Leaders of OCU and UGCC hold a joint memorial service
Joint memorial service of the OCU, UGCC, and RCC. Photo: UGCC press service
On 22 November 2025, the heads of the OCU and the UGCC, Serhii Dumenko and Sviatoslav Shevchuk, presided over a joint memorial service at the Holodomor Memorial in Kyiv. About forty clerics from both structures took part in the religious ceremony, along with Catholic Bishop Oleksandr Yazlovetskyi.
This was a full joint liturgical service during which Dumenko and Shevchuk alternated liturgical exclamations and performed the censing.
It should be recalled that in Orthodoxy several apostolic rules and canons forbid such prayerful communion. For example, Canon 45 states: “A bishop, or presbyter, or deacon who merely prays together with heretics shall be excommunicated. But if he allows them to perform anything as clergy, he shall be deposed.”
Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to Shevchuk, the UGCC is waiting for Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv to become the cathedral of a unified Church.
Read also
"Parishioners" brought to Lavra by buses on Epifaniy's name day, media
People from different regions were brought in an organized manner to the "service" of the head of the OCU at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
Yermak consults fortune teller before important appointments, prosecutor says
Private correspondence with a fortune teller was found with the former head of the President's Office, in which he coordinated personnel decisions.
SBU searches home of Metropolitan Longin’s daughter
Law enforcement officers detained the hierarch's son-in-law, who has many children, and refused to allow a lawyer to participate in investigative actions at the family's private home.
Vienna hosts regional congress of Ukrainian Orthodox youth
Youth from seven European countries discussed the spiritual foundations of democracy and prayed for peace in Ukraine before a particle of the Life-Giving Cross.
Persecuted UOC community in Zadubrivka celebrates patronal feast
The faithful celebrated the Liturgy in a house church and held a water-blessing service at the site where a new church in honor of Venerable Amphilochius of Pochaiv is being built.
Thousands of faithful gather at Pochaiv Lavra for feast of St Amphilochius
The pilgrimage to the relics of Venerable Amphilochius of Pochaiv on his feast day is a long-standing tradition of the UOC.