Autokefalia ukrainska: w poszukiwaniu modelu tworzenia koscielnej samodzielnosci. (Ukrainian Autocephaly: in Search of Church Independence)

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church established itself as an autocephalous church only during the period of Ukrainian straggle for independence (1917-20) and strived to gain formal, canonical recognition of its autocephaly. On 14 October 1921 the All-Ukrainian Orthodox Sobor in Kyiv, which represented the patriotic church movement, approved in a 'revolutionary' manner the canons of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). The Soviet government suppressed this church in 1930. The Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church initiated the restoration of the autocephalous church of Ukraine during the Second World War. The UAOC was banned in the Soviet Union, and autocephalous Ukrainian churches survived only in the West. On 5-6 June 1990, the Sobor in Kyiv under the direction of Patriarch Mstyslav Skrypnyk re-established the UAOC in Ukraine. Dymytriy (Yarema) was his successor from 1993 to 2000 and was then succeeded by Metropolitan Mefodiy (Kudryakov) of Ternopil, currently the head of the UAOC in Ukraine. Former Kyiv Metropoly of Russian Orthodox Church in 1992 was divided into Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate (lead by Patriarch Philaret Denysenko) and Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (lead by Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan). Thus the Orthodox Church in Ukraine exists in three branches. Although the UAOC does not currently have official recognition from Orthodox Churches in other countries, it has made steps towards achieving canonical status. Nowadays the situation in the Ukrainian Orthodoxy causes conflicts and opposition of different social and political forces in the society and leaves hardly any space for the great potential of the Orthodox Church in the spiritual development of the citizens