and ecclesial initiatives in the countries in which it is present, always sustaining his position in Orthodoxy. May the Most Holy Trinity, the Lord of the Universe and of His Holy Orthodox Church, continue to bless Ukrainian and all of world-wide Orthodoxy in its service of the Gospel and of those whom the Lord has entrusted to its spiritual care.