New UOC-KP “patriarch” enthroned in Sumy
Nikodym Kobzar has become the new “patriarch” of the UOC-KP.
On June 7, 2026, the Epiphany Church of the UOC-KP in Sumy hosted the “enthronement” ceremony of the head of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Nikodym Kobzar. Several “bishops” of the religious organization attended the event.
“Bishop” Nikon Hrabliuk of Odesa and Balta addressed Nikodym with a speech in which he declared that the latter now bears responsibility “for the fullness of the Local Orthodox Church” and serves as the “spiritual leader of the nation.”
Hrabliuk emphasized that even after becoming a bishop in the UOC-KP, Nikodym did not consider it beneath him to travel to the parish in the village of Hrunivka, despite the fact that only a handful of people attended services there.
According to Hrabliuk, Nikodym receives the UOC-KP “as a mustard seed – small and defenseless.”
“But we know that from this smallest of seeds grows a great tree, in whose branches even the birds build their nests. We believe it will be the same with the Ukrainian Church,” he said.
The “Patriarchal Vicar” in the Czech Republic, Yevhenii Sigismund Freymann, presented Nikodym with an order and declared that he is now a “general of the army” and a “grand knight of an order” registered with the United Nations. According to Freymann, the first-ranking figure in the order is the Patriarch of Alexandria, while Nikodym occupies second place.
Nikodym himself stressed that he regards himself as the fourth patriarch after Mstyslav Skrypnyk, Volodymyr Romaniuk, and Filaret Denysenko. He also stated that members of the UOC-KP are “heirs to a great idea for which the finest sons of Ukraine prayed, labored, and died.”
Earlier, the UOJ reported that the UOC-KP had established a “vicariate” in Cyprus.
