The Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Об'єднавчий собор українських православних церков, lit. 'Unity Sobor of Ukrainian (Eastern) Orthodox Churches') is a council which was held on 15 December 2018 in the St Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv. The council voted to unite the existing Ukrainian Eastern Orthodox churches (the UOC-KP, the UAOC and parts of the UOC-MP) through their representatives, on the basis of complete canonical independence. All the members of the UOC-KP and the UAOC, and two members of the UOC-MP, merged into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the unification council elected Epiphanius I as its first primate.
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Unification council of the Orthodox churches of Ukraine in the context of Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
On 5 January 2019, Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, signed the tomos that officially recognized and established the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and granted it autocephaly (self-governorship). The events immediately leading to the grant of autocephaly were:
- On 11 October 2018, the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced that it would "proceed to the granting of autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine", making it independent from the Russian Orthodox Church.
- This decision led the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to break communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 15 October 2018, which marked the beginning of the 2018 Moscow–Constantinople schism.
- On 15 December 2018 a unification council founded the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
- On 5 January 2019, Patriarch Bartholomew signed the tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.