OCU accuses UOC-KP members of “crimes against canonical order”

Epifaniy Dumenko and Nikodym Kobzar. Photo: UOJ collage

On April 3, 2026, a meeting of the OCU’s “holy synod” was held in Kyiv, where participants condemned what they described as the “anti-canonical activity” of a group of individuals calling themselves the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

According to the organization’s press service, that name is officially reserved for the OCU, which it describes as the “sole universal legal successor” of the liquidated structure.

The OCU stated that representatives of the UOC-KP are “arbitrarily appropriating titles” and committing “crimes against canonical order and church unity.” The statement referred to Archimandrite Nikodym Kobzar, Danyil Kudybin, Mykhailo Kovaliuk, and Nikon Hrabliuk, who, according to the OCU, have unlawfully assumed “episcopal titles.”

“Church judicial proceedings have been initiated against each of them, and they have been summoned to provide explanations at the next meeting of the Holy Synod in May of this year,” the OCU said.

Earlier, UOJ wrote that, in the OCU’s view, those ordained by Filaret after the Tomos are not bishops.

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