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+ Tomos of Autocephaly +
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
Paternally Affiliated with the Ecumenical Patriarch
of the Great Church of Constantinople
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
Paternally Affiliated with the Ecumenical Patriarch
of the Great Church of Constantinople
|
Canonical Establishment
of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church 
|
Ecumenical Patriarch +GREGORIOS VII
|
|
Granted by
His All-Holiness +GREGORIOS VII
His All-Holiness +GREGORIOS VII
A Tomos of Autocephaly (self-government) was issued by the Ecumenical Patriarch +GREGORIOS VII (Zervoudakis) to the Orthodox Church of Poland which was headed by Metropolitan +DIONISIJ (Valedynsky). Due to the political circumstances (and territorial partitions) between the First and Second World Wars, most of the ancient Kyivan Metropolitanate was located within Poland. In this Tomos, the previous transfer of the Kyivan Church to the jurisdiction of Moscow (1685) was declared uncanonical and the independence of the Kyivan Metropolitanate (The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church) was fully restored.
PATRIARCHAL AND SYNODICALLY CANONICAL TOMOS
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, November 13, 1924, concerning the declaration of the Orthodox Church in Poland as an Autocephalic Church.
+GREGORIOS VII, by the grace of God Archbishop of Constantinople -the New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch The Holy Orthodox Church in the God-Protected Polish State, endowed with an autonomous system and administration and proving its firmness in faith, zealousness by charitable works has requested our Holy Apostolic and Ecumenical Patriarchal See to bless and confirm its autocephalous administrative system, considering that in the new circumstances of political life, only such a system can satisfy and guarantee its needs.
Examining this request with love, taking into consideration the structions of the holy canons, which have established that the system of church affairs should correspond with the political and community forms (IV Ecumenical Council, canon 17, VI Ecumenical Council, canon 38), as well as the reasoning of Photius: "It is acceptable that laws which relate to church affairs, and especially parish matters, should correspond with political and administrative changes", from another point of view, bowing before the demands of canonical obligations, which impose upon our Holy Ecumenical See concern for Orthodox Churches, who are in need; considering also the fact, which is not contradicted by history (for it is recorded that the first separation from our See of the Kyivan Metropolia and the Orthodox Metropolia of Lithuania and Poland, dependent upon it, as well as their incorporation within the Holy Moscovite Church was accomplished contrary to canon law, as also all that which was agreed upon regarding the full church autonomy of the Kyivan Metropolitan, who at the time had the title Exarch of the Ecumenical See), We and our Holy Metropolitans, Our beloved brothers and co-workers in the Holy Spirit, considered it our obligation to give ear to the request presented to Us by the Holy Orthodox Church in Poland and to give Our blessing and approval to its autocephalous and independent administration.
As a consequence of this conciliar decision, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, We have decided: to recognize an autocephalic administration for the Orthodox Church in Poland and give our blessings to this, so that from this day on It may be governed as a spiritual Sister, and decided Its affairs independently and in an autocephalic manner, according to the regulations and unlimited rights of other Holy Autocephalic Orthodox Churches, recognizing as its Supreme Church Authority, the Holy Synod, composed of orthodox canonical bishops in Poland, whose president shall at all times be the Blessed Metropolitan of Warsaw and of all Poland. To preserve and canonically maintain united with Our Holy Apostolic Ecumenical Patriarchal See, as well as with all other Autocephalic Orthodox Churches, We mention here the obligations which every Metropolitan of Warsaw and of all Poland will have: ie. to inform, according to the regulations of the Holy Orthodox, of his election and enthronization by an enthronization letter Our Great Christian Church as well as all other Autocephalous Orthodox Sister-Churches: To retain everything related to a firm maintenance of the Faith and Orthodox piety, as well as all that is commanded by the holy canons and regulations of the Orthodox Church; to also commemorate in accordance with regulations in the Diptychs the name of the Ecumenical Patriarch and other Patriarchs as well as the Hierarchs of other Autocephalic Churches. In addition to this we decree, that the Autocephalous Orthodox Sister-Church in Poland must obtain its Holy Myrh (oil) from Our Great Christian Church. We advise at this time, that in matters concerning church order and in matters of a more general nature, which are beyond the jurisdictional limits of every Autocephalous Church acting individually, that the Blessed Metropolitan of Warsaw and of all Poland to apply to Our Holy Ecumenical Patriarchal See, through whose mediation union with every Orthodox Church, "... rightly teaching the word of truth" and request authoritive opinions and help from Sister-Churches.
