OCU drops plan to make Kyiv St. Cyril Church center of its Luhansk Eparchy

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) has replaced the leadership of St. Cyril’s Church in Kyiv, effectively abandoning its own decision to turn the historic church into the administrative center of the OCU’s Luhansk Eparchy. Bohdan Huliamov has been appointed the new "rector" of the ancient shrine. The news was reported by LB.ua editor-in-chief Sonia Koshkina.

Koshkina said she was "very pleased" with Huliamov’s appointment. According to her, the 12th-century architectural monument had "clearly lacked good management" in recent years, while the new rector allegedly "knows how to restore order perfectly." Since the church was taken from the UOC monastery in early 2025, services there had been conducted by Lavrentiy Myhovych.

As the UOJ previously reported, in May 2025 OCU head Epifaniy Dumenko declared St. Cyril’s Church the "administrative center of the Luhansk Eparchy until the liberation of the Luhansk region." Huliamov’s appointment as rector indicates that the OCU has now changed those plans.

Earlier, MP Serhii Rudyk said in the Verkhovna Rada that maintaining the church costs around UAH 100,000, which he described as too expensive for the "displaced people from Luhansk." As an alternative, he urged the authorities to transfer the UOC’s Resurrection (Afghan) Church, located near the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, to Dumenko’s structure.

A UOC men’s monastery operated at St. Cyril’s Church until January 30, 2025, when officials from the Ministry of Culture declined to renew its lease agreement.

As the UOJ reported, prosecutors have confiscated a church seized by the OCU in Busheve.

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