COUNCIL ELECTS PRIMATE OF UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Ukrainskaia Pravda, 15 December 2018
After the council made the decision, representatives of the churches and President Petro Poroshenko came out onto Sophia Square and reported the news to those who were awaiting there the decision of the council since Saturday morning.
In response, those assembled on the square shouted out: "Slava! Slava."
Metropolitan of Pereiaslav and Belaia Tserkov Epifany is a member of the closest circle of [Patriarch] Filaret. It is he who is the virtual "right hand" of Filareet, the patriarchal vicar.
Before the council was conducted it became known that the council of the UPTsKP voted for Metropolitan of Pereiaslav and Belaia Tserkov Epifany as the candidate for the post of primate of the united Orthodox Ukrainian church. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 December 2018—6:00 p.m. Kiev time)
METROPOLITAN EPIFANY ELECTED PRIMATE OF AUTOCEPHALOUS ORTHODOX CHURCH IN UKRAINE
Thirty-nine-year-old Metropolitan of Pereiaslav-Khmelnitsky and Belaia Tserkov Epifany, of the UPTsKP, was elected primate of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which will receive autocephaly from the patriarchate of Constantinople. The election was held at the unification council in Kiev in the evening of 15 December, a correspondent of the portal Credo.Press reports.
As sources of our portal in the council report, as was planned, the primate was elected by secret ballot in two rounds, where Metropolitan Epifany received an insignificant majority of votes in the first round. Second place presumably was occupied by Metropolitan of Volyn and Lutsk Mikhail, of the UPTsKP, and third place by Metropolitan of Vinntysia and Barskoe Simeon of the UPTsMP.
The elected autocephalous Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine was born 3 February 1979 in the village of Volkovo of the Ivanovo district of Odessa oblast in a worker's family. In 1996 he graduated from secondary school and in 1999 from the Kiev Ecclesiastical Seminary of the UPTsKP, and in 2003 from the Kiev Ecclesiastical Academy of the same church with a degree of kandidat of theology. In 2007 he was tonsured a monk and studied in Greece; in 2008 he became the secretary of Patriarch Filaret and in 2009 he was consecrated bishop of Vyshgorod. In 2012 he was raised to the rank of archbishop and in 2013, to the rank of metropolitan. He ruled the parishes of the UPTsKP on the territory of Kiev oblast and headed the Kiev Orthodox Theological Academy and the Academic Committee of the Kiev patriarchate. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 December 2018)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.