The Collaborative International Dictionary
Russian Church \Rus"sian Church\, Russian Orthodox Church \Rus"sian Or"tho*dox Church\ The established church of the Russian empire up to the revolution of 1917, at which time the ruling Communist party tried to suppress all religious worship. The czar was the nominal head of the church, but he never claimed the right of deciding questions of theology and dogma. It still forms a portion, by far the largest, of the Orthodox (Eastern) Church and is governed by the Patriarch and the Holy Synod. In 1988 the church, with official approval, celebrated the 1000 year anniversary of the baptism of Russia. After breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Russian Church began to regain some its old influence in Russian life, and the government turned over some of the confiscated churches back to church control. The Russian Church was recognized anew as the official church of Russia, with special priveleges, by an act of the Russian Duma in 1997. The Metropolitan of Moscow, as Patriarch of the church, is regarded as the first among equals in order of deference among bishops of the church.
Wikipedia
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ), alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate , is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates. The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'. The ROC, as well as the primate thereof, officially ranks fifth in the Orthodox order of precedence, immediately below the four ancient Patriarchates of the Greek Orthodox Church, those of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The official Christianization of Kievan Rus' widely seen as the birth of the ROC is believed to have occurred in 988 through the baptism of the Kievan prince Vladimir and his people by the clergy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate whose constituent part the ROC remained for the next six centuries, while the Kievan see remained in the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate until 1686.
The ROC currently claims its exclusive jurisdiction over the Orthodox Christians, irrespective of their ethnic background, who reside in the former member republics of the USSR, excluding Georgia and Armenia, although this claim is disputed in such countries as Estonia, Moldova and Ukraine and consequently parallel canonical Orthodox jurisdictions exist in those: Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church and Metropolis of Bessarabia, respectively. It also exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the autonomous Church of Japan and the Orthodox Christians resident in the People's Republic of China. The ROC branches in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine since the 1990s enjoy various degrees of self-government, albeit short of the status of formal ecclesiastical autonomy. In Ukraine, ROC (represented by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church) has tensions with schismatic groups supported by the current government, while it enjoys the position of numerically dominant religious organisation.
The ROC should not be confused with the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), another autocephalous Orthodox Church (since 1970, albeit not universally recognised in this status), that traces its existence in North America to the time of the Russian missionaries in Alaska (then part of the Russian Empire) in the late 18th century, and still adheres to the ROC liturgical tradition.
The ROC should also not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (also known as the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, or ROCOR), headquartered in New York, New York, U.S.A. The ROCOR was instituted in the 1920s by Russian communities outside then Communist Russia, which refused to recognize the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate then de facto headed by Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky. The two Churches reconciled on May 17, 2007; the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Usage examples of "russian orthodox church".
This move obviously alarmed the Paulicians too, because the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church declared: “.
Dmitriy Popov still believed in Marx rather than God, but the Russian Orthodox Church was Russian, and Russian participation in the agreement had to be real, however minor this point might appear.
The nearest Russian Orthodox church was twenty minutes away, and so small that to pray in it at all was like a sé.
But I washed up near a Russian Orthodox church and they found me, took me.
But I washed up near a Russian Orthodox church and they found me, took me in, and straightened me out.
The island was actually called Unalaska, and on one side of the bay there was an Aleut village by that name, a beachside line of cottages that led to a white, wooden Russian Orthodox church.
The letter had the imperial seals as well as those of the Russian Orthodox church.
Russia under the Czars' and Russian Orthodox Church's domination continued to have virtual slave/serf/peasant labor for making hemp until 1917.
Jewish boys were forcibly converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1653, he says, the Russian Orthodox church changed a few old rituals.
Inside the religious underground, she joined others who were determined to reestablish the power of the Russian Orthodox Church by installing a Patriarch who would be independent of the will of the Communist Party.
Arkady was used to the hushed assembly of the Russian Orthodox Church.
He'd even cozied up to the Russian Orthodox Church after beating it about the head and shoulders for almost twenty years.