History
Before taking the formal title of Ukrainian Orthodox Church it was the Ukrainian exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church and it received autonomy on October 27, 1990. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church considers itself the descendant of the Orthodox Church of Kiev and all Rus' in Ukraine, claiming a direct lineage to the original Baptism of Rus' by St. Vladimir (Volodymyr) in 988. The Metropolitan Volodymyr (Viktor Sabodan) was enthroned in 1992 as the head of the UOC under the title Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine, with the official residency in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, which also houses all of the Church's administration.
The church is currently the only Ukrainian church to have full canonical standing in Eastern Orthodoxy, and operates in full communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. The UOC (MP) claims to be the largest religious body in Ukraine with the greatest number of parishes churches and communities counting up to half of the total in Ukraine and totaling over 10,000. The UOC also claims to have up to 75 percent of the Ukrainian population. Independent surveys show significant variance. According to Stratfor more than 50 percent of Ukrainian population belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarch. Razumkov Centre survey results, however, tend to show greater adherence to the rival Kiev Patriarchy. Many Orthodox Ukrainians do not clearly identify with a particular denomination and, sometimes, are even unaware of the affiliation of the church they attend as well as of the controversy itself, which indicates the difficulty of using survey numbers as an indicator of a relative strength of the church. Also, the geographical factor plays a major role in the number of adherents, as the Ukrainian population tends to be more churchgoing in the western part of the country rather than in the UOC (MP)'s heartland in southern and eastern Ukraine.
The number of parishes statistics seems to be more reliable and consistent even though it may not necessarily directly translate into the numbers of adherents. By number of parishes and quantity of church buildings, the UOC (MP)'s strong base is central and northernwestern Ukraine. However, percentage wise (with respect to rival Orthodox Churches) its share of parishes there varies from 60 to 70 percent. At the same time, by percentage alone (with respect to rival Orthodox Churches) the urban russophone southern and eastern Ukrainian provinces peak with up to 90 percent of church buildings. The same can be said about Transcarpathia, although there the UOC's main rival is the Greek Catholic Church and thus in all its share is only 40 percent. The capital Kiev is where the greatest Orthodox rivalry takes place, there the UOC (MP) has only half of the Orthodox communities. The only place where the UOC (MP) is a true minority, in both quantity, percentage and support are the former Galician provinces of Western Ukraine. There the total share of parishes does not exceed more than five percent. The UOC (MP) does not have any parishes abroad, as its followers identify themselves under the same umbrella as those of the Russian Orthodox Church.
As of 2006 the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had the allegiance of 10,875 registered religious communities in Ukraine (approximately 68 percent of all Orthodox Christian communities in the country), located mostly in central, eastern and southern regions and claims to be the largest religious body in Ukraine with up to 35 million adherents. The UOC (MP) officially regards other Orthodox churches of Ukraine to be "schismatic nationalist organizations" whose claims to represent Orthodoxy are canonically invalid.
The Church currently has 42 dioceses, with 58 bishops (diocesan - 42; vicar - 12; retired - 4; with them being classified as: metropolitans - 10; archbishops - 21; or bishops - 26). There are also 8516 priests, and 443 deacons.
Read more about this topic: Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)
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