Ukrainian Archimandrite to Become Bishop of Komana

On 8 November 2020, the feast of Archangels Michael and Gabriel and the other Bodiless Powers,the Very Reverend Archimandrite Michael (Anischenko) will be ordained Bishop of Komana, Asia Minor by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.He is currently serving as Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukraine and will continue in that role of overseeing the Patriarchate's stavropegial institutions in Ukraine, based at St.Andrew's Cathedral in Kyiv.* Bishop-elect Michael was formally informed of his election by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 16 October in two ceremonies, one of them in the Patriarchal Church of St.George in the Phanar, the Patriarchal compound in Constantinople, where he gave his acceptance remarks.* Father Michael studied at the Volyn Theological Seminary of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine and served in a parish of that jurisdiction in Lutsk.He continued his studies in Greece and served the Ecumenical Patriarchate parish in Antalya, Turkey.In January 2019,he was appointed Exarch to Ukraine.* The autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has again been in the news since His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of New Justiniana and All Cyprus has recently recognised the autocephaly by commemorating His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine during the Divine Liturgy.This makes the Church of Cyprus the fourth Orthodox Church to recognise the OCU, after Constantinople, Greece and Alexandria. The news brought an angry response from the Moscow Patriarchate and a faction of four Cypriot hierarchs close to the Russian Orthodox Church.In response, some monks of Mt.Athos have defended the autocephaly by writing tracts, including monks from Xenophontos and Pantocratoros Holy Monasteries. Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Chrysostomos have also defended the autocephaly, noting it has long been the Ecumenical Patriarchate's prerogative to grant it and make other interventions as needed.*