In Search of Unity and Autocephaly: Ukraine's Orthodox Churches1

The Orthodox community in Ukraine is bitterly divided amongst three churches, two of which are supportive of autocephaly but divided by personal factors. Over six years into independence the largest Orthodox church in Ukraine remains subordi-nated to the Moscow Patriarchate as an autonomous church. Attempts at creating a 'state church ' during the Leonid Kravchuk era failed and served only further to divide the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine. Although his successor, President Leonid Kuchma, radically changed religious policies and halted any government support for a national church he has accepted that the state has a role to play in regulating these questions during Ukraine's post-Soviet transition. Although both Kravchuk and Kuchma back a united Orthodox Church there is little understanding as to how to attain this objective. The granting of autocephaly by Constantinople to a united Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as in Estonia in 1995, would lead to dangerous rifts between Kyiv/Moscow and Moscow/ Constantinople. Orthodoxy in Ukraine on the Eve of Independenc