“We oppose Patriarch Kirill of Moscow’s stance on the war,” the church said in a statement after a council meeting, declaring “the complete independence and autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”
In 2018, a new Orthodox Church was formed in Kyiv independent of Russia and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow – a decision that aroused great anger in Russia. However, the break from the Moscow Patriarchate was not accepted by everyone within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which then resulted in a Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate and one under the Kiev Patriarchate.
Since the beginning of the war in February, with Patriarch Kirill’s close relationship with President Putin, the Ukrainian Church under the Moscow Patriarchate has been put in a very difficult situation.
“Not only did he refrain from condemning Russia’s military aggression, he also had no words for Ukraine’s suffering people,” the church’s archbishop Kliment told AFP about Patriarch Kirill.
About 400 of the church’s priests in Ukraine have since the outbreak of war in an open letter demanded that Patriarch Kirill be brought before an “international church tribunal” for his support of Russia’s war. Now the entire Ukrainian Orthodox Church is renouncing its spiritual dependence on Kirill.
“The council condemns war as it is a violation of God’s commandment ‘you shall not kill’ and expresses its condolences to all who suffer in the war,” the church writes.