Onufriy to automatically lose title of Metropolitan of Kyiv – new Ukraine church leader

The head of the new church, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epifaniy, said this in an interview with the TSN (Television News Service) program.

"The Ecumenical Patriarch addressed a letter personally to Metropolitan Onufriy, who was clearly told that after the unification council and the election of the primate of this united church, Metropolitan of Kyiv, he automatically becomes the canonical metropolitan of Kyiv. From that time, accordingly, there cannot be two Metropolitans of Kyiv. Accordingly, Metropolitan Onufriy will be only the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine," the leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said.

He added that the parishes of the former Moscow Patriarchate are now "in the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church, with Ukrainian registration."

The unification council of the united Ukrainian Orthodox Church took place at the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv on December 15. The clergy elected Metropolitan Epifaniy as the head of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine.