Threat of liquidation and internal schism: Metropolitan Luke calls on UOC to postpone autocephaly issue

Amid growing pressure from the state and the threat of legal liquidation, the hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, called for postponing the discussion of autocephaly. In his report for the Kyiv Theological Academy, he emphasized that in the current circumstances, the desire for autocephalous status is untimely and risky, distracting the Church from more pressing problems of maintaining unity and confronting external challenges.

As follows from the report prepared for the XVII International Scientific and Practical Conference on October 21, 2025, a critical situation for the UOC developed after the adoption of Law No. 3894-IX in August 2024, which creates legal grounds for its liquidation due to «ties» with the Russian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Luke noted that, despite the decision of the Council in Feofaniya in 2022, which condemned the war and affirmed the full independence of the UOC, the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) concluded that the ties were not severed completely. This conclusion became the basis for lawsuits to liquidate the Kyiv Metropolis in August 2025.

The situation is aggravated by both internal and external factors. According to the hierarch, a split remains in the Church, as «part of the clergy remains loyal to Patriarch Kirill as their kyriarch.» At the same time, the Patriarchate of Constantinople recognizes only the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), canceling the UOC’s steps toward independence. Although the transitions of communities to the OCU have decreased, the stigmatization of UOC believers and clergy is growing: more than 100 clergy are under investigation by the SBU, and the Primate of the Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship in July 2025.

In light of these challenges, Metropolitan Luke believes that promoting the topic of autocephaly «is not only untimely, but also risks distracting from more pressing challenges.» He emphasizes that the basis of the Orthodox doctrine is the truth about the unity of the Body of Christ, and that forms of church governance, including autocephaly, are only of secondary importance. «Autocephaly can be useful in some circumstances and destructive in others, but it is never an absolute guarantee of protection from external pressure,» the report says.

The hierarch warned against the substitution of the meaning of autocephaly when the ideas of national exclusivity are introduced into it or used as an instrument of political influence. In his opinion, what is important for a believer is not the degree of administrative independence of the Church, but its fidelity to the Gospel, purity of faith and the opportunity to participate in the Sacraments. «The Orthodox consciousness of a Christian lives where a person sees himself as a member of the one Body of Christ, and not a separate, even religious, national organization,» Metropolitan Luke concluded.

Earlier, Archbishop Sylvester (Stoychev) of Bila Tserkva, vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis and rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy of the UOC, published a detailed theological and historical justification of the idea of autocephaly. In his opinion, the desire for full administrative independence is a natural and normal state for every Local Church, and not synonymous with a split, as is often imagined. The hierarch presented his theses as a response to questions that arose after his participation in a podcast on the future status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.