The Russian Old Orthodox Church () is an

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

of the

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

tradition, born of a

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

within the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

('' raskol'') during the 17th century (Old Believers). This jurisdiction incorporated those Old Believer groups which refused to accept the authority of Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy, est. 1846 (see Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church). It was also known as Novozybkov Hierarchy (by the name of the city where its chief hierarch resided in 1963–2000). It is considered to be independent of the Eastern Orthodox Communion i.e. it is not recognised by the

Patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople () is the archbishop of Constantinople and (first among equals) among the heads of the several autocephalous churches that comprise the Eastern Orthodox Church. The ecumenical patriarch is regarded as ...

, nor by any of the Orthodox churches in communion with the Patriarch. From 1963 until 2002, the official title of its chief hierarch was ''Archbishop of Novozybkov, Moscow and all Russia''. In 2000, with the move of the Archbishop's residence to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, the

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

Novozybkov Novozybkov (; ) is a historical town in Bryansk Oblast, Russia with a population, in 2021, of 38,680. The city is home to a branch of the Bryansk State University. History It was founded in 1701 and was granted town status in 1809. Novozybkov ...

was dropped from the title. Since March 2003, the official title of the church leader is ''Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia''. In 2023, the head of the Church was Patriarch Alexander (Kalinin; since 9 May 2000, Patriarch since 3 March 2003).Ancient Orthodoxy website, retrieved 2024-01-04
/ref>

History

The Russian Old Orthodox Church was formed from the groups of Old Believers who insisted on preserving the traditional church structure and hierarchy (as opposed to Bespopovtsy groups), but refused to accept the authority of Metropolitan Amvrosii (Popovitch)Church of the Nativity website, ''Background to the Old Rite''
/ref> who converted in 1846 and founded the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy, due to some canonical problems with his conversion and the ordination of its second bishop, Kiril (Amvrosii ordained him alone, which was against canons). These Old Believers groups continued to exist without a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

until 1923 when they created their own hierarchy, by receiving the Renovationist Archbishop Nikola (Pozdnev) of Saratov (1853–1934). He was received (like Amvrosii in 1846) by

chrismation Chrismation consists of the sacrament or mystery in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, as well as in the Assyrian Church of the East initiation rites. The sacrament is more commonly known in the West as confir ...

on November 4, 1923, and given a title ''Archbishop of Moscow, Saratov and all old Orthodox Christians of Russia''. Some problems with Nikola's installation and with the 'validity' of this jurisdiction in general was that the Renovationist Church was a

from the

and archbishop Nikola, together with other Renovationist clergy was officially suspended from all priestly functions by the Council of Bishops under Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin) in 1923. Also, some Old Believers had doubts whether Nikola was baptized by infusion rather than triple immersion (see

Baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

). These doubts were rejected by the Moscow Council of the Old-Orthodox Church in May 1924. In order to avoid the same "error" which they thought the leaders of the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy had made, Archbishop Nikola did not ordain any new bishops single-handedly – not until the conversion of another bishop from the

, Stephan (Rastorguev), in September 1929. Four more bishops were ordained in subsequent years. Like many other Christian Churches in Soviet Russia, the Old-Orthodox Church suffered heavy persecution from atheistic authorities. One of the outcomes of these conditions was the frequent migration of the see of its first hierarch: Moscow (1924–1955); Kuibyshev – now

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

(1955–1963); Novozybkov (in

Bryansk Bryansk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, situated on the Desna (river), Desna River, southwest of Moscow. It has a population of 379,152 at the 2021 census. Bryans ...

region) (1963–2000). In 2000, the residence was moved back to Moscow. In the 1990s, several bishops separated from the central administration of the Russian Old-Orthodox Church, forming two schismatic ecclesiastical bodies: * ''Slavo-Georgian (Iberian) Old-Orthodox Church'' (''Славяно-Грузинская Иверская Древлеправославная Церковь'') was created in the beginning of the 1990s by two schismatic bishops (Leonty of Perm and Flavian of

). This church has three bishops and a couple of parishes in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

and in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Its distinctive feature is that liturgical services are held in both Slavonic and

Old Georgian Old Georgian (ႤႬႠჂ ႵႠႰႧႭჃႪႨ, ''enay kartuli'') is a literary language of the Georgian monarchies attested from the 5th century. The language remains in use as the liturgical language of the Georgian Orthodox Church and for ...

, using pre-18th century Old Georgian

liturgical book A liturgical book, or service book, is a book published by the authority of a church body that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official Church service, religious services. Christianity Roman Rite In the Roman Rite of ...

s. * ''Old Orthodox Church of Russia'' (''Древлеправославная Церковь России'') was formed in 1999 in response to the alleged "Renovationist" policies of the church's central administration. It currently has three bishops and 12 parishes in Russia and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. Since the 1990s, some of these schismatic bishops restored communion with the Russian Old-Orthodox Church, but the two churches these schisms created still exist. In 2003, in a highly controversial move, the leaders of the Old-Orthodox Church resolved to "restore" the

patriarchate Patriarchate (, ; , ''patriarcheîon'') is an ecclesiological term in Christianity, referring to the office and jurisdiction of a patriarch. According to Christian tradition, three patriarchates—Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria—were establi ...

in the "Russian Church", thus setting up a rival Patriarchate of Moscow in opposition to the Patriarch Aleksy II (Ridiger), the head of the

. This act was bound to complicate the relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church and another Old Believer Church claiming to be the authentic Russian hierarchy – the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy or Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church, and until this day, these three churches are officially not in communion with each other.

Organisation

The Holy Council is the highest legislative body, which elects the Patriarch and the members of the Chief Ecclesiastical Council. Today, the Old-Orthodox Church has six hierarchs and about more than 10 parishes on the former Soviet Union territory and four parishes in Romania (as of 1996).

First Hierarchs of Russian Old-Orthodox Church

References

{{reflist

External links

Official web site (Russian)

Another official web site (Russian)

Bibliography