99
edits
Changes
www.patriarchia.ru, official website
calendar=[[Julian Calendar|Julian]]|
population=90,000,000[http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-bodypg.aspx?eccpageID=17]|
website=[http://www.mospatpatriarchia.ru/ Church of Russia]
}}
The '''Church of Russia''', also referred to as the '''Moscow Patriarchate''' and known officially as the '''Russian Orthodox Church''', is one of the [[autocephalous]] Local Orthodox Churches, ranking fifth after the Churches of [[Church of Constantinople|Constantinople]], [[Church of Alexandria|Alexandria]], [[Church of Antioch|Antioch]], and [[Church of Jerusalem|Jerusalem]]. It exercises [[jurisdiction]] over the Orthodox Christians living in the former member republics of the USSR and their diasporas abroad. It also exercises jurisdiction over the autonomous [[Church of Japan]] and the Orthodox Christians living in the People's Republic of China. The current Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia is His Holiness [[Kyrill I (Gundyayev) of Moscow|Cyril I]].
After the [[fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, there was only one nation that saw itself as capable of assuming leadership in Eastern Christendom. The growing might of the Russian state also contributed to the growing authority of the autocephalous Russian Church. To the Russian people, it was a sign from God, that at the very moment when the Byzantine Empire was ending, they themselves were throwing off the few remaining vestiges of Tartar control. To them, Moscow became the [[Third Rome]], a status never acknowledged by the remainder of the Church but nevertheless which served to inspire Russian Orthodox Christians.
===Non-Possessors and Josephites ===Saint [[Nilus of Sora]] (Nil Sorsky, 1433?-1508), a monk from a remote hermitage in the forests beyond the Volga, launched an attack on the ownership of land by monasteries. St. [[Joseph of Volokolamsk|Joseph, Abbot hegumen of Volokolamsk]] (1439-1515), replied in defense of monastic landholding. This became known as the dispute between the "Possessors" (Josephites) and the "Non-Possessors". (Note that both are saints of the Church.)
As the "Third Rome", the tsar derived his power and right to rule from being God's chosen representative on earth. So, to keep his status, he needed to protect and promote the church. In the Byzantium tradition, the relationship between the church and the state acted as a check on the power of the tsar. The metropolitan and the tsar were equals, and the metropolitan had the right to censure the tsar. The dispute between the Possessors and the Non-Possessors challenged this idea because about a third of the land in Russia belonged to monasteries at this time.
The Possessors and the Non-Possessors held different views about the role the church should play in society and in politics. When the Possessors triumphed, the church gained the right to wealth at the expense of political influence. The tsar became superior to the metropolitan, and could now interfere in secular matters of the church. The tsar was cut off from any source of accountability.
===The Russian Church (20th century)===
Early in the 20th century the Russian Church began preparations for convening an [[All-Russian Church Council of 1917-1918|All-Russian Council]]. But it was to be convened only after the 1917 Revolution. Among its major actions was the restoration of the patriarchal office in the Russian Church. The Council elected Metropolitan [[Tikhon of Moscow]] Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' (1917-1925). St. Tikhon of Moscow exerted every effort to calm the destructive passions kindled up by the revolution.
When in 1921-1922 the Soviet government demanded that church valuables be given in aid to the population starving because of the failure of crops in 1921, a conflict erupted between the Church and the new authorities who decided to use this situation to demolish the Church to the end. By the beginning of [[World War II ]] the church structure was almost completely destroyed throughout the country. There were only a few bishops who remained free and who could perform their duties. Some bishops managed to survive in remote parts or under the disguise of priests. Only a few hundred churches were opened for services throughout the Soviet Union. Most of the clergy were either imprisoned in labor camps, where many of them perished, or hid in [[catacombs]], while thousands of priests changed occupation. World War II forced Stalin to mobilize all the national resources for defense, including the Russian Orthodox Church as the people's moral force. This process, which can be described as a "patriotic union", culminated in Stalin's receiving on September 4, 1943, Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan [[Sergius I (Stragorodsky) of Moscow|Sergiy Sergius (Stragorodsky)]] and Metropolitan [[Alexei I (Simansky) of Moscow|Alexy Alexius (Simansky)]] and [[Nicholas (Yarushevich) of KievKrutitsy|Nikolay Nicholas (Yarushevich)]].
The Russian clergy outside the USSR, who rejected demands of loyalty to the Soviet Communist authorities put forth by Sergiy Sergius (Stragorodsky ) in 1927 (in the so called [[Declaration of 1927]]), formed the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]].
==The Russian Orthodox Church today==
*[http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-bodypg-us.aspx?eccpageID=17&IndexView=toc Orthodox Church of Russia] (CNEWA)
*[http://www.risu.org.ua/library/doc/MP_canter.pdf "The Canonical Territory of the Moscow Patriarchate" by J. Buciora] (Article)
*[http://regels.org/rushistory-1.htm Church in history of Russia. Lev Regelson.]
==Further Reading==
