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Mar 13, 2022 · March 13, 2022. Last week, more than a dozen religious and political leaders sat on the dais of the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Volodymyr on the Upper West Side, listening to solemn...
Apr 10, 2024 · At its peak, Ukraine accounted for about a third of the parishes claimed by the Russian Orthodox Church. Ukraine also has a much higher rate of churchgoing than Russia, where actual...
Sep 30, 2023 · A militant Russian church retains millions of believers inside Ukraine. The militant role of the Russian Orthodox Church has drawn condemnation from religious leaders including Pope...
- What Is The Orthodox Church?
- Orthodox Church Structure
- The Great Schism of 1054
- The Orthodox Clergy
- Orthodox Spiritual Life
- Icons and Worship
Orthodoxy is the smallest of the three major branches of Christianity, which also includes Catholicism and Protestantism. There are about 1.34 billion Catholics, about 600 million Protestants and approximately 300 million Orthodox Christians globally. Most Orthodox Christians live in Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Middle East. The wor...
Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, which is led by the pope, the worldwide Orthodox Church has no single spiritual head. Instead, the global Orthodox communion is divided into autocephalous churches. Formed from two Greek roots, the word “autocephalous” means “self-headed.” Autocephalous churches are completely independent and self-governing. Each a...
Until the 11th century, the Orthodox churches recognized the Roman Catholic Church as one of the autocephalous Orthodox churches. By 1054, however, differences in theology, practice and church government led the pope and the patriarch of Constantinople to excommunicate each other. In particular, the pope claimed to have authority over all Christian...
The Orthodox Church is hierarchical. Spiritual authority is invested in an ordained clergy consisting of bishops, priests and deacons. Like the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church holds to the doctrine of apostolic succession. According to this doctrine, Orthodox bishops, who rule over the territory of a diocese, are the direct, historical success...
Orthodox spiritual life is centered on the sacraments, or “mysteries,” usually celebrated by the parish priest. The first sacrament, baptism, is a rite of initiation into Christian life. Most Orthodox Christians are baptized as infants by triple immersion in holy water. Immediately, a baptized infant also receives two other sacraments. The priest a...
Icons—consecrated images of holy persons or events—play an important role in Orthodox Church life. Orthodox churches are filled with these images, which believers honor with kisses and bows. In Orthodox theology, icons are a testimony to the doctrine that God became human in Christ. Because he was a human, he could be represented artistically. Like...
Sep 6, 2022 · Others have broken ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader, Patriarch Kirill, has approved and even blessed Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Led by Patriarch Kirill, the Russian Orthodox Church is one of the most tangible cultural bonds between Russia and Ukraine. The gilded domes of Kyiv’s Monastery of the Caves and St. Sophia...
Although the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) claims that 'any provisions that at least somehow hinted at or indicated the connection with Moscow were excluded' (following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine) the Russian Orthodox Church ignores this and continues to include UOC-MP clerics in various commissions or working groups ...
