On March 1, 2022, at a meeting of the diocesan council, Metropolitan Volodymyr, administrator of the Volodymyr-Volyn diocese, listened to and fully supported the request of deanery districts, monasteries, abbots of cathedrals and vice-rectors of theological schools for an urgent appeal to His Beatitude by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the status of full-fledged autocephaly.

This was reported on the page of the diocese in Facebook.

“There is an urgent need to bring to your attention that the full-scale aggression of Russian regular troops on the territory of Ukraine, under the far-fetched pretext of protecting the interests of Ukrainians and the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, caused rejection and fierce resistance from all segments of the population and, especially, parishioners of the UOC communities of the diocese entrusted to you. Our sons – young parishioners volunteered to replenish the Ukrainian army, our male parishioners are in the forefront of territorial defense, our wives and parishioners are making every effort to provide everything necessary, both for the army and for those who are forced to leave their homes as a result of the war. Houses.

The flock entrusted to you together with the entire Ukrainian people!

At the same time, the prolonged silence, or one-sided coverage of events in Ukraine and around the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the ROC, a clear misunderstanding of the realities, or neglect of them, has long raised before our flock and the majority of priests the question of the expediency and necessity of gaining the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the status of full-fledged and recognized by the ROC independence – autocephaly.

When full-scale Russian aggression was already underway and thousands of soldiers from both sides were killed in several days of fighting, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill said: “God forbid that a terrible line lies between Russia and Ukraine, stained with the blood of brothers.”

So, this line has already been laid! It is urgent to take all possible measures to stop the war and save the flock and pastors from further temptations and disappointments, schisms and falling away from the Church.

Your Eminence, the flock entrusted under your archpastoral omophorion, and the priests make an urgent request to submit to His Beatitude Metropolitan ONUFRY a filial petition from the Vladimir-Volyn diocese for the urgent convocation of the Holy Synod of autocephaly to the entirety of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry, to preserve canonicity and recognition other Local Churches,” the message says.