Kiev, February 4, 2026
Photo: pomisna.info
“Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko, head of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU), issued an address on February 2 to Orthodox faithful, clergy, and hierarchs in Ukraine “who depend on the position of the Russian Patriarchate,” calling for renewed dialogue toward unity.
The appeal followed a session of the OCU Synod held the same day, at which the bishops established a Commission on Dialogue to be headed by Simeon Shostatsky, the OCU’s Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod. Shostatsky is an interesting choice, as he is one of the two bishops who apostatized from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to join the OCU.
In his address, Epiphany states that “the canonical order, which is spoken about so much among you, clearly requires that a single autocephalous and Local Orthodox Church exist in Ukraine.” He references what he terms numerous unsuccessful attempts at dialogue over the past seven years, claiming that “despite all our statements, letters and appeals over these seven years, we have received from the official leadership not only no positive response, but not even a formal reply.”
“Therefore, we again call upon those among you who truly desire unity for the Church in Ukraine, care about Orthodoxy, and desire good for the Ukrainian people—to constructive dialogue,” Epiphany writes. He calls on “the other side” to create a similar authorized commission and “begin dialogue between them without setting preconditions.”
However, it cannot be said that the canonical UOC has closed itself off to dialogue with the OCU. Rather, at its Local Council in May 2022, the UOC welcomed the possibility and set forth specific conditions for the possibility of fruitful discussion:
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stop forcible seizures of churches and forced transfers of parishes
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acknowledge that its canonical status as defined in the OCU’s own statutes “is actually not autocephalous”
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“resolve the issue of the canonicity of the OCU hierarchy” by restoring “the Apostolic Succession of its bishops”
The OCU has shown itself unwilling to meet these conditions. In particular, church seizures have only increased and become more violent since that Council.
Epiphany’s reference to those who “depend on the position of the Russian Patriarchate” is unclear in light of the UOC’s own declarations. At the same May 2022 council, the UOC stated: “The council condemns the war as a violation of God’s commandment Thou shalt not kill! (Ex. 20:13)... We express our disagreement with the position of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia regarding the war in Ukraine.”
The UOC’s position on the ecclesiological status of the OCU is not uniquely Russian but is shared by the majority of Local Orthodox Churches worldwide, whose understanding of ecclesiology, Sacramentology, and the canonical tradition is not tied to any ethnicity, and which have not recognized the OCU due to concerns about canonical regularity and Apostolic Succession.
In 1997, the Moscow Patriarchate anathematized Philaret Denisenko, the former canonical Metropolitan of Kiev who went into schism in the early 1990s and is responsible for the consecrations of a majority of the OCU “hierarchs.” Responding to the news of his anathematization, Patriarch Bartholomew and the Holy Synod of Constantinople “informed the hierarchy of our Ecumenical Throne of it and implored them to henceforth have no ecclesial communion with the persons mentioned.”
As the Union of Orthodox Journalists writes in its analysis of Dumenko’s letter, referring to the UOC as “those who depend on the position of the Russian Patriarchate” rather than by its official name raises questions about the sincerity of his desire for unity.
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