UOC priest Pinchuk joins Constantinople Patriarchate

Metropolitan Cleopas of Stockholm with Andriy Pinchuk in Oslo. Photo: Pinchuk’s Facebook page

On April 19, 2026, Fr. Andriy Pinchuk announced that he had joined the Constantinople Patriarchate. He shared the news on his Facebook page.

Pinchuk thanked Patriarch Bartholomew and Metropolitan Cleopas of Scandinavia for the opportunity to continue his ministry “within the bosom of the Mother Church.” According to the cleric, his transfer to another jurisdiction was the result of a “long journey.”

The Scandinavian Metropolis confirmed that the priest has been received into its clergy. An official statement noted that Pinchuk is one of two new “volunteer clerics,” whose arrival is intended to strengthen “missionary and pastoral ministry” in the region. Representatives of the Phanar described the decision as an example of “selfless love for one’s neighbor.”

Andriy Pinchuk has been appointed rector of the Ukrainian-language parish of St. Olaf in Telemark, Norway. According to the metropolis, he will celebrate services and provide pastoral care for Ukrainian-speaking faithful across the Kingdom of Norway.

Recall that in March 2023, signatures were being collected within the UOC calling for Andriy Pinchuk to be defrocked. In a letter published on the page of Archpriest Hennadiy Yelin, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia eparchy, it was stated that Pinchuk “openly calls on the secular authorities to shut down the diocesan administrations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, seize their property, and hand it over for desecration. In doing so, he not only discredits and harms the Church of Christ, but effectively fights against it, seeking to undermine its salvific mission.”

In May 2023, Pinchuk was suspended from ministry for “destructive, non-canonical actions contrary to church order.” Eight months later, at his persistent request, the suspension was lifted. At the time, the priest stated that the UOC was for him “his native Church, the Church in which I was born.” In February 2024, Pinchuk was outstaffed.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that a UOC community in Germany had joined the Constantinople Patriarchate.

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