Russian Orthodoxy

As with many questions, it depends . . . the Russian Orthodox Church is headed by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (the Russian Orthodox Church is often referred to as "the Moscow Patriarchate," or simply, "MP"). By "All Russia," of course, is meant all the lands that have been traditionally included in a Russian State. Ukraine has been included in Russian States for the past several hundred years. Ukraine only gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

The Russian Orthodox Church has several hundred, if not thousands, of parishes in the Ukraine, under the designation of "The Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate." This jurisdiction is rather loose-the Ukrainian Church under the MP is considered an "Autonomous Church"-all the Bishops, as well as the Metropolitan (head of this Church) are voted on in Ukraine by Ukrainian Bishops; the MP has the "right of refusal" if a candidate is considered unworthy, but in practice, this happens very rarely. So, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church/Moscow Patriarchate, is indeed in union with the Russian Orthodox Church.

same-sex marriage is not recognized by any of the Orthodox churches and it is viewed as a sinful non-christian behavior. The inherent nature of a person to be gay is not recognized by the church.

Pope Benedict the XVI is the patriarch of the Roman Rite church. The other Latin ite patriarchs are Patriarch Fouad Twal (Jerusalem); Cardinal Jose Policarpo (Lisbon) and Cardinal Angelo Scola (Venice); and Filipe Neri Ferrao (East Indies).

Now there are also Eastern Rite Catholic patriarches. Cardinal Antonios Naguib (Coptic); Patriarch Gregory lll Laham (Greek-Melkite); Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi (Maronite) and Patriarche Ignatius Joseph Ill Younan (Syrian). Also Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni (Armenian) and Cardinal Emmanuel Ill Delly (Chaldean).

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The Christian community that became the Russian Orthodox Church is traditionally said to have been founded by the Apostle Andrew, who is thought to have visited Scythia and Greek colonies along the northern coast of the Black Sea. According to one of the legends, Andrew reached the future location of Kiev and foretold the foundation of a great Christian city.[11][12] The spot where he reportedly erected a cross is now marked by St. Andrew's Cathedral.

By the end of the first millennium AD, eastern Slavic lands started to come under the cultural influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. In 863-869, Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius translated parts of the Bible into Old Church Slavonic language for the first time, paving the way for the Christianization of the Slavs. There is evidence that the first Christian bishop was sent to Novgorod from Constantinople either by Patriarch Photius or Patriarch Ignatios, circa 866-867 AD.

By the mid-10th century, there was already a Christian community among Kievan nobility, under the leadership of Greek and Byzantine priests, although paganism remained the dominant religion. Princess Olga of Kiev was the first ruler of Kievan Rus to convert to Christianity, either in 945 or 957. Her grandson, Vladimir the Great, made Kievan Rus' a Christian state.

As a result of the Christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988, Prince Vladimir I of Kiev officially adopted Byzantine Rite Christianity - the religion of the Eastern Roman Empire - as the state religion of Kievan Rus'. This date is often considered the official birthday of the Russian Orthodox Church. Thus, in 1988, the Church celebrated its millennial anniversary. It therefore traces its apostolic succession through the Patriarch of Constantinople.

A related story tells about Vladimir's envoys to 3 main religious centers: Byzantium (constantinopole), Islam (Baghdad) and Judaism (Jehrusalem). The envoys to the Muslims came back and reported that what they saw was not inspiring or even worthy of consideration; the ones that had visited the Jews reported similar things, due to the highly legalistic nature of their religious practices. The envoys to Constantinopole came back and remarked: "During the liturgy in Hagia Sophia, we felt that for that time we were transported to the heavens and did not want to come back; it was the most powerful experience...". naturally, prince Vladimir chose Eastern Orthodoxy for his expanding country.

St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral was created in 1912.

The percentage changes all the time and it also depends on the source. But the trend is that christianity is becoming more and more popular and people are returning to church. As Dostoevskiy said a Russian person can not be Russian if he is not and Orthodox christian.

The acts of commercial Christmas have nothing to do with the bible or Jesus Christ.

In Constantinople (Eastern Roman Empire).

Wow, what a loaded question!

I recommend reading The Orthodox Church by Timothy (Kallistos) Ware for an introduction to Orthodoxy.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America page has some good exlanations of doctrine and belief: goarch.org

In short, they are Christians and the word Orthodox means right teaching. They have not deviated away from the teaching of the bible and the early church fathers who are held in high regard. They are therefore seen by many in the west as conservative. They do not get easily swayed by shifts in the culture around them. They are led and overseen by bishops who defer to each other in a collegiate fashion, that is no one of them is held to be infallible. They believe that God is the Trinity. That is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all being one in love. They believe that God himself is expressed in the life of the faithful lived through the church.

th practices that were adopted as a feature of the russian orthodox were christianity, monothesism and the pope. the features not adopted were the crerical celibacy

The current leader of the Russian Orthodox Church is Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow.

The colour purple is worn by Orthodox priests on Good Friday. This is because Pilate and his soldiers placed a purple robe on Jesus, just before His crucifixion. (Mark 15:16-20) "...they put on Him a purple robe. Then they said, Hail, King of the Jews!" (John 19:1-5).

also known as the Orthodox Christian Church of Russia, is a body ofChristians who constitute an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Moscow, in communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. The ROC is often said[5] to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world

An Exarchate in any Orthodox Church is the area of jurisdiction of an Exarch. An Exarch is a cleric who has been appointed by his Patriarch to represent the Patriarch in another country or area. For example, the Russian Patriarch may appoint an Exarch in Jerusalem, and then Jerusalem becomes part of the Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Exarch then acts as the Patriarch's representative in that area (called the Exarchate).

