Three steps
- See whether one of the structures listed below has an eparchy in your country: most of them publish a parish directory with addresses and service times.
- If there is no Ukrainian parish nearby, look for any canonical Orthodox community — Greek, Romanian, Polish, Antiochian. The language of worship differs; the faith is the same.
- Call or write to the priest before your first visit. It is normal, and it answers half the questions — about language, times, confession and baptism.
Church structures of the diaspora
Only real structures and their official addresses are listed here. The list is not exhaustive and will grow.
Ukraine and parishes abroad
Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU)
The local church that received the Tomos of autocephaly in 2019. Keeps the register of communities in Ukraine and abroad and publishes the liturgical calendar and official documents.
www.pomisna.infoUnited States
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA
Founded in 1929, part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate since 1995. Its consistory is in South Bound Brook, New Jersey; the site carries a full parish directory.
www.uocofusa.orgCanada
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada
Formed in 1918 in Saskatoon by Ukrainian settlers; received into the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1990. Three eparchies from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
www.uocc.caWestern Europe, Australia, New Zealand
Ukrainian Orthodox eparchies of the diaspora
Communities that grew out of the post-war emigration and now belong to the Ecumenical Patriarchate: Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, South America. Church life is coordinated together with the UOC of the USA.
uaoc.orgPoland
Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church
The local church of Poland. Since 2022 many of its parishes also serve in Ukrainian and receive displaced people; Ukrainian communities exist in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław and other cities.
www.orthodox.plEcumenical Patriarchate
Ecumenical Patriarchate (Constantinople)
The see under whose omophorion most Ukrainian Orthodox eparchies of the diaspora live, and which granted the Tomos to the OCU in 2019.
ec-patr.orgWorldwide
Ukrainian World Congress
An umbrella of Ukrainian civic organisations in more than sixty countries. Its national member bodies are the quickest way to find a Ukrainian milieu in your city.
uwc.orgHow to check where you have ended up
The word “Orthodox” on a sign guarantees nothing. Before bringing a child to be baptised or being married, three things are worth establishing: which church structure the community belongs to, who its bishop is and whether his name is commemorated at the services. A priest who evades these questions has already answered them.
When there is no parish nearby
Many people live this way — in small towns, on islands, in places where Ukrainians arrived only a few years ago. It does not cut you off from church life. At home one reads the morning and evening prayers, and on Sunday the Typika or the Gospel of the day; one travels to the nearest church for confession and communion several times a year; baptisms and weddings are planned in advance. Many communities serve once a month in a borrowed hall — and that is exactly how most parishes of the diaspora began a century ago.