Having carefully reviewed and considered all this at canonical meetings of the Holy Synod on the sixth and eleventh of November, 1924, We have entrusted, after the approval of the Synod, this Synodical and Patriarchal Tomos, accurately and unalteredly copied, as it is recorded in the Codex of Our Great Christian Church, to the Blessed +DIONISIJ, Our beloved brother and co-worker in Christ, Metropolitan of Warsaw and of all Poland and President of the Holy Synod of the Autocephalic Orthodox Church in Poland.
May the Lord God strengthen unto the ages, by the grace and merits of the First Great and Supreme Pastor, Christ our God, the Autocephalous Sister-Church in Poland, so fortunately organized, may He raise and increase everything in it to the glory of His Holy Name, for the benefit of Its pious flock and for the joy of all Autocephalous Orthodox Sister Churches.
In the year of Our Lord 1924, November 13th.
The Patriarch of Constantinople, +GREGORIOS VII (Approved).
The Metropolitan of Kiza, +KALYNYK
The Metropolitan of Sardia and Pisidia, +HERMAN
The Metropolitan of Nicea, BASIL
The Metropolitan of Chaldea, +JOAKIM
The Metropolitan of Philadelphia, +PHOTIUS
The Metropolitan of Derkos, +CONSTANTINE
The Metropolitan of Syliria, +EUGENE
The Metropolitan of Brus, +NICODEMOUS
The Metropolitan of Rodopolia, +CYRIL
The Metropolitan of the Princes Islands, +AHAFANAHEL
The Metropolitan of Neocesarea, +AMBROSIOS
The Metropolitan of Anea, +THOMAS
The Ecumenical Patriarchate, November 13, 1924 Chancellor HERMAN, Metropolitan of Sardia
PATRIARCHAL AND SYNODICALLY CANONICAL TOMOS
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, November 13, 1924, concerning the declaration of the Orthodox Church in Poland as an Autocephalic Church.
+GREGORIOS VII, by the grace of God Archbishop of Constantinople -the New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch The Holy Orthodox Church in the God-Protected Polish State, endowed with an autonomous system and administration and proving its firmness in faith, zealousness by charitable works has requested our Holy Apostolic and Ecumenical Patriarchal See to bless and confirm its autocephalous administrative system, considering that in the new circumstances of political life, only such a system can satisfy and guarantee its needs.
Examining this request with love, taking into consideration the structions of the holy canons, which have established that the system of church affairs should correspond with the political and community forms (IV Ecumenical Council, canon 17, VI Ecumenical Council, canon 38), as well as the reasoning of Photius: "It is acceptable that laws which relate to church affairs, and especially parish matters, should correspond with political and administrative changes", from another point of view, bowing before the demands of canonical obligations, which impose upon our Holy Ecumenical See concern for Orthodox Churches, who are in need; considering also the fact, which is not contradicted by history (for it is recorded that the first separation from our See of the Kyivan Metropolia and the Orthodox Metropolia of Lithuania and Poland, dependent upon it, as well as their incorporation within the Holy Moscovite Church was accomplished contrary to canon law, as also all that which was agreed upon regarding the full church autonomy of the Kyivan Metropolitan, who at the time had the title Exarch of the Ecumenical See), We and our Holy Metropolitans, Our beloved brothers and co-workers in the Holy Spirit, considered it our obligation to give ear to the request presented to Us by the Holy Orthodox Church in Poland and to give Our blessing and approval to its autocephalous and independent administration.
