Moldovan Orthodox Church
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (October 2006) |
The Moldovan Orthodox Church (canonical name: Metropolitan Church of Chişinău and all Moldova) is an autonomous church under the Church of Russia, whose canonic territory covers the Republic of Moldova.
Together with the Metropolis of Bessarabia (an autonomous church under the Romanian Orthodox Church), it is one of the two major churches of Moldova. At the 2005 census, 3,158,015 people or 95.5% of those declaring a religion claimed to be Eastern Orthodox. The Moldovan Orthodox Church has also stained relations with ROCOR, which only has a few followers in the country.
In October 1992 the Church of Russia granted autonomy to the Metropolitan Church of Chişinău and all Moldova. It currently holds the majority of the Eastern Orthodox population, parishes, monasteries, and churches in Moldova.
The church has four eparchies (bishoprics): Chişinău, Tiraspol and Dubăsari, Edineţ and Briceani, Cahul and Comrat. Church languages are Romanian and Slavonic. Church music is Byzantine and Russian. The Moldovan Orthodox Church has 1,080 parishes, 30 monasteries, 1 academy and 2 seminaries.
The head of the Moldovan Orthodox Church is Metropolitan Vladimir, who is a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
[edit] Relation with the Metropolis of Bessarabia
In the lead up to the independence of Moldova, the Romanian society and by the Romanian Orthodox Church encouraged unification with Romania rather than independence. The Romanian Orthodox Church revived the Metropolis of Bessarabia, granted it autonomous status and gave it authority over (part) of the Republic of Moldova and other areas. The movement was started in 1992 by the bishop of Bălţi, Petru (Paduraru). It was also supported by political parties supporting reunification of Moldova and Romania. It considers itself to be the heir of the Metropolis of Bessarabia which existed in 1918-1940 during the period of Greater Romania.
The Metropolis of Bessarabia had about 84 parishes in Moldova at the moment of its new recognition.
[edit] See also
| Autocephalous and Autonomous Churches of Eastern Orthodoxy |
| Autocephalous Churches |
| Four Ancient Patriarchates: Constantinople | Alexandria | Antioch | Jerusalem Russia | Serbia | Romania | Bulgaria | Georgia Cyprus | Greece | Poland | Albania | Czechia and Slovakia | OCA* |
| Autonomous Churches |
| Sinai* | Finland | Estonia* | Japan* | China* | Ukraine | Western Europe* | Bessarabia* | Moldova | Ohrid* | ROCOR** |
| The * designates a church whose autocephaly or autonomy is not universally recognized. The ** designates a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church. |
|
|||||||||||
