Epiphanius I of Ukraine

During the Divine Liturgy on 7 January 2019, after the OCU received its official autocephaly on 5 January 2019, Metropolitan Epiphanius commemorated the name of Patriarch Kirill during the Great entrance. Epiphanius later told he had done this after the Ecumenical Patriarch had instructed him to do so, and that Filaret had instructed him (Epiphanius) not to mention Kirill.

On 5 January 2019, Patriarch Bartholomew and Metropolitan Epiphanius held a liturgy in St. George's Cathedral in Istanbul; the tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was signed thereafter, still in St. George's Cathedral. The tomos "has come into force from the moment of its signing". The signing of the tomos officially established the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

On 8 January 2019, the tomos was brought back to Istanbul so that all the members of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate could sign the tomos. The tomos was signed by all members of the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 9 January 2018. The tomos, signed by all members of the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, was brought back to Ukraine on the morning of 10 January 2019.

It was planned that Epiphany would be enthroned on 3 February 2019, which is also the date of his 40th birthday. Thereafter, the first synod of the OCU was to take place. The monasteries of Mount Athos refused to send a delegation for the enthronement ceremony "not because the Fathers do not recognize its legitimacy or canonicity, but because they have chosen to stick with what has become official practice and accept invitations only to the enthronement of their ecclesiastical head, the Ecumenical Patriarch." Two abbots of Mount Athos were planned to come at the enthronement but were to be part of the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. On 1 February, once in Kiev, Archimandrite Ephrem, one of the two Athonite abbots, was hospitalized for a heart attack. On 2 February, Archimandrite Ephrem was visited by Epiphanius.

As planned, Epiphanius was enthroned on 3 February 2019, in St. Sophia's Cathedral, Kiev. Filaret was not present due to health conditions, so he sent his written congratulations to the primate Epiphanius, Filaret's congratulations were written by him and read at the end of the liturgy. Archimandrite Ephrem, who had been hospitalized on 1 February 2019, was not present at the ceremony of enthronment, but a hieromonk of Ephrem's monastery was present during the ceremony of enthronment. A monk from a skete of the Koutloumousiou Monastery was also present during the ceremony of enthronment.

The first meeting of the holy synod of the OCU took place on 5 February 2019.

On 15 December 2018, at the unification council held in the Cathedral of St. Sophia, he was elected Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, the first primate of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

On Sunday 16 December 2018, during Metropolitan Epiphanius' first Divine Liturgy as Metropolitan of the OCU following his election, he called for prayers for peace and unity in Ukraine. In the same liturgy, Metropolitan Epiphany also omitted Patriarch Kirill of Moscow from the list of brother primates with whom he is in communion who are usually commemorated at the Great Entrance. Metropolitan Epiphanius later explained in an interview with Ukrainian "Direct" TV channel: "At the moment I do not commemorate him [the Patriarch of Moscow] because we are in a state of war, so the Ukrainian people would not accept if the newly-elected primate commemorated the name of the Russian Patriarch."

Metropolitan Epiphanius served as the Metropolitan bishop of Pereyaslav and Bila Tserkva, in the former original Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate) from 2013 to 2018.

On 30 August 2012, following his successful defense of his doctoral dissertation on the topic of the "Doctrine of the Orthodox Church on salvation in the context of the continuity of the Holy Fatherland", he was awarded a degree of Doctor of Theology.

On 23 January 2012, he was promoted to the rank of Archbishop. By the decision of the Bishops' Council of the UOC-KP on 28 June 2013, he was raised to the rank of Metropolitan of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Bila Tserkva and was appointed patriarchal governor with the rights of the diocesan bishop. On 13 December 2017 he was named Metropolitan of Pereiaslav and Bila Tserkva.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of the UOC-KP from 27 July 2010, he was appointed rector of the Kiev Orthodox Theological Academy and the governor of the Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky diocese. On 17 November 2011 he was awarded the title of professor of the Kiev Orthodox Theological Academy.

On 21 October 2009, at the Holy Synod of the UOC-KP he was elected Bishop of Vyshhorod, vicar of the Kiev diocese. On 15 November 2009, he was ordained a bishop.

In March 2008 he was ordained an archimandrite in St. Volodymyr's Cathedral. Later that month (20 March), he was appointed governor of Vydubychi Monastery in Kiev. On 30 May 2008, he was appointed manager of the affairs of the Kyivan Patriarchate. On 7 October 2008 he was awarded the title of Associate Professor of the Kiev Orthodox Theological Academy.

Since the academic year 2007, he has been a teacher at the Kiev Orthodox Theological Academy [uk] , and was appointed head of the philology department.

Pn 21 December 2007, with the blessing of Patriarch Filaret, Archbishop Dimitriy of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky made Epiphanius a monk in the Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. He took the monastic name Epiphanius in honor of Epiphanius of Cyprus. On 20 January 2008 he was ordained hieromonk by Filaret. Later that month (25 January), he was appointed secretary of the Patriarch of Kiev and All Rus'-Ukraine, Filaret.

In 2006–2007 he held an internship at the Athens National University in Greece in the Faculty of Philosophy.

From 1 July 2003 to 31 December 2005 he served as the secretary-referent of the Rivne diocesan administration and the personal secretary of the Metropolitan of Rivne and Ostroh. From 26 August 2003 to 31 December 2005 he was a teacher of the Rivne Seminary, and also held the post of senior assistant inspector.

IIn 2003-2005, he led the "Rivne Pravoslavne" (transl. Rivne Orthodox ) Internet portal, and was also a member of the editorial board of the religious newspaper Dukhovna Nyva (transl. Spiritual field ). In December 2005 he was admitted to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine [uk] .

In 1996 he entered the Kiev Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1999 with a first class degree. In the same year he entered the Kiev Theological Academy. He graduated as a doctor of theology in 2003 having successfully defended his PhD thesis on the "Formation of church-canonical collections in the Donician period and their characteristics".

Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kiev and All Ukraine (Ukrainian: Епіфаній, Митрополит Київський і всієї України , romanized: Epifaniy, Mytropolyt Kyyivs'kyy i vsiyeyi Ukrayiny, secular name: Serhii Petrovych Dumenko, Ukrainian: Сергій Петрович Думенко ; born on 3 February 1979) is the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), holding the title of Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine.

Serhii Petrovych Dumenko was born on 3 February 1979 in Vovkove, Ivanivka Raion, Odessa Oblast, in Ukraine. His childhood and school years were in the village of Stara Zhadova in the Storozhynets Raion of Chernivtsi Oblast. In 1996 in Stara Zhadova he graduated from high school of I-III grades.