As a consequence of this conciliar decision, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, We have decided: to recognize an autocephalic administration for the Orthodox Church in Poland and give our blessings to this, so that from this day on It may be governed as a spiritual Sister, and decided Its affairs independently and in an autocephalic manner, according to the regulations and unlimited rights of other Holy Autocephalic Orthodox Churches, recognizing as its Supreme Church Authority, the Holy Synod, composed of orthodox canonical bishops in Poland, whose president shall at all times be the Blessed Metropolitan of Warsaw and of all Poland. To preserve and canonically maintain united with Our Holy Apostolic Ecumenical Patriarchal See, as well as with all other Autocephalic Orthodox Churches, We mention here the obligations which every Metropolitan of Warsaw and of all Poland will have: ie. to inform, according to the regulations of the Holy Orthodox, of his election and enthronization by an enthronization letter Our Great Christian Church as well as all other Autocephalous Orthodox Sister-Churches: To retain everything related to a firm maintenance of the Faith and Orthodox piety, as well as all that is commanded by the holy canons and regulations of the Orthodox Church; to also commemorate in accordance with regulations in the Diptychs the name of the Ecumenical Patriarch and other Patriarchs as well as the Hierarchs of other Autocephalic Churches. In addition to this we decree, that the Autocephalous Orthodox Sister-Church in Poland must obtain its Holy Myrh (oil) from Our Great Christian Church. We advise at this time, that in matters concerning church order and in matters of a more general nature, which are beyond the jurisdictional limits of every Autocephalous Church acting individually, that the Blessed Metropolitan of Warsaw and of all Poland to apply to Our Holy Ecumenical Patriarchal See, through whose mediation union with every Orthodox Church, "... rightly teaching the word of truth" and request authoritive opinions and help from Sister-Churches.
Having carefully reviewed and considered all this at canonical meetings of the Holy Synod on the sixth and eleventh of November, 1924, We have entrusted, after the approval of the Synod, this Synodical and Patriarchal Tomos, accurately and unalteredly copied, as it is recorded in the Codex of Our Great Christian Church, to the Blessed +DIONISIJ, Our beloved brother and co-worker in Christ, Metropolitan of Warsaw and of all Poland and President of the Holy Synod of the Autocephalic Orthodox Church in Poland.
May the Lord God strengthen unto the ages, by the grace and merits of the First Great and Supreme Pastor, Christ our God, the Autocephalous Sister-Church in Poland, so fortunately organized, may He raise and increase everything in it to the glory of His Holy Name, for the benefit of Its pious flock and for the joy of all Autocephalous Orthodox Sister Churches.
In the year of Our Lord 1924, November 13th.
The Patriarch of Constantinople, +GREGORIOS VII (Approved).
The Metropolitan of Kiza, +KALYNYK
The Metropolitan of Sardia and Pisidia, +HERMAN
The Metropolitan of Nicea, BASIL
The Metropolitan of Chaldea, +JOAKIM
The Metropolitan of Philadelphia, +PHOTIUS
The Metropolitan of Derkos, +CONSTANTINE
The Metropolitan of Syliria, +EUGENE
The Metropolitan of Brus, +NICODEMOUS
The Metropolitan of Rodopolia, +CYRIL
The Metropolitan of the Princes Islands, +AHAFANAHEL
The Metropolitan of Neocesarea, +AMBROSIOS
The Metropolitan of Anea, +THOMAS
The Ecumenical Patriarchate, November 13, 1924 Chancellor HERMAN, Metropolitan of Sardia
Granted by
His All-Holiness +BARTHOLOMEW
+ Tomos of Canonicity +
All Clergy and Sacraments Celebrated by
the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC)
are Recognized, Valid and Canonical
"The Ukrainian Church Is An Autocephalous Church"
The following is translated from the Ukrainian text by Rev. I. Kutash (Metropolitan +ILARION: Ideology of the Ukrainian Church, Kholm, 1944, pp8-16). It is taken from "The Herald" Sept-Dec 1971 --
From 988 to 1686 the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was in the canonical jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The Constantinople Patriarchate in 1686 renounced its right to the Ukrainian Church. The Ukrainian Church throughout its ancient life (988-1686) was a canonical (canon 28, Fifth Ecumenical Council) jurisdiction of the Constantinople Patriarchate, but the latter officially renounced it in May of 1686 and gave all authority to the Patriarch of Moscow. Although this transference took place by outright simony and government coercion, from 1686 to 1924 the Constantinople Patriarchs, unfortunately, never officially voiced their protest against the unlawful seizure of the Ukrainian Church by Moscow; they always continued their good, sisterly relations with the Moscow Church, and for this reason they lost their canonical right to the Ukrainian Church by Moscow, for the thirty-year term of ecclesiastical prescription previously established by the Canons for the purpose of protest (Canon 17 of the Fourth and the Canon 25 of the sixth Ecumenical Council) had long passed. (It is true that in 1687 the Constantinople Patriarchate cancelled the decree of 1686 but did not make the appropriate official protest to Moscow).
