By far the biggest news in Ukraine last year was the formation of a canonical self-governing Ukrainian Orthodox Church that saw 39-year-old Metropolitan Epifaniy (Serhiy Dumenko) elected as its primate on December 15. A presidential policy goal, the seismic shift further divorced Ukraine from Moscow and ended over 300 years of the hostile neighbor’s spiritual sway over the country. Consequently, the Church’s establishment reverberated throughout the Christian world and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – the name of the newly unified Church – awaited the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s official granting of a Tomos bestowing autocephaly on January 6, 2019.