Saint Basil"s in the Kremlin grounds of Moscow. It is now fully operational as a Church, which it wasn"t in the hard-line days of Communist Power.

You can date someone as soon as you are ready for it and only you know when it is appropriate. When the realationship gets more serious and it comes to the subject of sex, than use your judgemen and practice good decisions. Remember that Chist said that Two will become One. It would be smart choice to know that this One is really the right One.

they are a church

Mainly in Moscow, but also in other parts of Russia, because his jurisdiction as Patriarch extends to all of Russia, and even to other parts of the world where there is a Russian Orthodox presence.

Soviet style communism was 100 percent atheistic. Communism teaches that religion is 'the opiate of the masses' and makes people into sheep.

The church leadership essentially broke up and scattered as the revolution gained momentum. There were individual Bishops and Metropolitans ( a unique Orthodox church rank akin to a supervising cleric over a large metropolitan area- something like a Cardinal . No, they do not wear flat-top Subway conductor headgear! The impact of the Communist uprising shocked and scattered the church Many Ortho clergymen were murdered or died under very suspicious circumstances. the horrible example of Rev. Rasputin was not a good poster child for the church - to say the least! some individual clerics favored the Whites or the moderate ( Menshivek) Pinks who wanted to keep the double eagle but merely remove the crowns- thus push some sort of republic, not necessarily Communistic- they did not last as Mr. Kerensky ( A Judge!) fled to the US. It was a bloody mess. the Rasputin scandals did not help at all!

The Soviet government no longer exists. When it did, it did not support the Russian Orthodox Church. The Soviet government was anti-religion and discouraged organized religion of any kind, even though it claimed tolerance.

Vladimir I ordered his subjects to convert to Orthodox Christianity.

1.)The Patriarch of Constantinople is Patriarch Barttholomew

2.)The Patriarch of Moscow is Patriarch Metropolian Kirill

3.)The Patriarch of Alexandria is Patriarch Thedore 2

4.)The Patriarch of Antioch is Bechara Peter Al-Rahi

The 4 Patriarchs

and the Pope is the leader of the Roman cathloic church Pope Benedict (2011)-

( ) and the 4 patriarchs are the leaders of the Orthodox church

Archbishop SERGEY (Arkadi Dimitrievich Korolev) of Kazan & Chistopol 18 Jan 1881-18 Dec 1952 Born into a religious family in the Moscow region; attended Bethany Theological Seminary at the Troitse-Sergiev Lavra; after finishing, attended the Moscow Theological Academy, graduating in 1905. On 7 Jun 1907, he was tonsured a monk by Bishop Evlogy of Kholm (Vasily Semenovich Georgievsky, 10 Apr 1868-8 Aug 1946, later Metropolitan of Western Europe for both the Constantinople and Moscow Patriarchates), and given the name Sergey. He entered the Yablochinsky Monastery in the Kholm Diocese. 1908 he was ordained a hieromonk. Yablochinsky Monastery had a missionary program, especially for the Uniates in this area, and Father Sergey labored as a missionary. In 1914 he was elevated to Archimandrite, and named assistant Abbot of the Monastery. The same year, the Monastery was evacuated because it was near the front of the fighting between the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1920 he was consecrated to the Episcopate as Bishop of Belsk, which as a result of the outcome of WWI, was within the borders of the new state of Poland. In 1922 Bishop Sergey was arrested for his opposition to the planned Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Poland. He finally was deported from Poland, and went to Czechoslovakia, where he was assigned Bishop of Prague by Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky) of Western Europe of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. As a Vicar of Metropolitan Evlogy, Bishop Sergey followed him into schism from the ROCOR in 1927. Following WWII, Bishop Sergey followed Met. Evlogy into the Moscow Patriarchate (Evlogy had submitted to the Patriarchate of Constantinople after leaving ROCOR). After Evlogy's death in 1946, his successor, Metropolitan Vladimir (Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Tikhonitsky, 22 Mar/4 Apr 1873-5/18 Dec 1959) took the Diocese back into the Patriarchate of Constantinople, a decision that Bishop Sergey disagreed with. Bishop Sergey stayed under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, which was easy to do in Prague, since the Moscow Patriarchate was the only jurisdiction that could be legally adhered to. 17 Apr 1946, the MP elevated Bishop Sergey to Archbishop, and 7 Jun 1946 assigned him as Archbishop of Vienna of the Western European Diocese. In October of 1946, he was named Exarch of the Central European District of the MP. From 8 to 18 Jul 1948, he participated in the celebrations for the 500th Anniversary of the Autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. On 16 Nov 1948 he was named Archbishop of Berlin and Germany, and on 20 Sep 1950, Archbishop of Kazan and Chistopol. In Kazan, he always walked to the Cathedral, taking different ways, He would engage obviously poor people in conversation, enter into their houses, and, learning of their situations, would leave sums of money in their house when he left. He left over 20 written works on various aspects of Holy Orthodoxy. Vladika Sergey reposed in the Lord on 18 Dec 1952 in Kazan.