Further, on September 23 1723, the Patriarch of Constantinople, +JEREMIAS, together with the Patriarch of Antioch by their official Tomas (proclamation), confirmed the so-called synodal system of the Russian Church, of which the Ukrainian Church was a part, as they well knew. By this act, Constantinople openly renounced its rights to the Ukrainian Church for the second time.
After all, Canon 28 itself, of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, upon which the subordination of the Ukrainian Church to the Patriarchate of Constantinople was based, is doubtful and unclear, and was not a universal rule, not being generally accepted by all the Churches of the time. For this very reason the Church of Moscow in 1589 separated from the Church of Constantinople and became autocephalous, electing its own Patriarch.
The joining of the Ukrainian Church to the Moscow Church was grossly un-canonical. The joining of the Ukrainian Church to the Moscow Church in 1686 was done by the coercion of the secular Muscovite and the Turkish governments and by outright simony; against it, clergy of the time protested strongly; for this reason this joining was grossly un-canonical (Apostolic Canon 29 and 30, Canon 2 of the Second, Canon 8 of the Third and Canon 3 of the Seventh Ecumenical Councils) and thus invalid.
This act is also called un-canonical by the official Canonical Tomos of the Patriarch of Constantinople, +GREGORY VII, dated November 13, 1924, which reads: "It is written in history that the first separation from the throne of the Kyiv Metropolia and of the Orthodox Metropolias of Lithuania and Poland, which belonged to it, and the joining of it to the Holy Church of Moscow was done wholly out of keeping with the directions of the canonical rules."
By this act, the Ecumenical Church of Constantinople in 1924 publicly and officially proclaimed the joining of the Ukrainian Church to the Church of Moscow to be an un-canonical act; similarly, the Ukrainian Church itself never voluntarily proclaimed its forced union with the Church of Moscow to be canonical, but struggled ceaselessly against this coercion, that is the Russian czarate, ceased to belong to the Church of Moscow (Canon37 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council). Canon 8 of the Third Ecumenical Council clearly concerning this:
"If anyone has violently taken and subjected (a Diocese), he shall give it up; lest the Canons of the Fathers be transgressed; or the vanities of the wordly honour be brought in under the pretext of sacred office; or we lose, without knowing it, little by little, the liberty which Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Deliverer of men, hath given us by His own Blood."
Besides this, Patriarch St. +TIKHON himself on November 20, 1920, by his official decree gave voluntary approval to autocephalous governing of the Ukrainian Church, recognizing that this was essential for the well-being of the Church and acquiescing to the demands of the whole Ukrainian Nation as well as the Clergy and the Episcopate.
He confirmed this a second time himself by his document Number 145 dated March 24, 1924. Because of this, the Ukrainian Church today is under no canonical dependence to the Church of Moscow.
