Ukraine: Autocephalous Diocese Becomes Greek-Catholic
It is unclear how many parishes Isichenko had and how many followed him. The UAOC was always very small in Eastern Ukraine.
Already in 2015, Isichenko remarked that the divisions between Orthodox factions had become too deeply to find unity again and he began seeking communion with “the Churches of old and new Rome.” [though Christ didn't found "churches" but one Church].
The situation of the Byzantine rite in Ukraine is complicated. In Soviet times all official parishes belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate. In the 1990s the Greek-Catholics were re-established and there were two minor splits from the Moscow Patriarchate: the Filaret group (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) and the Autocephalous Church both of which were considered excommunicated by all other Orthodox in the world.
Both united in December 2018 to form the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine," and were suddenly recognised by Bartholomew if Constantinople under pressure from the CIA.
Isichenko criticised as a major problem the Orthodox tendency to submit to the state.
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