The transition of church communities to the OCU is the process of transition of parishes, previously affiliated to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC MP), from that metropolis to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). This process began with the Unification Council of 15 December 2018, which resulted in the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Between 15 December 2018 and 7 November 2022, 1153 parishes (or about 9.5% of the 12,092 parishes the UOC MP had in December 2018) announced their transition from the UOC MP to the OCU.[1] [2]
In 2022 after the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine about 700 more parishes transferred from the UOC (MP) to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In general, in four years after the unification council, almost 1,500 religious communities joined the OCU.[3] Throughout 2023 386 UOC (MP) parishes joined the OCU.[4] From December 2023 to April 2024, 96 churches passed to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.[4]
There were two periods of transition:
Prior to the Unification Council, 62 parishes transferred from the UOC MP to the UOC KP. Counts by year: 23 in 2014; 22 in 2015; 5 in 2016, 10 in 2017; 2 in 2018.(uk)On 10 December 2018, the UOC MP published its annual report stating that it had 12,092 parishes by the end of 2018 (2017: 12,069).[9] From 15 December 2018, the transition of UOC MP parishes to the OCU occurred as follows, numerically by month:[10]
| No. | Month | Number of parishes which left the UOC (MP) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In month | Cumulative | |||
| 1 | data-sort-value="2018.12" | December 2018 | 35 | 35 |
| 2 | data-sort-value="2019.1" | January 2019 | 152 | 187 |
| 3 | data-sort-value="2019.2" | February 2019 | 234 | 421 |
| 4 | data-sort-value="2019.3" | March 2019 | 93 | 514 |
| 5 | data-sort-value="2019.4" | April 2019 | 14 | 528 |
| 6 | data-sort-value="2019.5" | May 2019 | 1 | 529 |
| 7 | data-sort-value="2019.6" | June 2019 | 7 | 536 |
| 8 | data-sort-value="2019.7" | July 2019 | 1 | 537 |
| 9 | data-sort-value="2019.8" | August 2019 | 3 | 540 |
| 10 | data-sort-value="2019.9" | September 2019 | 4 | 544 |
| 11 | data-sort-value="2019.11" | November 2019 | 1 | 545 |
| 12 | data-sort-value="2019.12" | December 2019 | 2 | 547 |
| 13 | data-sort-value="2020.1" | January 2020 | 1 | 548 |
| 14 | data-sort-value="2020.2" | February 2020 | 1 | 549 |
| 15 | data-sort-value="2020.7" | July 2020 | 1 | 550 |
| 16 | data-sort-value="2020.8" | August 2020 | 1 | 551 |
| 17 | data-sort-value="2020.10" | October 2020 | 1 | 552 |
| 18 | data-sort-value="2021.2" | February 2021 | 1 | 553 |
| 19 | data-sort-value="2021.3" | March 2021 | 5 | 558 |
| 20 | data-sort-value="2021.5" | May 2021 | 2 | 560 |
| 21 | data-sort-value="2021.10" | October 2021 | 3 | 563 |
| 22 | data-sort-value="2022.02" | February 2022 | 1 | 564 |
| 23 | data-sort-value="2022.03" | March 2022 | 54 | 618 |
| 24 | data-sort-value="2022.04" | April 2022 | 104 | 722 |
| 25 | data-sort-value="2022.05" | May 2022 | 229 | 951 |
| 26 | data-sort-value="2022.06" | June 2022 | 104 | 1055 |
| 27 | data-sort-value="2022.07" | July 2022 | 55 | 1110 |
| 28 | data-sort-value="2022.08" | August 2022 | 30 | 1140 |
| 29 | data-sort-value="2022.09" | September 2022 | 14 | 1154 |
| 30 | data-sort-value="2022.10" | October 2022 | 13 | 1167 |
| 31 | data-sort-value="2022.11" | November 2022 | 19 | 1186 |
| 32 | data-sort-value="2022.12" | December 2022 | 16 | 1202 |
| 33 | data-sort-value="2023.01" | January 2023 | 19 | 1221 |
| 34 | data-sort-value="2023.02" | February 2023 | 31 | 1252 |
| 35 | data-sort-value="2023.03" | March 2023 | 24 | 1276 |
| 36 | data-sort-value="2023.04" | April 2023 | 95 | 1371 |
| 37 | data-sort-value="2023.05" | May 2023 | 73 | 1444 |
| 38 | data-sort-value="2023.06" | June 2023 | 50 | 1494 |
| 39 | data-sort-value="2023.07" | July 2023 | 27 | 1511 |
| 40 | data-sort-value="2023.08" | August 2023 | 30 | 1541 |
| 41 | data-sort-value="2023.09" | September 2023 | 16 | 1557 |
| 42 | data-sort-value="2023.10" | October 2023 | 22 | 1579 |