KIEV, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - Enthronement ceremony of the newly elected Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate (MP), Metropolitan Onufriy (Berezovsky) was held at the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Ukraine's UNN news agency reported Sunday.
Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Volodymyr, who headed UOC (MP) since 1992, died on July 5. The election of a new primate was held in Kiev on August 13. Of the 74 candidates, Metropolitan Onufriy of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna was elected in two rounds of voting.
According to the UOC (MP) spokesperson, the ceremony was attended by representatives of 12 of the 15 local Orthodox churches in the world. The rest of the churches have not sent their representatives on the basis of valid excuses.
The UOC (MP) 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 Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which has 12,500 congregations, is the largest of three Orthodox churches in Ukraine.