The Ukrainian Nation through its governments and through Church Councils lawfully expressed its firm will that its Church be autocephalous. According to the Apostolic Canon 34, each nation has the right to its own autocephalous Church. Also, according to Canon 17 of the Fourth and Canon 38 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, and according to the Apophthegm of Photius ("The laws governing ecclesiastical matters should also govern political and administrative changes") each Church must accommodate itself to new state boundaries. For this reason, the lawful Government of the Ukrainian National Republic, in the name of all Ukrainian Nations which firmly demanded the autocephaly of its Church, solemnly proclaimed the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church as a law of state on January 1, 1919, in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. And on October 7 of the same year (the Government) confirmed this by a degree of the Directory, which was its highest authority, and informed the Patriarch of Constantinople at the time of this fact through the Minister of Confessions and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In 1920 and 1921 the Patriarch of Constantinople also received separate requests to bless the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church. These requests were covered with thousands of signatures by the citizens and clergy.
Also, Ukrainian Church Councils of the Orthodox Church of all the movements in Ukraine-Councils which were composed of Bishops as well, basing themselves upon Apostolic Canon 34 and upon the approval of Patriarch of Moscow St. +TIKHON dated November 20, 1920, and again March 24, 1924 (Number 145) officially proclaimed the Ukrainian Church to be autocephalous on several occasions:
(a) October, 1921, in Kyiv by a Church Council of Clergy and laity, representatives from all Ukraine.
(b) September 5, 1922, the Church Council in Kyiv headed by Exarch of Ukraine, Metropolitan +MICHAEL (Yermakov):
(c) May 21, 1925, a Council of the Ukrainian Church held in Kharkiv, recognized as well by an all-Russian Church in Moscow on October 6, 1925:
(d) November 25, 1941, a Council of Bishops in the Pochayiv Lavra headed by Archbishop +OLEKSIY (Hromadsky).
(e) November 2, 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarchate declared that it recognized the sacraments as performed by the UOC-KP (Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate) and UAOC (Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church), of which the OCA-UAOC/SEC and Autonomous Synod of Bishops - Apostolic Orthodox Church (COAC) are a part, as valid. It was further stated from this meeting that "when there is some talk about the non-canonicity of the Holy Sacraments celebrated by the clergy of these churches, the Holy Mother Church has answered. These Sacraments and clerical actions are canonical." (-- this 2018 addition was added in 2022)
Beside all the above, the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. recognized Ukraine as a separate individual state, called the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and if only for this reason alone, according to the Holy Canons, (Apostolic Canon 34, Canon 17 of the Fourth and the Canon 38 of the Sixth Ecumenical Councils-see above) the Ukrainian Church must be autocephalous.
Canonically speaking, the Ukrainian Church is already an autocephalous Church. On the basis of the above, because the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1686 and the Patriarch of Moscow in 1920 and 1924 officially gave up the Ukrainian Church, she, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church according to Apostolic Canon 34 and according to the clear and decisive will of her People, lawfully expressed twice in 1919 by its lawful Government, and according to the canonical resolutions of its Church Councils and Episcopal Councils in 1921, already legally and canonically to be an Autocephalous Church.
Our Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as a member of the Catholic (Universal) Church entitled to full ecclesiastical rights & privileges, no longer needs canonical dispensation from one Church or another, but simply the blessings of its separate sisters, the Orthodox Churches, that is, establishment of canonical unity with them.
