Ukrainian Orthodox Koinonia of the Diaspora
a fellowship of Orthodox Ukrainians outside Ukraine
Українська православна громада в діаспоріUkrainisch-orthodoxe Koinonia der DiasporaKoinonía Ortodoxa Ucraniana de la DiásporaUkraińska Prawosławna Wspólnota Diaspory
A koinonia is not an institution but a sharing: one faith, one cup, one responsibility for each other. Here you will find what an Orthodox Ukrainian needs away from home — the church calendar, prayers, the way to a parish — in five languages.
The year's circle
The church year at a glance
Twelve great feasts, Pascha and the four fasts on a single circle. Point at a marker and the date appears below.
- Great Lent
- Apostles' Fast
- Dormition Fast
- Nativity Fast
Fixed feasts follow the Revised Julian calendar adopted by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on 1 September 2023. Pascha and the whole movable cycle keep the old Paschalion.
Sections
The koinonia
What the word means, what we do and what we deliberately do not do.
Read → 02Faith
The Creed, the sacraments, the icon, the fast — briefly and without evasion.
Read → 03Calendar
The church year, the great feasts, the dates of Pascha, the fasts.
Read → 04Prayers
Six essential prayers, in Ukrainian and in the language of your country.
Read → 05Parishes
How to find a church abroad and how to check its jurisdiction.
Read → 06History
A hundred and thirty years of the Ukrainian Orthodox diaspora.
Read →The word
Koinonia is the thing that does not travel in a suitcase
The Church has never been a matter of distance. The people who left for the Canadian prairies in 1891 had neither a church building nor a priest — twenty years later they had both. Those whom the war threw out of their homes in 1945 served the Liturgy in the barracks of displaced-persons camps. Those who left after February 2022 heard their first “Christ is risen” in a borrowed hall in a foreign city, carried by the voices of a handful of people.
In the Acts of the Apostles the Greek word κοινωνία stands beside the teaching of the apostles, the breaking of bread and the prayers. It is usually translated as fellowship or communion, though what it means precisely is shared participation in one thing. Not a club of compatriots and not an office with a stamp, but the thing that makes scattered people into one body.
This site does not replace a parish and claims no authority over one. It does something simpler: it keeps at hand what a person outside Ukraine otherwise has to look for from scratch every time.
Plainly, about where we stand
A koinonia still being formed
As of today UOKD is an intention and this website, not a registered organisation. There is no bishop, no statute, no membership, no bank account and no right to speak on anyone's behalf. We deliberately publish no number of communities, no founding date and no list of people: while they do not exist, any figure would be an invention.
That is why there are no forms here, no “leave your email” fields and no donate button. What there is, is reference material: the calendar, the prayers, and pointers to real church structures and their official sites.