Russian Orthodox Church

History and Expansion of the Russian Orthodox Church

• The Russian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian church with 194 dioceses in Russia.

• The Christianization of Kievan Rus' began in 988 with the baptism of Grand Prince Vladimir and his people by the clergy of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

• The ROC claims exclusive jurisdiction over Eastern Orthodox Christians in former Soviet Union republics, excluding Georgia, and created the autonomous Church of Japan and Chinese Orthodox Church.

• ROC eparchies in Belarus and Latvia have self-government, but not formal ecclesiastical autonomy.

• The ROC should not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which reconciled with ROC in 2007.

• The Russian Orthodox Church was founded by Apostle Andrew, who reportedly foretold the foundation of a great Christian city in Kiev.

• The see of the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus' was transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686.

• Peter the Great replaced the Patriarch with a Holy Synod and put the church under tight governmental control.

• The late 18th century saw the rise of starchestvo under Paisiy Velichkovsky and his disciples at the Optina Monastery.

• The Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the restoration of the Patriarchate and the adoption of a number of reforms, including the separation of church and state.

• Under Soviet rule, Orthodox clergy and active believers were treated as anti-revolutionary elements and subjected to formal prosecutions, arrests, and imprisonment.

• The Renovated Church, a reformist movement backed by the Soviet secret police, broke away from Patriarch Tikhon in 1922, causing division among clergy and faithful.History and Key Events of the Russian Orthodox Church

• The Russian Orthodox Church split in 1925 due to a disagreement over the relationship between the Church and the Soviet government, resulting in the creation of a schism known as Sergianism.

• In 1931, Metropolitan Eulogius broke with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and was received by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, creating the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe.

• The Orthodox Church attempted to run candidates in the 1929 and 1937 Soviet elections, but none were elected.

• After Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Joseph Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church to intensify patriotic support for the war effort, resulting in the election of Patriarch Sergius.

• A new wave of persecution and church closures took place between 1959 and 1964 under Nikita Khrushchev's leadership.

• Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika allowed for the return of many church buildings to the Russian Orthodox Church in the late 1980s.

• Critics have alleged that the Moscow Patriarchate had close ties with the KGB, and that top ROC hierarchs actively participated in KGB efforts overseas.

• Patriarch Aleksey II oversaw the partial return of Orthodox Christianity to Russian society after 70 years of repression, but also faced difficulties in relations with the Vatican.

• Patriarch Kirill implemented reforms in the administrative structure of the Moscow Patriarchate and maintained close ties with the Kremlin, endorsing Putin's election in 2012.

• In 2018, the Moscow Patriarchate severed full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople due to a dispute over the Ukrainian church, resulting in a schism.The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is a hierarchical organization with a structure that includes parishes, eparchies, exarchates, and self-governing Churches, which are governed by bishops and archbishops. The highest level of authority is vested in the Local Council, which comprises all the bishops and representatives from the clergy and laypersons. The Holy Synod of the ROC, chaired by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, exercises the highest administrative powers in the periods between the Councils. The ROC has 261 eparchies worldwide, with some newly independent states of the former USSR enjoying the status of self-governing Churches within the Moscow Patriarchate. The Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, Latvian Orthodox Church, Moldovan Orthodox Church, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate are among them. Since 2007, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has also enjoyed similar status. The Chinese Orthodox Church and the Japanese Orthodox Churches were granted full autonomy by the Moscow Patriarchate, but this autonomy is not universally recognized. The ROC sees Ukraine as a part of its "canonical territory," and Patriarch Kirill has blessed the Russian soldiers fighting there. Many UOC-MP parishes signaled their intention to switch allegiance to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine after the Russian invasion in April 2022, with the attitude and stance of Patriarch Kirill being one of the reasons cited. Kirill has justified Russia's attack on Ukraine and sees gay pride parades as part of the reason behind Russian warfare against Ukraine. In March 2022, Kirill justified the attack on Ukraine by NATO enlargement, the protection of Russian language, and the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, criticized Kirill's legitimization of the "brutal and absurd war" and called it "a heresy."Overview of the Russian Orthodox Church

• The Russian Orthodox Church was affected by the Bolshevik Revolution, leading to a flood of refugees from Russia to the United States, Canada, and Europe, and the severance of large sections of the church from regular contact with the main church.

• In 2007, the Act of Canonical Communion was signed between the ROC and ROCOR, restoring full communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, and ROCOR remains a self-governing entity within the Church of Russia.

• The Russian Orthodox Church has four levels of self-government, including autonomous churches such as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), despite its opposition to any connection with Moscow following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

• Canonization of saints initially takes place at a local level within local churches and eparchies, with a Synodal Commission for canonization established in 1989 to study local archives and collect memories of believers.

• Russian icons are typically paintings on wood, often small, and are considered the Gospel in paint, conveying the Gospel faithfully and accurately.

• Bell ringing plays an important part in the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church, with a history dating back to the baptism of Rus'.

• The Russian Orthodox Church has ecclesiastical missions in Jerusalem and some other countries around the world, and its adherents number more than 112 million worldwide.

• According to a 2007 VTsIOM poll, about 75% of the Russian population considers itself Orthodox Christian, with up to 65% of ethnic Russians identifying as Orthodox.

• A 2012 poll by the respected Levada organization VTsIOM found that 74% of Russians considered themselves Orthodox, while a 2017 survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 71% of Russians declared themselves as Orthodox Christian.