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Constantinople's autocephaly plan for Ukrainian Orthodoxy
Summary
A look back at the decision reported on 11 October 2018 that split opinion between Kyiv and the Russian Orthodox Church.
What did the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople set in motion on 11 October 2018? It planned to recognise the autocephaly of two Ukrainian Orthodox Churches, a step that drew sharply opposed reactions.
Ukrainian leaders welcomed the plan. The Russian Orthodox Church took the opposite view and denounced it as "catastrophic".
The episode was filed under the heading Schism of 2018, and it also fell within the wider frame of Russia–Ukraine relations. The divergent responses on 11 October 2018 showed how the question of church independence had become a matter of dispute between the two countries' religious and political establishments.
The reports from that day describe the plan itself and the reactions to it. They do not set out how the recognition would be carried out.
