THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE FORMATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DONETSK-LUHANSK DIOCESE OF THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH – KYIVAN PATRIARCHATE (1991–1993)

Abstract

The article attempts to analyze the historical background and the circumstances of the formation and organizational establishment of the Donetsk-Luhansk Diocese of the Kyivan Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate in 1991–1993. The process of the organizational formation of the autocephalous movement in the first half of the 1990s is one of the least investigated pages in the history of the Ukrainian Church historiography due to a large number of issues that require elaboration. Thus, the objective of the proposed study is to outline the historical events of the early period of the institutional establishment of the Donetsk-Luhansk Diocese of the UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate.The relevance of the article consists in an attempt to research the events of the Orthodox Church history in the Donbas without traditional historical clichés since the need for a systematic approach to the formation of conceptual strategies for overcoming Church division requires consideration of regional trends in the religious life of the Ukrainian society in the 20th century. It is our strong opinion that the reasons for theschism within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were based not only on the contradictions in determining the canonical status of the UOC, but also on the ignorance of the deep needs of the interecclesiastic life’s normalization and thereinterpretation of the stable norms of extraliturgical activities in the post-totalitarian period.The article outlines the circumstances of the arch-pastoral ministry of the Bishop of Donetsk and Luhansk Polycarp (Huts), the first hierarch of the UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate in Donbas, as well as the forms of public, social and political activity of the archpastor. In the early 1990s, Bishop Polycarp (Huts) managed to lay the foundations for the process of institutional establishment of the UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate in the Donbas and initiate a series of urgent social projects, which, unfortunately, were not fully realized due to the complicated social, political and economic situation of the first years of Ukraine’s independence, and especially due to the untimely death of the hierarch. Studying the Donbas local Church history nowadays is complicated by the difficult political situation in the region. Unfortunately, the unique materials of the funds of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblast archives remain unavailable for the Ukrainian researchers, but the gradual actualization of the problem paves the way for good prospects for its future research.