Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy & Bukovina elected as the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
His Beatitude Onufry of Chernovtsy & Bukovina – Metropolitan elect of Kiev & all Ukraine
Rubin (OCP Delegate of Armenia and Russia)
OCP News Service
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Kiev: The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has elected Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy and Bukovina as the new Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine and Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate.
The election was held on 13th August at Kiev-Pechersk Lavra at the special session of the Bishops Council of the Church of Ukraine.
The Council was attended by 82 bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, out of which 52 are ruling, and 22 are suffragans. The voting took place in two rounds. Metropolitan Onufry was serving as the Locum Tenens of the Church since the demise of the late lamented Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and all Ukraine.
Biography of Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy and Bukovina
A permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy and Bukovina (Berezovsky Orest Vladimirovich) was born on November 5, 1944, in the village of Korytnoye of the Vashkovtsy district of the Chernovtsy region in the Ukraine, to a priest’s family.
In 1964 he graduated from the technical school of Chernovtsy, began work in a construction organization, and in 1966 he entered the technology department of the Chernovtsy State University. In 1969 he left the university and entered the Moscow Theological Seminary.
In 1970 he was accepted into the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra. On March 18, 1971 he took the monastic vows, on June 20 he was ordained hierodeacon, and on May 29, 1972, a hieromonk. In 1980 he became an igumen (a rank of honor among priest-monks). On August 28, 1984, he was appointed Rector of the Transfiguration Church of the Athonite dependency in the village of Lukino, Moscow region. On June 28, 1985, he was appointed Rural Dean of the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra. On December 15, 1986, he was raised to the rank of archimandrite.
In 1988 he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy as a doctoral candidate in theology. On July 20, 1988, he was appointed Father-Superior of the Dormition Pochayiv Lavra. On December 9, 1990, he was consecrated Bishop of Chernovtsy and Bukovina at the St. Vladimir (Volodimir) Cathedral in Kiev.
On January 22, 1992, he refused to sign an appeal of the hierarchs’ meeting of UOC to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II for granting of autocephaly to the church in the Ukraine; on January 23 he was moved to the Ivano-Frankivsk diocese by then Metropolitan Philaret ([Denisenko] later anathematized by the church for forming an unsanctioned “Ukrainian Patriarch, with himself at the head).
On April 7, 1992, he was restored to the diocese of Chernovtsy. On July 28, 1994, he became archbishop and was appointed a permanent member of the Holy Synod of UOC. On November 22, 2000, he was raised to the rank of Metropolitan. On November 23, 2013, he was awarded the right to wear two panagias (the pectoral icon worn by bishops) by His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All the Ukraine.
On February 24, 2014, at the meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church he was elected Locum Tenens of the Metropolitan See of Kiev.
On 13th August 2014, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church elected him as the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine.
Source:
OCP News Service
