The leader of the new autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be Metropolitan Epiphanius, a 39-year-old bishop from the Kiev Patriarchate. He added that an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was now a matter of national security. The Russian Orthodox Church has protested vigorously against Kiev’s attempts to create an independent church. A spokesman for Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, vowed Saturday that the Moscow Patriarchate will continue to work in Ukraine despite the creation of the new independent church. As church tensions have grown, Ukraine’s Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches in Ukraine and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several Ukrainian cities.

Source: Washington Post December 15, 2018 11:16 UTC