Moscow, October 26, 2026
Photo: astrsobor.ru
Ukrainians coming into the Russian Orthodox Church from the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” are to be received through Baptism, as explained in a new document approved by the Church’s Holy Synod on October 22 (Journal No. 83). The guidelines set out how a priest should respond when people from Ukraine’s non-canonical structures ask to join the Church.
There has been considerable confusion about the document on social media from people who read it as a condemnation of all Ukrainians. However, it applies only to people coming from the various schismatic groups in Ukraine, not from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Many have also read it as a new policy written in response to the war in Ukraine. However, the new document, in fact, codifies and formalizes the practice the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church have followed for decades. The document itself cites a circular from the Moscow Patriarchate administration, No. 01/3154, dated July 17, 2020, that dictates reception by Baptism for those who were previously “baptized” by the OCU, or its predecessors, the “Kiev Patriarchate” and the “Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church,” because those structures lack Apostolic Succession. Further, in an interview from 2019, His Eminence Metropolitan Theodosy of Cherkasy explains that the UOC has followed this practice since 1992.
However, those who were baptized in the Orthodox Church but later fell into schism are received back into the Church by the Sacrament of Repentance (Confession).
The decision to receive anyone belongs to the diocesan bishop or persons he authorizes, such as a canonical commission, while in exceptional cases, such as fear of imminent death or a combat zone, the priest decides on his own and reports to the bishop afterward.
For clergy, anyone “ordained” in a schismatic structure is received as a layman. A person tonsured a monastic in schism may petition the bishop for tonsure after joining, while someone tonsured before falling into schism is recognized as a monk. A cleric ordained in the Orthodox Church who fell into schism and wasn’t defrocked by canonical authority has his case decided individually by the bishop. If he was defrocked by a canonical bishop while in schism, he’s received as a layman. All applicants must petition to join, confirm they accept the Church’s statutes, renounce commemorating schismatic leaders and taking part in “Eucharistic” communion with them, and promise not to bring schismatic customs or false teachings into the Church.
For whole communities, parish or monastic, the priest first conducts a canonical inquiry. It covers who led the community before and who leads it now, who belongs to it, and how its members were baptized. It also looks at whether any members spread slanderous or insulting claims about the canonical Church, took part in seizures of its churches, or actively backed such actions on social media. A community joins under the diocesan bishop’s omophorion and under a priest he appoints. The document says it can’t demand a special liturgical order or administrative status, and services must be in Church Slavonic. Members sign a collective petition, and anyone who openly opposed the Church submits a written renunciation. In some cases, such as when publicity could harm the person, the renunciation can be oral before the dean or a priest the bishop authorizes.
It is also noteworthy that not only is the OCU schismatic, but its origins trace back to men who were defrocked decades ago. Philaret Denisenko headed the “Kiev Patriarchate” when it joined the OCU and had been the ideological leader of Ukraine’s schismatics for decades. He was defrocked, excommunicated, and anathematized for his schismatic activities in the 1990s.
The other group that joined the OCU, the “Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church,” traces its ordinations to Viktor Chekalin, a defrocked former deacon who spent time in jail for molesting minors, and defrocked former Bishop John Bodnarchuk of Zhytomyr. Makary Maletich, who headed the UAOC when it joined the OCU, was “consecrated” by men who were in turn “consecrated” by Chekalin and Bodnarchuk.
While instructing that schismatics be received by Baptism because their structures lack Apostolic Succession, the new document says that someone who was baptized in a Catholic or Protestant church before joining a schismatic structure “is received in accordance with the rules for the confession to which he belonged before joining the schismatic community.”
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