KCSA: Drabinko’s Cathedral in Kyiv moves to OCU only now
The Transfiguration Cathedral in Kyiv, Teremky district. Photo: pereyaslav-eparchia.kiev.ua
The Transfiguration Cathedral in Kyiv’s Teremky district, headed by OCU hierarch and former UOC Metropolitan Oleksandr Drabinko, has officially joined Dumenko’s structure. This was reported to “Vechirniy Kyiv” by Kyiv City Council deputy Viktoria Mukha on May 7, 2025.
According to her, the Transfiguration Cathedral community and the UOC parish of St. Martyr Paraskeva “made the decision to change their canonical affiliation and join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
“Following another massive attack on Kyiv, the capital received news that inspires and strengthens faith: two more religious communities have decided to change their canonical affiliation and join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Both communities, at a general assembly, voted by majority to leave the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The corresponding amendments to their statutes have already been officially registered,” Mukha stated.
It is noted that the first of the communities does not yet have its own church building. It is registered on Dniprovska Embankment, among new residential buildings and gas stations. However, according to available information, the Transfiguration parish does have a fully functioning church in the Teremky-II district, and “the OCU has already been conducting services in this church for some time”.
It is believed that this is not about an actual recent change in religious affiliation but rather the formal legal registration of a transition that took place earlier. Archbishop Oleksandr Drabinko, who has been ministering at this church for many years, publicly joined the newly established OCU back in 2018.
As previously reported by the UOJ, the religious communities of the Ascension and Holy Spirit Churches in the Bukovynian village of Banyliv-Pidhirny remain faithful to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to the website of UOC believers in the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy, media claims about these parishes’ "transfer" to the OCU are fake.
Read also
Feminists attack Roman Catholic churches in Latin America
During protest actions, members of radical groups attacked cathedrals in several Latin American countries, assaulted police officers, and threw paint at believers.
UOC hierarch takes part in German bishops’ conference
Bishop Veniamin of Boyarka took part in the OBKD assembly in Düsseldorf.
Ivano-Frankivsk scraps school project planned on demolished UOC church site
The authorities in Ivano-Frankivsk have dropped plans to build the school for whose construction a UOC church was demolished.
Shostatsky to UOC: If you are so righteous – do not cling to your churches
The OCU metropolitan called on UOC faithful and clergy to pray rather than defend their churches from seizures.
Archbishop John: The Church is not a special group – it is open to everyone
The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Albania explained why the Church cannot shut itself off from people and what danger arises when believers begin to feel that it is “ours.”
Shostatsky: We have a real personnel shortage in the OCU
Metropolitan Simeon (Shostatsky) said that OCU clerics have to travel to as many as five parishes over a weekend so that believers are not left without services.