It is because of all this that all interference into the internal affairs of the Ukrainian Church on the part of whoever it may be, and the interference, as well, by the Russian Orthodox Church, which today does not want to release our Church (in obedience to its secular government), are unjustifiable and profoundly un-canonical, (for they go against Canon 2 of the Second and Canon 8 of the Third Ecumenical Council). Today's denial to the Ukrainian Church of the autocephaly that is rightfully hers is based solely on the un-canonical coercion of the Russian secular Government:
On the basis of the foregoing, the full title of the Ukrainian Church is the:
UKRAINIAN AUTOCEPHALOUS ORTHODOX CHURCH
From 988 to 1686 the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was in the canonical jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The Constantinople Patriarchate in 1686 renounced its right to the Ukrainian Church. The Ukrainian Church throughout its ancient life (988-1686) was a canonical (canon 28, Fifth Ecumenical Council) jurisdiction of the Constantinople Patriarchate, but the latter officially renounced it in May of 1686 and gave all authority to the Patriarch of Moscow. Although this transference took place by outright simony and government coercion, from 1686 to 1924 the Constantinople Patriarchs, unfortunately, never officially voiced their protest against the unlawful seizure of the Ukrainian Church by Moscow; they always continued their good, sisterly relations with the Moscow Church, and for this reason they lost their canonical right to the Ukrainian Church by Moscow, for the thirty-year term of ecclesiastical prescription previously established by the Canons for the purpose of protest (Canon 17 of the Fourth and the Canon 25 of the sixth Ecumenical Council) had long passed. (It is true that in 1687 the Constantinople Patriarchate cancelled the decree of 1686 but did not make the appropriate official protest to Moscow).
Further, on September 23 1723, the Patriarch of Constantinople, +JEREMIAS, together with the Patriarch of Antioch by their official Tomas (proclamation), confirmed the so-called synodal system of the Russian Church, of which the Ukrainian Church was a part, as they well knew. By this act, Constantinople openly renounced its rights to the Ukrainian Church for the second time.
After all, Canon 28 itself, of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, upon which the subordination of the Ukrainian Church to the Patriarchate of Constantinople was based, is doubtful and unclear, and was not a universal rule, not being generally accepted by all the Churches of the time. For this very reason the Church of Moscow in 1589 separated from the Church of Constantinople and became autocephalous, electing its own Patriarch.
The joining of the Ukrainian Church to the Moscow Church was grossly un-canonical. The joining of the Ukrainian Church to the Moscow Church in 1686 was done by the coercion of the secular Muscovite and the Turkish governments and by outright simony; against it, clergy of the time protested strongly; for this reason this joining was grossly un-canonical (Apostolic Canon 29 and 30, Canon 2 of the Second, Canon 8 of the Third and Canon 3 of the Seventh Ecumenical Councils) and thus invalid.
This act is also called un-canonical by the official Canonical Tomos of the Patriarch of Constantinople, +GREGORY VII, dated November 13, 1924, which reads: "It is written in history that the first separation from the throne of the Kyiv Metropolia and of the Orthodox Metropolias of Lithuania and Poland, which belonged to it, and the joining of it to the Holy Church of Moscow was done wholly out of keeping with the directions of the canonical rules."
By this act, the Ecumenical Church of Constantinople in 1924 publicly and officially proclaimed the joining of the Ukrainian Church to the Church of Moscow to be an un-canonical act; similarly, the Ukrainian Church itself never voluntarily proclaimed its forced union with the Church of Moscow to be canonical, but struggled ceaselessly against this coercion, that is the Russian czarate, ceased to belong to the Church of Moscow (Canon37 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council). Canon 8 of the Third Ecumenical Council clearly concerning this:
"If anyone has violently taken and subjected (a Diocese), he shall give it up; lest the Canons of the Fathers be transgressed; or the vanities of the wordly honour be brought in under the pretext of sacred office; or we lose, without knowing it, little by little, the liberty which Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Deliverer of men, hath given us by His own Blood."
Besides this, Patriarch St. +TIKHON himself on November 20, 1920, by his official decree gave voluntary approval to autocephalous governing of the Ukrainian Church, recognizing that this was essential for the well-being of the Church and acquiescing to the demands of the whole Ukrainian Nation as well as the Clergy and the Episcopate.
He confirmed this a second time himself by his document Number 145 dated March 24, 1924. Because of this, the Ukrainian Church today is under no canonical dependence to the Church of Moscow.
