The Russian Orthodox Church has been the dominant religious institution for almost a millennium and continues to be the most popular religion in Russia.
Russia's main religion is Orthodox Christianity; however, other religions, such as Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and even Shamanism are professed as well. The second Russian religion by the percentage of the population is Islam, followed by Roman Catholicism and Judaism.
Religion in Russia is diverse, with Christianity, especially Russian Orthodoxy, being the most widely professed faith, but with significant minorities of non-religious people and adherents of other faiths.
The Orthodox Church believes the Holy Spirit "proceeds from God the Father," while for Catholics and Protestants, the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son." Some Orthodox believers see the Catholic/Protestant version as underestimating the role of the Father in the Trinity, while critics of the Orthodox ...
Orthodox beliefs are based on the Bible and on tradition as defined by seven ecumenical councils held by church authorities between A.D. 325 and 787. Orthodox teachings include the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the inseparable but distinguishable union of the two natures of Jesus Christ--one divine, the other human.
The Russian Synodal Bible (Russian: Синодальный перевод, The Synodal Translation) is a Russian non-Church Slavonic translation of the Bible commonly used by the Russian Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic, as well as Russian Baptists and other Protestant communities in Russia.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, heaven is part and parcel of deification (theosis), the eternal sharing of the divine qualities through communion with the Triune God (reunion of Father and Son through love).
It is fundamental for Orthodox Christians that they accept Christ as both God and Man, both natures complete. This is viewed as the only way of escaping the hell of separation from God. The incarnation unites humanity to divinity. Orthodox Christians believe that because of that Incarnation, everything is different.
In the Orthodox Church all prayer is Trinitarian. We pray in the Holy Spirit, through Jesus the Son of God, and in his name, to God the Father. We call God “our Father” because Jesus has taught us and enabled us to do so.
Religious services
Devout families will then return to church for the All Night Vigil. Then again, on Christmas Morning, they return to attend the Morning Divine Liturgy of the Nativity. Since 1992, Christmas has become a national holiday in Russia as part of the ten-day holidays at the start of the new year.
In Ukraine the dominant religion is Eastern Orthodox Christianity (over 88% of religious population) and about 15,8% of the religious population in Ukraine are Catholics (mostly in Western Ukraine). In addition, nearly 500,000 Muslims and 400,000 Jews are estimated to live in Ukraine.
Of course, Jesus was a Jew. He was born of a Jewish mother, in Galilee, a Jewish part of the world. All of his friends, associates, colleagues, disciples, all of them were Jews. He regularly worshipped in Jewish communal worship, what we call synagogues.
Surveys estimate a large majority of Ukraine's population is Orthodox, with a significant minority of Ukrainian Catholics who worship with a Byzantine liturgy similar to that of the Orthodox but are loyal to the pope. The population includes smaller percentages of Protestants, Jews and Muslims.
As of 2017, there are approximately 140,000 Catholics in Russia - about 0.1% of the total population. After the Soviet Union collapsed, there were an estimated 500,000 Catholics in the country, but most have since died or emigrated to their ethnic homelands in Europe, such as Germany, Belarus, or Ukraine.
The most popular religion in the U.S. is Christianity, comprising the majority of the population (73.7% of adults in 2016), with the majority of American Christians belonging to a Protestant denomination or a Protestant offshoot (such as Mormonism or the Jehovah's Witnesses.)
The most widespread religion in Russia is Russian Orthodox Christianity. The Orthodox faith is very strict. Upon entering a church, women must cover their hair, while men have to take off any headwear. There are a number of rules on how to behave in church and the service itself also follows a strict order.
The Eastern Orthodox Church officially uses the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament which was translated from the original Hebrew language into Greek in the third century B.C. The Septuagint of the Orthodox Church contains all the Canonical Books and the Anaginoskoinena Books "worthy to be read" (called Apocrypha in ...
Along with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, Orthodox Christianity is one of the world's three major Christian traditions. But unlike the other two large branches of Christianity, which have spread throughout the developing world, Orthodoxy remains largely confined to Europe.
In the Orthodox view, devotion to Mary is considered an important element of Christian spirituality, and indifference to her by other Christian denominations is troubling to the Orthodox.
The biggest difference between the two churches is the status of the Roman Catholic Pope. The Bishop of Rome was very early in Christian history given a position of honour based on the city's significance and history.
Standing center in Orthodox tradition concerning the Virgin Mary is a singular concept. She is the Theotokos, the woman who bore the life-giving God into human life. Any other title or characterization of this woman, who bore Christ, has to stand on this core truth.
The Eastern Orthodox Church permits divorce and remarriage in church in certain circumstances, though its rules are generally more restrictive than the civil divorce rules of most countries.
While Eastern Orthodox Christians have much in common with Catholics, they're still in schism–they've split off from the legitimate authority of the pope–and therefore aren't Catholics.
Christianity in Russia is the most widely professed religion in the country. The largest tradition is the Russian Orthodox Church. According to official sources, there are 170 eparchies of the Russian Orthodox Church, 145 of which are grouped in metropolitanates.
Russian Orthodoxy (Russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most Churches of the Russian Orthodox tradition are part of the Eastern Orthodox Church.