Metropolis of Bessarabia

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Romanian Orthodox Church organization with the Metropolis of Bessarabia on the right in brown.

The Metropolis of Bessarabia is one of the metropoles of the Romanian Orthodox Church, aside from the six metropoles inside Romania proper. The Metropolis of Bessarabia was created in 1923 and organized in 1925, when the Archbishopric of Chişinău was raised to the rank of metropolis. Inactive during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia (1940-1941) and the Soviet rule in Moldova (1944-1991), it was re-activated on September 14, 1992, on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. In 1995, the Metropolis of Bessarabia has been raised to the rank of exarchate, with jurisdiction over the Romanian Orthodox communities of the ex-Soviet bloc and the Moldovan diaspora worldwide.^[1]

The current Metropolitan of Bessarabia is Petru Păduraru. ^[2]

[edit] History

It was founded after the annexation of Bessarabia by the Russian Empire in 1812, from the churches and monasteries of the Metropolis of Moldavia on that territory that no longer belonged to the Principality of Moldavia, by Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni, a popular promoter of Moldavian/Romanian language and culture, who served also as its first Metropolitan. With the advent of Greater Romania in 1918, there were three church bodies: the autocephalous Romanian Orthodox Church (on the territory of Smaller Romania—prior to 1918—formed in 1872 from the union of the former Metropolias of Ungrovlahia and Moldavia), and the non-autocephalous metropolia of Bessarabia and Transylvania. Therefore, in 1925, the rank of the Romanian Orthodox Church was raised to that of a Patriarchate, with the Metropolis of Bessarabia as one of its five sees.

Organization of the Metropolis of Bessarabia

After the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in 1940, the church, which then was a non-autonomous Metropolis, was banned, and its property has either changed uses, or was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church, which established the Bishopric in Chişinău and Moldova. In 1980s, two more bishoprics were added, and the See raised to the status of a Metropolis. After Moldova's independence in 1991, part of the clergy followed Petru Păduraru, the Bishop of Bălţi, and re-established the Metropolis of Bessarabia. The Russian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the authority of the Bessarabian church, and two metropolia started an un-easy co-existence. During the 1990s, the one subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church, called Moldovan Orthodox Church, gained the protection of the country's authorities and established itself as the official church, while the Orthodox Church of Bessarabia was refused registration according to the country's new law of religions.

In 2004, after years of legal hurdles and a final decision by the European Court of Human Rights, the Orthodox Church of Bessarabia received official registration, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Republic of Moldova recognizing it as "the spiritual, canonical, historical successor of the Metropolitan See of Bessarabia which functioned till 1944, including".^[3] About 20% of country's orthodox churches were or changed to be under its jurisdictions; a strong desire to similar moves has been expressed in many other parishes.^{[citation needed]} This is a major area of tension with the Moldovan Orthodox Church. The position of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the dispute with the Russian Orthodox Church over the territorial jurisdiction is, according to a press release, that the two Metropolitan Sees should "peacefully co-exist and brotherly cooperate (…) harmonising, with wisdom and realism, the territorial principle with the ethnic principle, as agreed in the pastoral service of the Orthodox in Diaspora."^[3]

The church is currently recognized only by some other Orthodox Churches, since the Patriarchate of Moscow opposes its recognition by all of them.^[4] The current metropolitan in this church is Peter (elected as metropolitan in 1992).

[edit] See also

• History of the Orthodox Church in Moldova
• Moldovan Orthodox Church

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website (Romanian)

• Liberté de la Métropolie de la Béssarabie

• Freedom of the Metropolis of Bessarabia

• DECLARATION ECRITE N° 265 concernant l'arrêt de la Cour d'Appel de la République de Moldova relatif à la légitimité et à la liberté de la Métropolie de Bessarabie

• WRITTEN DECLARATION No. 265 on the decision of the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Moldova on the legitimacy and freedom of the Metropolis of Bessarabia

• Droit de l'Eglise métropolitaine de Bessarabie à sa propre succession juridique

• Right of the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia to its own succession in title

• Complicité de la Patriarchie de Moscou et de toute la Russie avec le régime illégale et sécessioniste installé à l'Est de la République de Moldova

• Complicity of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia with the illegal and secessionist regime installed in the east of the Moldovan Republic

• Statement concerning the arguments of the representatives of the Romanian Orthodox Church justifying the decision to establish dioceses of the Metropolia of Bessarabia
• Territorial Jurisdiction According to Orthodox Canon Law. The Phenomenon of Ethnophyletism in Recent Years, a paper read at the International Congress of Canon Law, 2001, (Ecumenical Patriarchate website)
• Torna a Patriarcato di Mosca (Italian)