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
Georgian Parliament Speaker: Anti-Church campaign amounts to religious war
Shalva Papuashvili accused Eurobureaucrats of trying to replace the spiritual foundation of the nation with an artificial ideology and impose what he described as the European Union’s “pseudo-religion.”
Authorities in Pakistan order 25,000 Christians to urgently leave their homes
In Islamabad, 25,000 Christians have been ordered to urgently leave their homes without being offered any alternative housing, sparking protests and deepening tensions in society.
Court in U.S. finds Meta and YouTube harm users’ mental health
A U.S. court has ruled that platforms operated by Meta Platforms and YouTube deliberately foster addiction and can be held responsible for harm to users’ mental health.
Patriarch John called on Syrian Christians not to celebrate Easter outside churches
The Patriarch of Antioch and the heads of other churches in Syria made a joint statement amid the escalating situation in the country.
Monastic tonsure performed at St. Elijah's Monastery of Varvarivka
Monastic tonsure was performed by Archbishop Irinarkh of Novopskov.
Dumenko takes control of UOC-KP patriarchate building
Photos of Dumenko inside the UOC-KP patriarchate have appeared on the OCU’s official website.