Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate

The United States expressed its support on Wednesday for a recent decision by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

If the Ukrainian Orthodox Church receives recognition of its independence from Moscow from the Ecumenical Patriarch, the similarly isolated Macedonian Church hopes for a similar breakthrough.

The conflict between the Orthodox Church's two most important leaders over the independence of the Church in Ukraine deepened over the weekend, after the Russian Orthodox Church's Holy Synod announced that it was "suspending cooperation" with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The Russian Patriarchate has openly disputed the first-among-equals status of the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate after the latter's decision to grant independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Moscow.