Department for External Church Relations
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Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy and Bukovina elected Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
On August 13, 2014, the Bishops’ Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which took place at the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, elected Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy and Bukovina, Locum Tenens of the Metropolitan See of Kiev, as Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The Council was attended by 82 bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church including 52 diocesan bishops, 22 suffragan bishops, and 8 (out of 9) supernumerary bishops.
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Metropolitan Onufry (Berezovsky) was born on November 5, 1944, at the village of Korytnoe near Chernovtsy, to the family of a priest.
In 1964, he graduated from the Chernovtsy Technical College and worked in a construction organization. In 1966, he entered the Department of Technology of Chernovtsy State University. In 1969, he left the university and entered Moscow Theological Seminary. In 1970 he joined the monastic community of the St. Sergius Monastery of the Trinity.
On March 18, 1971, he took monastic vows and on June 20, was ordained as hierodeacon. On May 29, 1972, he was ordained as hieromonk, and in 1980 was elevated to the rank of hegumen.
On August 28, 1984, he was appointed rector of the church of the Transfiguration of the Mount Athos representation at the village of Lukino near Moscow.
On June 28, 1985, he was appointed dean of the St. Sergius Monastery of the Trinity.
On December 15, 1986, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
In 1988, he graduated from Moscow Theological Academy with the degree of Candidate of Theology.
On July 20, 1988, he was appointed father superior of the Pochaev Monastery of the Dormition.
On December 9, 1990, he was consecrated as Bishop of Chernovtsy and Bukovina at St. Vladimir’s in Kiev.
On January 22, 1992, he refused to sign the UOC Bishops’ Council request to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II to grant autocephaly to the Church in Ukraine and on January 23, he was transferred by Metropolitan Philaret (Denisenko, later anathemized) to the See of Ivano-Frankovsk.
On April 7, 1992, he was reinstated in the See of Chernovtsy.
On July 28, 1994, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop and appointed as permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
On November 22, 2000, he was elevated to the rank of metropolitan.
On November 23, 2013, His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine granted him the right to wear a second pectoral icon.
By the UOC Holy Synod decision of February 24, 2014, he was elected Locum Tenens of the Metropolitan See of Kiev.
By the UOC Holy Synod decision of March 19, 2014 (Minutes No. 1), he as Locum Tenens was included in the Synod as its permanent member assigned, by the right of seniority, the place occupied by the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, the first among the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church.
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Photos by the press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
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