The Ukrainian Nation through its governments and through Church Councils lawfully expressed its firm will that its Church be autocephalous. According to the Apostolic Canon 34, each nation has the right to its own autocephalous Church. Also, according to Canon 17 of the Fourth and Canon 38 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, and according to the Apophthegm of Photius ("The laws governing ecclesiastical matters should also govern political and administrative changes") each Church must accommodate itself to new state boundaries. For this reason, the lawful Government of the Ukrainian National Republic, in the name of all Ukrainian Nations which firmly demanded the autocephaly of its Church, solemnly proclaimed the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church as a law of state on January 1, 1919, in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. And on October 7 of the same year (the Government) confirmed this by a degree of the Directory, which was its highest authority, and informed the Patriarch of Constantinople at the time of this fact through the Minister of Confessions and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In 1920 and 1921 the Patriarch of Constantinople also received separate requests to bless the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church. These requests were covered with thousands of signatures by the citizens and clergy.
Also, Ukrainian Church Councils of the Orthodox Church of all the movements in Ukraine-Councils which were composed of Bishops as well, basing themselves upon Apostolic Canon 34 and upon the approval of Patriarch of Moscow St. +TIKHON dated November 20, 1920, and again March 24, 1924 (Number 145) officially proclaimed the Ukrainian Church to be autocephalous on several occasions:
(a) October, 1921, in Kyiv by a Church Council of Clergy and laity, representatives from all Ukraine.
(b) September 5, 1922, the Church Council in Kyiv headed by Exarch of Ukraine, Metropolitan +MICHAEL (Yermakov):
(c) May 21, 1925, a Council of the Ukrainian Church held in Kharkiv, recognized as well by an all-Russian Church in Moscow on October 6, 1925:
(d) November 25, 1941, a Council of Bishops in the Pochayiv Lavra headed by Archbishop +OLEKSIY (Hromadsky).
(e) November 2, 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarchate declared that it recognized the sacraments as performed by the UOC-KP (Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate) and UAOC (Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church), of which the OCA-UAOC/SEC and Autonomous Synod of Bishops - Apostolic Orthodox Church (COAC) are a part, as valid. It was further stated from this meeting that "when there is some talk about the non-canonicity of the Holy Sacraments celebrated by the clergy of these churches, the Holy Mother Church has answered. These Sacraments and clerical actions are canonical." (-- this 2018 addition was added in 2022)
Beside all the above, the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. recognized Ukraine as a separate individual state, called the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and if only for this reason alone, according to the Holy Canons, (Apostolic Canon 34, Canon 17 of the Fourth and the Canon 38 of the Sixth Ecumenical Councils-see above) the Ukrainian Church must be autocephalous.
Canonically speaking, the Ukrainian Church is already an autocephalous Church. On the basis of the above, because the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1686 and the Patriarch of Moscow in 1920 and 1924 officially gave up the Ukrainian Church, she, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church according to Apostolic Canon 34 and according to the clear and decisive will of her People, lawfully expressed twice in 1919 by its lawful Government, and according to the canonical resolutions of its Church Councils and Episcopal Councils in 1921, already legally and canonically to be an Autocephalous Church.
Our Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as a member of the Catholic (Universal) Church entitled to full ecclesiastical rights & privileges, no longer needs canonical dispensation from one Church or another, but simply the blessings of its separate sisters, the Orthodox Churches, that is, establishment of canonical unity with them.
It is because of all this that all interference into the internal affairs of the Ukrainian Church on the part of whoever it may be, and the interference, as well, by the Russian Orthodox Church, which today does not want to release our Church (in obedience to its secular government), are unjustifiable and profoundly un-canonical, (for they go against Canon 2 of the Second and Canon 8 of the Third Ecumenical Council). Today's denial to the Ukrainian Church of the autocephaly that is rightfully hers is based solely on the un-canonical coercion of the Russian secular Government:
On the basis of the foregoing, the full title of the Ukrainian Church is the:
UKRAINIAN AUTOCEPHALOUS ORTHODOX CHURCH
OCA Honoured to Receive a TOMOS From the APC in Moscow
